Jinhua, located in the mild-Zhejiang and in the south of the Changjiang River Delta economic circle, has under its administration the four county cities of Yiwu, Dongyang, Yongkang and Lanxi, the three counties of Pujiang, Wuyi and Pan’an, and the two areas of Wu City and Jindong. It has a population of 4,500,000 with an area of 10918 square kilometers, belongs to the urban area and resides 906,000 people.
Jinhua boasts a long history. It belonged to Yue State during the Spring and Autumn Period, and it was Wushang County, being part of Kuaiji prefecture, during the Qin and Han dynasties. It was renamed as Jinhua in 562. In 1985, Jinhua was set as a city and carried out a system of the city administrating the county. It is also a place with outstanding personalities and miraculous landscape. For personalities, there are such famous litterateurs, painters, patriots, or scholars as Luo Binwang, Guan Xiu, Zongze, Zhu Danxi, Song Lian, Li Yu, Huang Binhong, Shao Piaoping, Chen Wangfeng, Ai Qing, and Yan Jici. As for places of historical interest, it enjoys over 2600 existent ancient buildings, among which, the Eight-intones Building in the downtown is one of the three famous Buildings in China; the Shiwang Mansion (the residence for one of the generals duing Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (1851-1864) ) is one of the most completely preserved, the largest in scale, and the most in number of mural artworks among the nationally existent buildings of that period. Jinhua is also rich in special local products: the camellia is its city flower; Jinhua ham is its traditional special product famous home and abroad for the uniqueness of its color, flavor, smell and shape. And its grapes, fingered citrons, crisp pancakes and Xuanping lotus seeds are also well known far and near. Jinhua thus has long been reputed as a place for historical interests and outstanding personalities, and for culture and picturesque scenery. Since the practicing of the reform and opening policy, Jinhua has achieved great developments in economic and social undertakings, by the performance of such policies as strengthening the city through science and education, opening and promoting, and sustainable development. In 2002, Jinhua achieved the gross products of 68.039 billion yuan, increased by12.9%.It also realized a gross financial income of 6.647 billion yuan, among which, 3.21 billion yuan belongs to the local, with an increase of 29.8% and 43.9% respectively. The per capita net income of the farmers is 4157 yuan, increased by 5.4%, and the per capita income at the disposition of the urban residents is 11264 yuan, with an increase of 8.5%. The completed construction area of the whole city and the downtown was increased by 36 and 5 square kilometers respectively. The level of urbanization was raised by 2.6% to 41.6%. At the same time the force in the construction of central towns and villages was strengthened, thus achieving new developments in the integration of town and country. With all these efforts, a regional developing characteristic of “six bigs and six smalls” has basically come into being. |
