Brief Introduction To Beijing Municipality

    As the capital city of the People's Republic of China, Beijing is the nation's political and cultural center and also a center for international contacts.

    History: The recorded history of Beijing as a city can date back to more than 3,000 years ago. During the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (c. 11th century-771 B.C.), the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 B.C.) and the Warring States Period (475-221 B.C.), Beijing was the capital city of the State of Yan, which was ruled by dukes or princes under the emperor. From the Qin Dynasty (221-207 B.C.) and the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.) to the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), Beijing was a major city and also a strategic point in northern China. When the Qidan (Khitan) people founded the Liao Dynasty (907-1125), they established Beijing, which was then under their occupation and was called Jiuzhou, as the secondary capital under the name of Nanjing (southern capital). Afterwards, the dynasties of Jin (1115-1234), Yuan (1271-1368), Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) all chose Beijing as their capital city. In 1928, the Nanjing-based nationalist government of the Republic of China designated Beijing as the Beiping Special Municipality. In 1930, the municipality was renamed as Beiping City. On September 27, 1949, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference decided that the newborn People's Republic of China would base its capital in Beiping and renamed the city as Beijing.

Great Wall

    Natural Geography: Beijing is located in the northern part of the North China Plain and its terrain is high in the northwest and low in the southeast. Major rivers flowing through the city include Yongding River, Chaobai River, Beiyun Canal and Juma River. With a typical continental warm temperate zone monsoon climate, Beijing has four distinct seasons. The average annual temperature at Beijing is around 12 degrees Centigrade while the average annual precipitation is 626 mm. Beijing is rich in mineral resources including coal, iron, copper, limestone and marble as well as relatively rich in the terrestrial heat resource.
    Area and Division of Administrative District: After 1949, Beijing expanded successively five times the scope of areas under its jurisdiction and changed successively 11 times the division of administrative districts in line with requirements of the political, economic and social development. Now, the city's total land area is 16,807.8 sq km -- 62% of hilly areas and 38% of flatlands. The planned area of the city proper is 750 sq km. Beijing has 13 districts and 5 counties under its jurisdiction.

Peking Opera

    Population and Ethnic Groups well as Quality of Population: By the end of 1995, the city had had a total of 12.511 million permanent residents. The population of the city includes all the 56 ethnic groups of China. According to statistics from the 4th national census conducted on July 1, 1990, 1.006 million permanent residents in Beijing, or 9.3% of the population in the city, were college graduates or higher; 2.053 million, or 19% of the total population, were senior high school graduates (including secondary technical school graduates); 3.305 million, or 30.6% of the total population, were junior high school graduates; and 2.443 million, or 22.6% of the total population, were primary school graduates.
    Economic and Social Development: Since the founding of the PRC, particularly since China initiated the reform and open policy in 1978, the economy of Beijing has kept its momentum of sustained, rapid and healthy development. Since the beginning of the 1990s, the gross domestic product (GDP) of the city has been growing at an annual rate of 9%, with the comprehensive economic strength increased substantially. Beijing has established an economy comprising multi-sectors, which include State-run and collectively-owned enterprises and also consist of Sino-foreign joint ventures, Sino-foreign cooperative ventures and wholly foreign-funded enterprises as well as individual businesses, etc. It has a modern industrial system under which urban industries are linked to township industries and capital and technology intensive industries are linked to labor-intensive industries as well as large and medium- and small-sized enterprises compete with one another in development. Of the 164 industrial sectors defined by China on a unified basis, Beijing has 149. The city has gradually formed an industrial structure with a relatively complete range of sectors, which include the eight sectors, i.e., metallurgy, chemicals, automobiles,  electronics, machinery, building materials, light industry and textiles.
    Investment Environment: Of all Chinese cities, Beijing boasts the most advanced infrastructure. The city had nearly 1,500 km of expressways, first and second grade highways by 1998. The density of roads is 0.75 km per sq km. In the city proper, there are 180 overpasses, and the Second Ring Road and the Third Ring Road have been built into non-stop highways. The Beijing-Tianjin Expressway has cut down the trip from Beijing to Tanggu Port to only 90 minutes. The Beijing West Railway Station, completed in Jan. 1996, is the largest of its kind in Asia. The international calls can be made here to more than 200 countries and regions. Direct mail service has been established with 207 cities in more than 127 countries and regions. In early 1995, the State Council granted Beijing the privilege to enjoy all the preferential policies given to open coastal cities.
    Beijing currently has a total of 33 development zones and small-scale industrial areas in various types operated by counties or districts, including two development zones at the national level - the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone and the Beijing Experimental Development Zone for New Technology Industries. In classification by categories, there are seven zones of the high and new technology category, 16 of the industrial category, four of the tourist real estate category and six of the comprehensive category. In these development and industrial zones, a total of 21.72 sq km of land have been developed and 20.58 sq km of it has been designated for inviting external investment. So far, a total of 3,067
enterprises have been built or are being built in these zones with overseas investment invited, and 2,065 of them have become operational.