Introduction of Yunfu, Guangdong Province

 

Geographic Location
Yunfu (22°22'~23°19' N, 111°03'~112°31’ E) borders Zhaoqin and Jiangmen to the East, Yangjiang and Maoming to the South, Wuzhou of Guangxi Province to the West, and to the North faces Fengkai County and Deqin County of Zhaoqin across Xi River. It is 60 kilometers from Zhaoqin’s city center, 160 kilometers to Guangzhou, 177 sea miles to Hong Kong, and 60 sea miles to Wuzhou of Guangxi. Yunfu is the communications center between the Pearl River Delta and Southeast China, reaching as far as ASEAN countries in terms of flows of people, goods, capital and information. Because of the superior geographical feature, Yunfu is named “the Great West Pass” of Guangdong Province.
Area
The total area of Yunfu is 7,779.1 square kilometers. In 1998, the arable land amounted to 1252000 Mu, with 1012,000 Mu of paddy field, and 1304,300 Mu of hilly land below 25 degrees. Yunfu is consisted of Yuncheng District, Yunan County, Xinxing County, and Yunan County, and is mandated to govern Luoding City.
Climate
Yunfu is located in subtropical area, with the Tropic of Cancer lying across. The annual temperature is 22℃ on average, 0℃ at minimum, and 39.1℃ at maximum. It is one of the large Chinese cities with the smallest temperature difference. The subtropical monsoon climate in Yunfu features warm temperature, sufficient rain, light and heat, long summer, and short frost time and etc. Sufficient rain favors the growth of plants, and Yunfu, the “Flower City”, is endowed with greenery all year round and bouquets of flowers and piles of brocades. The annual rainfall is 1982.7 mm and the average relative humidity is 68%. The moist season extends from April to June, and the hot weather with typhoons lasts from August to September. October to December is best time to visit Yunfu, as the temperature is pleasant.
Transportation
In recent years, Yunfu increasingly invested in its transportation system and other infrastructure. The city has been integrated into the “two-hour economic circle” of the Pearl River Delta. It takes only ca. one hour to get to Guangzhou and other cities in the Pearl River Delta Region from Yunfu. The second stage of Guangzhou-Wuzhou Highway from Hekou to Pingtai and Luoding to Cenxi railway is already under construction. And the proposal on Yunfu-Cenxi Highway project (with highway section within Guangdong Province) has been submitted to NDRC for approval. 324 State Highway and San-Mao railway run through the whole city.
The Xijiang within Yunfu has a coastline of more than 100 kilometers long, reaching up to Guigang Port or down to Guangzhou, Foshan, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Macau. It is the first waterway named by the Communication Ministry as “Model Waterway”. Currently, there are four existing ports in Yunfu with a handling capacity of over 6 million tons: Doucheng, Nan Jiangkou, Liudu and Duqi. The Liudu Port, Nanjing Port and Ducheng Port have been under expansion. The direct cargo line to Hong Kong has already been opened, and Yunfu Customs and Luoding Customs have been established.
In addition, Luoding airport has been put into operation, with flourishing business.
Resources
Yunfu City is rich in natural resource, history and culture, and has a wonderful ecological environment.
Yunfu has abundant mineral resources. The city is located in the middle of the Yunkai Rumble Strip, with complex structure and good geological conditions. It is not only one of the important metallic mineralization concentrated area, but also a famous stone town known as the “sulfur capital” and “stone capital”. The pyrite reserve is 208 million tons with average sulfur content of up to 31.04%, the reserve and quality of which are both top of the world. There are large reserve and high quality limestone, sillimanite, quartz ore and kaolin. Till 2008, there were 57 kinds of minerals discovered and 49 kinds with proved reserves, including metallic minerals like gold, silver, copper, iron, tin, lead, zinc, manganese, etc; and non-metallic minerals like sillimanite, dolomite, marble, granite, barite, talc, kaolin, limestone, clay, sandstone and shale, feldspar, mineral water, geothermal, and other rare minerals.
Yunfu is rich in agricultural and forestry resources. The total plough area is 1875000 mu with 7687000 mu woodland. Yunfu has abundant production of high-quality rice, cinnamon, pine, citrus seedless wampee and other fruits.
Yunfu is rich in labor resources: a total workforce of 1.43 million. 950 thousand people are working in the city, and 480 thousand in the Pearl River Delta region. 1.05 million labor forces are from rural area, and 400 thousand have shifted to work in non-agricultural sectors. There are 120 thousand surplus rural labor force and that number increases 240 thousand every year.
Urban Construction
In 2008, Yunfu enhanced science and technology construction. It held provincial top forum combining production, learning and research (CLR), and organized tours for academicians and experts. Together with higher education and scientific research institutes, it established five CLR creative alliances and three demonstration bases. It also organized and implemented 110 above-provincial-level science and technology projects, including 15 provincial CLR cooperation projects.
The educational industry is developing healthily and all indicators of compulsory education met provincial requirements. The work of “one-PC, two languages” deepened. Education was enhanced both at high school and at vocational and technical levels. The construction of educational park was accelerated.
The cultural industry continuously developed. Yunfu successfully held the first Six Patriarch of Zen Festival of Guangdong and Guangdong Province (Yunfu) Stone Art Creation Contest. The square culture in Yunfu is becoming more and more flourishing.
Health protection grew fast and the public health service system got further improvement. The new cooperative medical service advanced in rural areas, with a participation rate of 99.46%. 150 village health stations completed standardization, and the four systems were improved: medical care, disease prevention, health supervision and community health.
There is a remarkable result in ecological environment construction. Chemical oxygen demand and sulfur dioxide discharge were 21,700 tons and 55,000 tons respectively, which fell within provincial requirements. Yunfu achieved the goal of construction of sewage treatment factories for all counties and closed down small thermal powers as well as building desulfurizetion project for both Yunfu power plant and Luoding power plant. Meanwhile, backward cement producing was terminated in a good order. Yunfu city built 602 ecological civilization villages.
The work in labor security further developed and the government strengthened skill training for rural labor and veterans. 31000 quarters were added; 8295 urban laid-off workers got a job again, and 469000 rural labors were transferred to a new job. The urban unemployment rate was 2.6%. 650 million yuan was collected in social security, with an increase of 28%. Successes were also achieved in minimum living allowance for urban residents, housing for poor urban residents, water supply for rural people, education for children from poor families and etc.
Yunfu strengthens efforts to manage social order comprehensively. Progress was achieved in sports, poverty alleviation, safe production, national defense mobilization, products quality, food safety, population, family planning and etc. The government enhanced construction constantly and got new improvement in spiritual civilization and democracy construction. Yunfu is becoming harmonious with the development of reform and system innovation.
Economy
To promote sustainable and rapid economic development, Yunfu upholds the reform and opening-up policy, and implements scientific development concepts. In 2007, Yunfu’s ranks of various indicators in Guangdong are: GDP – 17th, export – 16th, investment for fixed assets – 15th, financial revenue – 13th, income of urban residents – 13th, and farmers’ net income – 9th. The ratio of agriculture, industry and service was 26.2:45.3:28.5. Private enterprises accounted over 80% both in number and production volume.
Agriculture
In recent years, the rural economy developed rapidly in Yunfu. In 2004, agricultural output amounted to 11.1 billion. Among that, 44.94% or RMB 5.0 billion came from crop farming, with an increase rate of 35.62% over the year 1999 and an annual increase rate of 6.3%. As to the animal husbandry, the total output value was 4.5 billion, accounting for 40.71% of total agricultural output value, and increasing by 88.52% over 1999 and 13.5% annually.
Fishery production reached a total value of 1.0 billion, accounting for 8.82% of total agricultural output value. Aquaculture total output was RMB 5.5 billion, accounting for 49.53% of total agricultural output value, and achieving an increase rate of 7.73% over 1999 and an annual increase rate of 1.5%. The total production value of town and village enterprises was RMB23.2 billion, increasing 7.73% over 1999, and 1.5% annually. The average net income for farmers was RMB4003, with 22.01% increase over 1999 and 4.1% annually. Main vegetations include: rice, corn, soybeans, vegetables, oranges, longans, litchis, wampee, mulberry, flowers, trees and so on; and main poultry and aquaculture produce include: chicken, pigs, and fishes etc.
In 2008, there were 50 primary products demonstration bases and eight provincial farming and forest towns. Luoding city was awarded as “Cinnamon hometown in China”, Xinxing county as “Fruits processing hometown in China”, and Yunan county as “Seedless wampee hometown in China”, “hometown of international standardized production base of green food material (Shatang mandarin)” and “Leading county for orange industry”. There were 195 agricultural organizations, including one on national, 11 on provincial and 44 on municipal level.
Stone Industry
Stone Industry is one of the “10 billion” projects. Yunfu stone processing has a long history of more than 200 years. It was awarded as “China stone base center”, “China stone circulation demonstration base”, “Center of artificial stone in China” and “Village of civilian (stone carving) arts in Guangdong”. Also, Yunfu is one of the three largest stone producing and distributing service base. The city is one of the four largest stone bases known as “Stone Kingdom”, which holds the annual “China (Yunfu) International Stone Science and Technology Exhibition”. Currently, a hub has been formed with industries of mine exploitation, flagstone, stone art, artificial granite, stone machines and parts producing, engineering decoration and stone exhibitions. There are more than 3000 stone enterprises with annual production of 60 millions square meters up for various stones. Yunfu stone processing is directed towards “High, refined, unique, complete, and excellent”, and it has set up 13 series, 23 categories and more than 1000 various kinds of stone products. The products are well sold both in domestic and overseas markets. Yunfu has become one of the largest stone processing and producing bases in China with an annual output value of ca 7 billion yuan.
Vulcanization Industry
Yunfu is known as the “Sulfur Center of China”, which has reserves of sulfurous iron ore with top amount and quality in the world. The vulcanization industry plays an important role in Yunfu’s economy. At the same time, Yunfu is one of the largest producing bases of sulfurous iron ore in China, with an annual production capacity of 3 million tons. The annual production capacity of sulfuric acid is 500,000 tons, and superphosphate 300,000 tons. Yunfu is home to three provincial famous brands and a number of factories of sulfuric acid and titanium pigment.
Cement Industry
Yunfu is one of the three largest cement bases stationed by Guangdong Province. The estimated amount of limestone resources is up to 7.2 billion tons. There are 25 cement producing enterprises with an annual production capacity of 11.6 million tons of cement material. The total output was up to 7.19 million tons in 2007. Yunfu owns one exemption product, two provincial famous brands, and one front-ranking provincial trademark. With abundant limestone resources and convenient Xijinag waterway transportation, Yunfu is richly endowed by natural conditions for cement production. It has already attracted a number of well-known enterprises to invest in Yunfu. Furthermore, Yunfu government has built up strategic alliance with Sinoma Group, and it is estimated that the production capacity of cement can reach up to 30 million tons in the next few years.
Textile and Garment Industry
There are nearly 10 textile enterprises of wool, cotton, hemp, chemical fiber and other textile products. The annual production of various yarns is 21,000 tons, woven 3,000,000 meters, knitted sweaters 12 million and dyed yarn 28000 tons. There are more than 20 garment manufacturers with annual output value of about 20 million yuan. Most products are exported to Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, Europe and America, and many more.
Electronics Industry
Yunfu has many electronics factories, including Yada Electronics Factory in Luoding (founded by Emerson Group, one of the world’s 500 top enterprises), Yilianda, Ruipu and so on invested by Hong Kong and Taiwan enterprises. The companies mainly manufacture chargers for mobiles and laptops, and 70% products are exported to European and American markets.
Pharmacy Industry
There are 9 pharmacy manufacturers, 12 wholesalers and 18 medical instrument manufacturers in Yunfu.
Guangdong Wenshi Bio-technology Park and Yunan Tianbao Bio-pharmaceuticals Factory are leading bio-pharmaceuticals producers in Yunfu, which offer various livestock vaccines and veterinary drugs. Its research in livestock vaccine has reached advanced level in the world, and their products are exported to Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt and other Asian and African countries.

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