Briefing on Social and Economic Development of Gansu Province

Gansu is located in the north-western part of China and the intersection of the Loess Plateau, the Inner Mongolia Plateau and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. It belongs to the Yellow River, the Yangtze River and inland river systems. The province covers an area of 425,800 square kilometers, ranking 7th nationwide. Twelve cities and two minority autonomous prefectures are under its jurisdiction. The province has a population of 2.6033 with 55 nationalities. Among which, the population of minority nationalities consists of 8.8 percent. Lanzhou , the capital of Gansu Province , is an important transportation, communication pivot and a material distribution center in northwest China .

Gansu Province enjoys time-honored history and rich cultural heritage. Fuxi, Nuwa, and Huangdi, the three legendary humanity ancestors of Chinese nation were all born in Gansu . Thus the province has been named as ?Xi Xuan Sang Zi?, the hometown to those three ancestors. For example, Chinese ancestor Zhou people rose up in Qingyang and Qin people originated in Tianshui. The province is an important birthplace of the Chinese nation and Chinese civilization.

The ancient Silk Road has traversed in Gansu about 1600 kilometers. The accumulation and the excavation of its special cultural resources has made Gansu form the brand cultures represented by the Dunhuang Culture, the Silk Road Culture, the Yellow River Culture and Fuxi Culture, ethnic culture and folk custom culture, dance drama arts and stagecrafts. A group of arts treasures with both Gansu character and Chinese verve were created, such as dance dramas of the ?Flower Blooming on the Silk Road?, the ?Dunhuang My Drealnd?, the ?Music and Dance of Dunhuang?, which are most-acclaimed and very impressive to audiences both at home and abroad.

Gansu has 43 cultural sites under state protection and 4 historical and cultural cities at a state level. Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang is known as the art treasure in the world.

The Maijishan Grottoes in Tianshui is honored as the oriental sculpture museum. The Labuleng Lamasery in Xiahe is one of the six Gelu sect temples of Tibetan Buddhism. The Baima Temple in Wuwei bears a witness of Tibet 's coming under the jurisdiction of China . The Jiayuguan Pass is known as the ? Grand Pass under Heaven?. The Kongtong Mountain in Pingliang is actually the ?First Mountain of Taoism under Heaven. The Dadiwan Cultural Site unearthed in Qin'an is even earlier than the Neolithic Banpo Culture near Xi'an . The Fuxi Temple in Tianshui is famous for its unique features. The ancient animal fossils discovered in Hezheng and the dinosaur footprints found in Yongjing are reputed as world-class treasures. The Bronze Galloping Horse unearthed in Leitai of Wuwei has been taken as the symbol of China 's tourism.

Gansu is a province with rich resources and various products. About 81 kinds of minerals have been found within the province, among which 11 kinds such as nickel, cobalt, silicon, platinum rank the first nationwide, 29 kinds rank the first five position. Especially the scale of the copper and nickel mine in Jinchuan is ranking the third in the world.

The ensured reserve of coal reaches 8.92 billion tons, oil 1.24 billion tons with 67.16 million tons has been verified, and that of natural gas 6.725 billion cubic meters. The resources of water, wind and solar energy are plentiful. The theoretical water power is 17.24 million kw, ranking the 4th nationwide. The usable wind energy is nearly 20 million kw, ranking the 5th nationwide. The province enjoys advantage of the material for nuclear industry as well.

Gansu has special conditions for agricultural production. With long sunshine time and sharp temperature difference between day and night, it is suitable for special agricultural by-products such as good quality corn, potato, brewing grape, beer barley, hops, alfalfa, melons and vegetables.

Gansu has more than 1,000 species of bush and arbor plants and over 650 kinds of wild animals. The grassland consists of one-third of its total area. As one of the 5 major pastures in the whole country, the province produces lots of meat, hide, wool, dairy and cashmere.

Gansu is one of the main producers nationwide of traditional Chinese herbal medicine, offering over 9,500 kinds of herbal medicine and ranking 2nd in China . Among which 1270 kinds are wild medicinal herbs ranking 1st in China . The most famous ones are: angelica roots, licorice, dahuang, dangshen, yellow vetch, cordyceps sinensis and so on, among which the ?Angelica Roots from Min County ? and ?Jinseng from Wen County ? are famous both at home and abroad. During the drive of the large-scale development of the western region, Gansu has been approved as a planting base of vegetables, flowers and herbal medicine nationwide.

Gansu has strong scientific and educational ability and talents advantage. The province has over 1,500 scientific research institutes and about 70,000 person involved in scientific work. There are 27 scientific staff every 10,000 person, with a higher rate than the national level. The province has 34 universities, 14 professional colleges and 12 national and ministerial key laboratories such as the National Engineering Research Center for Fine Petrochemical Intermediates (NERCFPI), National Laboratory of Heavy-Ion Accelerator, State Key Laboratory of Frozen Soil Engineering of CAS. , State Key Laboratory of Arid Agroecology and 9 key laboratories covering almost all the pillar and competitive industries in Gansu, such as non-ferrous metals, integration of mechanics and electrics, transportation automation, potato research laboratory and so on. Gansu has 27 engineering research centers covering all the pillar industries in the province. Meanwhile, the province occupies a leading place nationwide in terms of aerospace technique, biological products, electronic information, grasslands ecology and desertification treatment.

Gansu has sound industrial foundation and location priority. The province has an industrial system with petro-chemicals, non-ferrous metal metallurgy, mechanics and electronics, energy and coal, building materials, foodstuff, pharmaceutics and textile as its backbone. It is a material base and a key area of industry, chemistry, energy and raw material in northwest China . A group of key enterprises such as the Lanzhou Petrochemical Corporation of China National Petroleum Corporation, the Jinchuang Group, the Lanzhou Aluminum Co. Ltd. , the Baiyin Non-ferrous Metal Group Co. Ltd., the Jiuquan Iron & Steel Group, the Huating Coal Group, the Great Wall Electrical Equipment Group Co., Ltd. and so on. Meanwhile, a number of new industrial cities of Lanzhou , Baiyin, Tianshui, Jiayuguan and Jinchang are booming up as well.

Gansu is located at the juncture of the east, middle and western part of China . It is the only province with the priority of connecting China 's west as well as extending from south to north. The new Euro-Asian bridge passes through the province, connecting the Asia-pacific region with Asian and European countries. The railways of Lianyungang-Lanzhou, Lanzhou-Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Baotou-Lanzhou, Lanzhou-Qinghai, Qinghai-Tibet and airlines as well as national trunk highways of No. 25 and No. 45 has made Gansu a comprehensive transportation hub of railway, expressway and airline in north-western China with Lanzhou as its center. With 4 major optical fiber cables of Xi'an-Lanzhou-Urumqi, Beijing-Huhehaote-Yinchuan-Lanzhou, Lanzhou-Xining-Lasa, and Lanzhou-Chengdu meet in Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu Province has became one of the 12 main transportation pivots in the country. The 6 accesses to Lanzhou are all expressways, which take important position in regional economic development and exchanges with foreign countries.

In recent years, Gansu takes advantage of the strategy of large-scale development of western region adopted by the central government. Under the guidance of the Scientific Outlook on Development, the province works by the general idea of ?Develop through Gripping Project, Reform through Gripping Innovation, Build Harmony through Gripping Common People's Life and Guarantee Through Gripping Party's Construction?. Gansu carries out the strategy of invigorating the province by industry and stimulating development by opening-up. The development of agriculture and rural economy are promoted steadily. The construction of infrastructure is sped up. The province pays high attention to the development of social undertakings and enlarges its opening up step by step. The main economic indexes grow at two digits and the economic and social development has made great progress. In 2006, the provincial GDP reached 227.5 million Yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.4 percent. The provincial revenue after transfer payment totaled 29.476 billion Yuan. The local financial revenue totaled 14.09 billion Yuan. Investment in fixed assets totaled 102 billion Yuan, an increase of 16.5 percent than the previous year. The total retail amount of commodities reached 71.75 billion Yuan, an increase of 13.4 percent than the previous year. The export and import value totaled US$3.82 billion, a year-on-year increase of 45.2 percent. The disposable income for urban people rose to 8,920 Yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.3 percent. Farmers' pure income rose to 2,134 Yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.8 percent.