Speech by the Mayor
As one of the cradles of China's modern industry and the largest port in north China, Tianjin is a modern city with profound historical culture and full of strong passion. Characterized by its prosperous commerce, advanced science and technologies, convenient traffic and beautiful scenes, Tianjin is steadily promoting its economic and cultural exchange with the other countries along with the healthy development of various sectors. After the incorporation of Binhai New Area into the national overall development strategy, Tianjin is playing a more important role in the opening to the outside world and promotion of regional economy in north China. Like a shining "Pearl of Bohai Sea", Tianjin is attracting more and more eyeballs from China and broad.
In future, Tianjin will, with a focus on the development of Binhai New Area and continuous enhancement of the city's functions, give full play of its role of central city and build Tianjin into a world class port, economic center of North China and an eco-city with prosperous economy, advanced science and education, well-equipped facilities and beautiful scenes.
Looking forward, Tianjin is at a new historical starting point. We sincerely welcome domestic and overseas investors to join us and create a brighter future of Tianjin city!
I. Survey
(i) Geographic Location
Located in the center of Bohai-Rim, backed by the vast area of north China and facing north-east Asia, Tianjin, also called "Jin" for short, is an important hub for connections to more than ten provinces and cities in north China. Tianjin is only 120 kilometers away from Beijing, the capital city of China. With the Haihe River, one of the five largest rivers in China, crossing from north to south, Tianjin has long been renowned as "Sea Inlet of Nine Rivers" and "Communications Center of River and Sea".
Located in the east eight time zone, Tianjin is geographically located between Latitude 38 º 34' and 45 º 15' N and Longitude 116 º 43' and 118 º 04' E. Tianjin has a total area of more than 11,800 square kilometers, with 153 km coastline and over 1,100 km land boundary.
(ii) Climate
Tianjin has a semi-humid continental monsoon climate of warm-temperate zone with four distinct seasons and adequate sunshine. It has cold winters and hot summers while spring and autumn are short and pleasant. The annual average temperature stands at around 12 ºC . In General, January is the coldest month and July is the hottest. The average frost free season lasts about 200 days; and annual average rainfall is about 600 mm.
(iii) Population and Nationalities
The resident population of Tianjin was 10.42 million in 2005, which included non-agricultural population of 5.624 million and agricultural population of 3.7691 million, accounting for 60% and 40% of total population respectively. Most of residents in Tianjin are Han nationalities and other residents are from 51 minor nationalities like Hui, Man, Mongolia, Korea, Zhuang, Tujia, Miao and Tibet.
(iv) Infrastructures and Transportation
As the sea port for vast areas in north and northwest China and also the east starting point of Eurasia Continental Bridge with the shortest distance inside China, Tianjin enjoys obvious transportation advantages and has established a wellorganized sea, land and air transportation system.
Airport and Port
Tianjin Binhai International Airport is the largest cargo air transportation center in north China and has 65 domestic and international flight courses to 54 cities. In 2005, the cargo and passenger throughput of the airport reached 80,000 metric tons and 1.65 million respectively.
Tianjin is the largest port in north China and ranks among 10 largest ports in the world. In 2005, its cargo throughput reached 240 million metric tons, which include 4.80 million standard containers. Having business relations with over 300 ports in 160 countries and regions around the world, Tianjin has over 70 container liners and has established sister port relationship with 12 ports from 10 countries, namely, Kobe Port and Tokyo Port of Japan, Melbourne Port of Australia,
Philadelphia Port and Port of Tacoma of USA, Montreal Port of Canada, Amsterdam Port of Holland, Trieste Port of Italy, Marseille Port of France, Inchon Port of Korea, Barcelona Port of Spain and Bruges Port of Belgium.
Road
In 2005, total length of roads in Tianjin reached 10,836 kilometers, which include expressways of 593 kilometers. Cargoes and passengers carried total 198.50 million metric tons and 29.61 million respectively. A number of highways inside urban area connect with various expressways like Beijing-Shanghai Expressway, Beijing-Shenyang Expressway and Tianjin-Tangshan Expressway.
Railway
As the hub of Northeast China, North China, East China and South China regions, a number of high-speed railways including Beijing-Harbin Railway, Beijing-Shanghai Railway and Beijing-Jiulong Railway pass through Tianjin. In 2005, railway cargo and passenger transportation in Tianjin reached 72.41 million metric tons and 15.5 million respectively.
Finance and Insurance
By the end of 2005, there are 2,926 financial institutions in Tianjin with a total asset of RMB 753.36 billion yuan, which include 17 wholly foreign-owned banks. And there are 427 insurance agencies of various levels with the total assets of 25.15 billion yuan and total premium income of
9.064 billion yuan.
List of Chinese Financial Institutions
List of Foreign Financial Institutions
Telecommunication and Internet
In 2005, the total revenue of postal and telecommunication services in Tianjin reached RMB 17.6 billion yuan, total volume of regional telephone switchboards totaled 629 and the subscribers of fixed telephone and mobile phone were 4.37 million and 5.03 million respectively. With a long-distance optical fiber cable link of 3,013 kilometers, 4.5 billion short messages being sent and Internet users of 2.07 million, Tianjin takes a lead in the development of information industry in China. A high-speed broadband network environment supported by light guide fiber network and supplemented by wireless network covering all over Tianjin has been established.
(v) Foreign Exchanges
International Sister Cities
By the end of 2005, Tianjin had entered into agreement on sister city relationship, exchange and cooperation with 57 cities (provinces, states and regions) from 38 countries. Among them, 23 are sister cities of Tianjin and 34 have established friendly cooperative relationship with Tianjin.
List of International Sister Cities of Tianjin
Convention and Exhibition
In 2005, with an accumulative total of 7,755 booths, the contracted value of RMB 13.058 billion yuan and 890,000 visitors, 18 large exhibitions and trade fairs were held in Tianjin. Tianjin Spring National Commodities Fair is held in April every year; North China International Bicycle Exhibition is held in the first half of each year, International Fair on Accessory for Manufacturing Industry (Mobile) and Global Purchase is held in the second half of each year; PECC International Trade & Investment Fair is held once every two years and Tianjin Beer Festival is held in July and August each year. All these have become the exhibition brands of Tianjin.
(vi) Senior Education and Scientific Research
Located in the center of the talentintensive areas surrounding Bohai Sea, Tianjin has rich human resources. Up to 2005, Tianjin has 42 colleges, universities and higher vocational schools with 332,000 students at the year end including 29,000 postgraduates.
In 2005, there are 425,000 specialized technical personnel in Tianjin, which includes 27 academicians (12 academicians from Chinese Academy of Sciences and 15 from Chinese Academy of Engineering), 126 postdoctoral stations with more than 500 post doctors. Tens of state-level engineering research centers, state level and ministerial level technical testing centers have been established in Tianjin. In 2005, Tianjin won 14 National Science & Technology Awards, which include 2 Second Prize of National Natural Science Award, 1 Second Prize of National Technology Invention Award and 11 Second Prize of Science & Technology Progress Award. Tianjin has maintained the third place in China in overall science and technology progress.
(vii) Tourism
Tianjin has developed a well-organized tourism pattern, which takes Haihe River as the axial line, downtown area as the main body, and Jixian County and Binhai New Area as its two wings. Various tourist routes like water travel, travel to the former residence of celebrities, famous street travel, Outing to Yuyang, Xiqing Folk Custom Travel and Travel to Binhai New Area have been launched. In addition, a series of large tourism events were also held on annual basis, like folk custom temple fair (during Spring Festival), Peach Blossom Cultural and Travel Festival on the Great Canal (in March), Huangyaguan Great Wall International Marathon Event (in May), European Charm Festival (in June), Tianjin-Tanggu Sea Travel (in July), Tianjin Mazu Cultural and Travel Festival (in September), Yuyang Autumn Travel Festival, Gulou International Folk Custom Travel Festival (in October), Haihe River Travel Festival and International College Students Dragon Boat Competition.
In 2005, 740,000 foreign tourists visited Tianjin and spent US$ 510 million in Tianjin.
Famous Scenic Sites
Renowned as the "Ferry of the Emperor" and seated on the seashore with a landscape of mountains and lakes, Tianjin has rich tourism resources and enjoys the fame as "the epitome of modern China". Its famous sites mainly includes: Panshan Mountain in Jixian County-"Back Yard Garden" of Tianjin and Beijing with a green sightseeing site surrounded by famous mountains, quiet forests, clean water, impregnable passes and old temples; Folk Custom Residences like the famous house in Jinmen-Shi Family Mansion, Former Residence of Huo Yuanjia-the famous martial art master, Tianjin Mazu Templeone of the three largest Mazu temples in China and Yangliuqing New Year Picture Museum; Former Residence of Celebrities including former residences of Sun Yatsen, Zhang Xueliang, Liang Qichao, Pu Yi (the last emperor), 7 presidents and 5 prime ministers of the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China and Hoover-the former president of the United States; Historical Building of Various Countries (Tianjin is known as the "Museum of Buildings of Various Countries", there are large number of buildings of different styles on the five main roads and downtown area near Haihe River); Seaside Sight like beaches, harbor, forts, retired aircraft carrier, Haimen Old Temple, Haihe Beach Park and Imported Goods Market; Wetland and Lakes like Qilihai Lake of Ninghe County, Tuanbowa Lake of Jinghai County, and Dongli Lake of Dongli District.
Featured Commodities
Tianjin has four world-known folk arts including "Zhang's Art of Clay", "Yangliuqing New YearPictures", "Wei's Kites" (which won golden prize in World's Panama Exposition in 1914) and "Liu's Brick Sculpture". In addition, Tianjin's folk arts are also renowned for its Tianjin paper cutting, Tianjin Lantern, Tianjin Velvet Silk Flower and various international and domestical award-winning carpets and tapestries.
Special Food
Tianjin has also a variety of traditional style foods, in which, "Three Unique Foods of Tianjin" are comprised of Goubuli's Stuffed Buns, Guifaxiang Fried Dough Twists and Ear-Hole Fried Cake. Other special foods include: Zhang's Peanut Kernel , Cao's Donkey Meat, Lu's Fried Cake, Bai's Dumplings, Zhilanzhai Sweetened Rice Flour, Dafulai's crispy rice with vegetables and Stone Doorsill Steamed Stuffed Buns.
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