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Shandong Province is situated along the eastern coastal lines and in the lower reaches of Yellow River, comprising of peninsulas and inlands. The Shandong peninsula stretches out between Bo sea and Yellow sea, stands facing each other with Liaodong peninsula and embraces the Bo Sea bay. The inlands border Hebei Province and Jiangsu Province from north to south. The total area of Shandong comes to 156.7 thousand square kilometers with population of 90.41 million. It is composed of 17 districts with 139 counties.
Shandong, the cradle of ancient Chinese civilization, enjoys a long history and rich cultures. The world-renowned Dawenkou Cultural Remains, Longkou Cultural Remains are both first unearthed in Shandong. Many famous figures born in this land still retain their power even today, namely, the ancient thinkers of Confucius, Mencius, Mo-tse, Zhuang-tse, etc., the ancient statesmen and strategists of Guang Zhong, Sun-tse, Zhuge Liang, etc., the ancient scientists of Lu Ban, Gan De, Jia Sixie, etc., the ancient litt¨|rateurs of Kong Rong, Liu Xie, Li Qingzhao, Xin Qiji, Pu Songling, etc., and the ancient artists of Wang Xizhi, Yan Zhenqing, Zhang Zeduan, etc. Miscellaneous classic works have been left behind such as The Analects of Confucius, The Strategic of Sun-tse.
Enjoying advantages of geographical location and abounding in rich resources, Shandong seems to be greatly bestowed and favored. It had the golden coasts of more than 3000 kilometers, accounting for one sixth of the whole coastal length in China. Shengli Oil Field, the second largest oil-producing base with production capacity occupying 16 percent of the state, enables Shandong to be one of the important energy bases in China. Its mineral resources turn to be in a great variety, among which the gold (the production capacity and performance accounting for more 25% and 50% of the state respectively), the natural sulphur (its reserves accounting for 90% of the state) and the gypsum (its reserves accounting for 79% of the state) all rank the top in reserves in China, while oil, diamond (its reserves and production capacity accounting for 40% and 80% of the state respectively), magnetite, cobalt, hafnium and granite all come to the second in the nation.
Since the reform and the opening to the outside world, Shandong has taken historical change in each field of economy and society. Due to the rapid, healthy and sustainable development of economy and the all-the-more reasonable industrial mechanism, its national economic indexes play leading roles in the nation. In 2001 the total value of GDP reached RMB 943.8 billion with 10.1% increase over the previous year while the total value of per capita amounted to RMB 10 thousand with 9.1% increase over the year 2000. The local financial revenues in Shandong came to RMB 57.29 billion with 23.6% increase and the average disposable per capita income in cities and towns amounted to RMB 7101.1, which basically enable the people to live a comfortable life.
Shandong is recognized to be a most important grain and cotton producing regions and the largest peanut-producing base whose export capacity accounting for more than 50% of the state. Meanwhile, it is also affluent in fruits and vegetables, enjoying the fame of being the largest "Vegetable Basket" in China.
No doubt Shandong has made rapid process in industry with distinct characteristics and reasonable mechanism. Some enterprises have accordingly acquired acclaims at home and abroad, namely, Shandong Electric Power Group, Qilu Petro-chemical Group, Langchao Group, Jinan Steel and Iron Group, Haier Group, Hisense Group, Yanzhou Mining Group, etc.
The infrastructures in Shandong prove to be complete and convenient. Its highways linking Jinan, the capital of Shandong, with all the other 16 cities have surpassed all the rest provinces with mileages of 3000 kilometers. A pretty dense network of railways is formed with a frame of Beijing-Shanghai railway and Beijing-Guangzhou railway from north to south and Qingdao-Jinan railway and Yanzhou-Shijiusuo railway from east to west. The aviation industry, whose domestic and international flight routes have exceeded 700, has achieved rapid development. The density of ports in Shandong ranks the top one in the state and Qingdao Port's annual import and export capacity has been above 0.1 billion tons. The other basic facilities, which are vital to the national economy and the people's livelihood, namely, telecom, irrigation works, electric power, medical and sanitation, etc., are also perfect in service condition as well as superior in quality.
Shandong has always taken the leading role in the opening to the outside world in terms of the time span and the opening extent. Up to now, it has set a complete opening framework with Qingdao as the "Dragon head", which means the dynamic engine to mobilize the rest cities, and Yantai, Weihai, Rizhao as the forelands, stretching from east to west as well as from coast to inland in a comprehensive way. Accordingly, more than 70 economic and technological zones, high-tech development zones, gardens for overseas personnel starting business, which enjoy the national and provincial preferential policies, have been established across Shandong.
With the flourishing of knowledge economy, economic globalization and China's entry into WTO in this new century, Shandong Provincial Committee and People's Government have formulated fresh development strategy and objectives with keen insights into the future. A blueprint will certainly come true through concerted efforts over 10 to 20 years from now on: comparatively complete socialistic market economy mechanism will be established, the economic structures will be upgraded in a complete way, the comprehensive competitive force will increase to the middle and upper level among the whole state, the industrial makeup will be optimize, the science, technology and education will be fully utilized and shared, the environment will be cleaned up, the social cultures will be renovated and the livelihood of the people will be affluent and comfortable. To conclude, a new Shandong, which must be "Big and Strong, Rich and Pretty ", shall no doubt appear with modernization in almost every field.
Total population
According to statistics of the fifth national census, the total population of the province was 90.79 million. The ratio of male population against female was basically balanced.
Ethnicity
There are 54 ethnic groups, including the Han, Manchu, Zhuang, Korean, Miao, Tibetan, Yi, Yao, and Bai. The Han population is 90.17 million, accounting for 99.32 percent of the province?ˉs total. The population of various minority ethnic groups is 620,000, accounting for 0.68 percent of the total.
Capital: Jinan
Government office address: 1 Shengfu Qianjie, Jinan, Shandong Province
Telephone: (531) 6912828
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