Speech by the Governor
Hebei is located on the North China Plain which shares coastland in the east. As one of the main cradles of Chinese Nation, it is endowed with a profound and splendid culture, a large number of historical scenic spots, and beautiful natural scenery. Bordering with Bohai sea in the east, encompassing Bejing and Tianjing, Hebei enjoys a preferential geographic location which makes it a junction with convenient transportation and telecommunication system, and Hebei Province not only acts as the transfer center of commodity circulation for the East, South and Southwest of China to connect with the Northeast, Northwest and North China (so called "The Three Norths" regions), but also serves as an important passage to the sea for "The Three Norths" regions. Abundant natural resources, huge markets, good economic foundation, strong science and technology education, plenty of labor force and various talents, harmonious society provide Hebei with huge development potential. With the implementation of National Rim-Bohai Strategy, Hebei will develop faster and provide new opportunities for the foreign investors. We cordially welcome domestic and international friends to visit, travel and invest in Hebei and sincerely wish to cooperate and communicate with friends in all fields in attempt to develop together.
I. Survey
(i) Geographical Location
Hebei Province is located in the North China Plain, encompassing Beijing and Tianjin, stretching to the Inner Mongolia Plateau, and facing the Bohai Sea to the east. Hebei Province is endowed with beautiful scenery and is the only province possessing shore regions, plains, lakes, hilly regions, mountains area and highland simultaneously in China. The coastline of the province is 487 kilometers long. The major cities in Hebei province include Shijiazhuang, Xingtai, Handan, Hengshui, Cangzhou, Baoding, Langfang, Tangshan, Qinhuangdao, Chengde, and Zhangjiakou.
(ii) Climate
Hebei Province enjoys a temperate continental monsoon climate and most of the area has clear-cut seasons. Its annual sunshine time is somewhere between 2,400-3,000 hours, annual frost-free period is somewhere between 120-200 days, annual total precipitation is somewhere between 300-800 mm and the annual average temperature is 0 ºC -13 ºC.
(iii)Population and Nationalities
The total population of Hebei Province is 68,510, of which urban population is 25,820, and rural population is 42,690. Except Han nationality, it also has 53 minorities, including Man, Hui, Meng, Zhuang, Chaoxian, Miao, Tujia etc, the minorities account for about 4% of the total population.
(iv) Infrastructure and Transportation
Transportation
Hebei Province is situated in the area as a hub of communications through which Beijing connects itself with the rest of country. There are as many as fifteen major railways e.g. Jing-Guang, Jing-Jiu, Jing-Hu and seventeen national main lines e.g. Jing-Zhu, Jing-Hu, Jing-Shen extending across the Province, the total length of expressways in operation has been extended to 2,135 kilometers. Shijiazhuang Airport, approved by State as an international airport, has now opened more than 40 domestic and international routes, and connects to 27 large and medium-scale domestic cities including Hong Kong and many foreign cities, such as Moscow, Budapest, Qingzhou and so on. The Capital Airport of Beijing and the Tianjin International Airport are available to Hebei as well.
Ports
Hebei also enjoys convenient ocean carriage facilities, the four major seaports, lining up from North to South along with west coastline of Bohai sea, are Qinhuangdao, Tangshan, Tianjin and Huanghua, which all are the major and unfreezen ports in the north China and are main passages to the sea for the regions of Northeast, Northwest, and North China, the annual throughput of these ports reached 273 million tons. Qinhuangdao port is a natural deep-water port, the biggest coal export port, and a hub of coal transportation from north to south.
Finance
Major Financial Institutions
There are 13 financial institutions in Hebei, including China Bank, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, China Communication Bank, Agricultural Bank of China etc, most of which have International Settlement Business, International Financing Business and Foreign Bank Business. At the end of 2005, the deposit balance of all financial institutions in Hebei Province was RMB 1,076,490,000,000 yuan, and credit balance was RMB 641,520,000,000 yuan.
Insurance
Major Insurance Companies
At the end of 2005, there were 23 provincial-level insurance branch offices, 61 professional agencies, and 3,362 part-time agencies for insurance. The number of employees for insurance is 130,000. The total insurance income is RMB 21,730 million yuan.
Telecommunication and Internet
With rapid development of telecommunications and internet, the domestic and international direct dial service, the internet access, and the mobile communication network are available in all cities and counties of the Province.
(v)Foreign Exchange
Since 1983, the foreign exchange were growing more and more, governments of Hebei province and its administrative cities have been establishing the good relationship with foreign countries, deepening understanding each other, and promoting the exchange on economy and culture with foreign countries. By the year 2005, Hebei province has already made more than 50 friedly ties in 20 countries.
Chart of Foreign Provinces, States and Cities in Friendly Ties with Their Counterparts in Hebei
Fairs Concerning Foreign Affairs
Many kinds of exhibitions were held in Hebei province every year, including Northeast Asian and Bohai-Rim International Business Festival (Hebei Economic and Trade Fair ), Hebei (Hong Kong) Investment and Trade Fair, Tangshan China Ceramic Fair, China (Shijiazhuang) International Small Commodities Exhibition, and Wuqiao International Circus Festival and some other series of international activities in terms of economy, technology, culture, education etc, which serve as bridges to communicate Hebei and foreign countries.
Major Fairs
(vi) Higher Education and Scientific Research
There are 86 normal higher educational institutions in Hebei Province with annual recruit amount to 235,000 students including 6,600 post-graduates. 125,000 personnel engage in science and technology industry, among them, there are 86,000 scientists & engineers and 13 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering. There are also 1,165 institutions of various kinds for research & development and 182 of Enterprise's tech centers, engineering research centers, key laboratories and pilot scale experiment base above provincial level. Langfang City,located between Beijing and Tianjin Municipalities, has two education bases. One is the Oriental Universities Town with 32 universities such as Beihang University, China University of Geosciences, Beijing Technology & Business University, Beijing University of Technology, and Beijing University for Nationalities as well as University of International Business & Economics. The other one is the Tsinghua Science & Technology Park, co-constructed by Hebei Provincial Government and Tsinghua University and covering an area of 10,000 Mu, where Hebei-Tsinghua Academe-the International Research & Development Port is located.
(vii) Tourism
Hebei is the location of the ancient Yan and Zhao states, with a multitude of famous historical spots. At present, there are 5 state-level famous historical and cultural cities of Chengde, Baoding,
Zhengding, Handan and Shanhaiguan; 88 historical relics under state protection and 670 historical relics under provincial protection. There are three World Cultural Heritages including the Great Wall, the Chengde Imperial Summer Resort and temples around, the Eastern & Western Royal Tombs of Qing Dynasty.
With charming and splendid natural scenery, Hehei has abundant tourist resources. There are some famous patriotism educational bases such as the Former Residence of Li Dazhao, revolutionary shrine of Xibaipo, etc. In addition, the Great Wall and Chengde Imperial Summer Resort are on the list of top ten places of interest and there are also three "Excellent Forty" scenic spots such as
Beidaihe Bay of Qinhuangdao City, seven state-level beauty spots such as Yesanpo, Zhangshiyan and Cangyan Mountain and nine forest parks, five natural reserves, three national geological park as well as thirty "AAAA" tourism spots.
Qinhuangdao city, 270 kms from Beijing and 210 kms from Tianjin, is a place where many Chinese leaders handle official business in summer, so it is also called the "Summer Capital of China". The main scenic sports consist of the old Dragon's Head, the Shanhaiguan Pass, the Temple of lady Mengjiang, Great Wall Museum, North Dai River, South Dai River, the Golden Seashore of Changli, the international sand sledging field, the wild animal zoo, Xin'ao Sea World, and Wanbo Culture Landscape, etc.
Chengde is an excellent tourism city and one of China's historical and cultural cities. It is 163 kms from Beijing. The world's largest ancient imperial garden, the imperial Mountian Resort that is the largest summer resort in China, China's largest imperial temple complex the Eight Outer Temples, the splendid Jinshanling Great Wall, the well-known Mulan Ranch, the vast forest, the No.1 grassland in the in the north of Beijing, and Liaoheyuan Forest Park all are in Chengde city, and now the night-time tours of Mountian Resort, ecology tourism through forest, and grassland skee in winter and so on have been added.
Hebei boasts its colorful and long history culture and arts. Wuqiao, serving as a famous county for acrobatics, has a long history. China-Wuqiao International Acrobatics Festival is the oriental acrobatics arena and the large-scaled folk park-"Wuqiao Acrobatics World" is domestic well-known folk tourism resorts. More over, Cangzhou Wushu Festival (the Chinese material arts) and Yongnian International Tai Ji Performance (a kind of traditional Chinese shadow boxing) are popular world widely. With special local features, the shadow play from Tangshan, Lantern Fair from Shengfang, lion wielding from Xushui and Spring Festival pictures from Wuqiang and paper cuts from Yu county as well as Pangtzu of Hebei(a type of Chinese opera)are welcomed by tourists.
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