Introduction to Liuzhou
Liuzhou, also named the Dragon City (it is said in folklores that eight dragons appeared in the Liujiang River), is a comprehensive territorial city center and communication hinge with industry as its pillar industry as well as a historical and cultural city commanding unique sceneries. Liuzhou city consists of six counties and four districts, covering an area of 18,600 square km2. 3,625 million people of 48 ethnics live there, including Han, Zhuang, Miao, Yao, Dong and etc.
Liuzhou is an industry base in southwest China.
By late 2007, the number of companies and factories in the Liuzhou city has amounted to 2,875, including 9 large-sized industrial companies, 651 companies with certain scale and 5 listed companies (Liuzhou Machinery, Liuzhou Chemicals, LMZ, Youlian and Liuzhou Steel). Now a complete industry system dominated by automobile, machinery, metallurgy and supported by chemical industry, sugar refining, paper making, medicine, building material and chemical etc has been in form. There are four name-brand products (LMZ toothpaste, Liugang Loader, Wangshan Sugar, Golden Sea stannum), three well-known trademarks (LMZ toothpaste, Golden Throat lozenge, Huahong pharmacy). Last year, there were 105 companies whose output value of their major business surpassed 100 million RMB, among which 1 surpassing 25 billion RMB, 1 over 15 billion RMB, 1 above 10 billion, and 3 surpassing 5-10 billion. The total industrial output of Liuzhou takes up 1/4 of that of Guangxi.
Automobile is the first pillar industry in Liuzhou. Leading automotive producers like GM, Nissan, Saicgroup, DFAC, and FAW etc has invested in Liuzhou for business cooperation. Liuzhou has been a national manufacturing center of automobile spare parts as well as a national export base of automobile and spare parts. It is able to manufacture a variety of automobiles from minivan, car, Business Utility Vehicle, heavy-duty lorry, light-duty lorry, Special Purpose Vehicle and holds auto brands like ¡°Wulin¡±, ¡°DF Dragon¡± and ¡°DF Air Speed¡± etc. the output of automobile in 2007 was 616.5 thousand, ranking the fifth all over the China. The mini BUV takes the biggest market share which amounts to 43%.
Metallurgy in Liuzhou mainly consists of non-ferrous metal smelting and its further processing. The comprehensive steel manufacturing capacity is about 8 million tons, and the steel output last year reached 6.14 million; Liuzhou Steel Company ranks as the Top 500 Company in China, and the output value of its main business last year surpassed 26 billion RMB. Products of Indium, Zinc, Stannum and Antimony etc produced in Liuzhou also play a critical role in the home market, among which the production of lithopone and Indium rank the first all over the world, the production of Zinc Oxide rank the first in Asia and the second all over the world, ¡°Gold Sea¡± Stannum is a name-brand product in China, and Unionmet (Singapore) Limited ranks the second in Forbes¡¯¡°2008 Chinese Most Potential Companies¡±. Liuzhou was listed as one of the National New Material Industrialization Experiment Base in 2002, and now ¡°High-performance ITO material¡± as well as another Indium further processing industrialization program has been propelled to develop under state technology supporting plan.
Machinery industry in Liuzhou mainly is specialized in engineering, building machinery and air compressor. LiuGoang Loader, OVM pre-stressed anchor take up the biggest market share in China and sell well in foreign countries. Liuzhou Machinery Group ranks the top 50 engineering machinery companies all over the world, and it ranks the 73rd in Chinese machinery companies. OVM pre-stressed technology plays a significant role in the industry all over the world.
Regarding to other industries, Liuzhou own a number of name-brand products such as LMZ toothpaste, Golden Throat lozenge, Huahong Pharmacy, Yufeng cement, Wangshan sugar etc. LMZ is apprised as one of the Best 10 Chinese Brands, and the sales of LMZ medicinal toothpaste ranks first in the past continuous 23 years.
Liuzhou is the communication hub in southwest China.
Liuzhou is a railway hub that connects middle-south China, East China and South China. It is also one of the 45 road hubs in China, and now a modern tri-dimensional communication network of railway, road, waterway and airplane has been constructed. There are three railway trunks, three expressways, and three national highways converged in Liuzhou, and hence it only takes only four hours to reach the North Gulf. Liuzhou is a national first-category port, and it can reach Guizhou province in the north and Hong Kong & Macao in the south through the Liujiang waterway. Liuzhou Bailian Airport has meet the national 4D standards, flight courses to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Chongqing and Haikou etc has been open, and Guilin Liangjiang International Airport is only 1.5 hour away from Liuzhou by car.
Liuzhou is the logistic center of commerce & Business in Southwest China.
Liuzhou has been the distributing center of goods in Southwest China in history and has won the title ¡°Business Center in Guagnxi¡±for long. By far, Liuzhou has established all kinds of large-sized wholesale market concerning automobile and its share parts, steel material, building material, agricultural products and daily articles etc. the Sugar Wholesale Market is the biggest physical sugar transaction market in China, and the sugar price in Liuzhou determines the that in China. The production of sugar in Guangxi takes up 2/3 of that in China, and 2/3 of sugars produced in Guangxi are sold and distributed out in Liuzhou. In 2004, Liuzhou was listed in Forbes¡¯¡°2004 Chinese Best Business Cities¡±. Together with the establishment and development of China-ASAN Free Trade Zone, Liuzhou, as a city located in the key approach to the ASAN as well as a significant communication access to the sea, is expected to be the manufacturing & trade base as well as the logistics center between Chinese inland and the ASAN, to be a significant modern territorial logistics center and trade center.
Liuzhou is the National Historical & Cultural City as well as Excellent Tourism City In China.
Liuzhou is the birthplace of ancestors in South China. Liujiang People and Bailiang Cave People lived there even 50 thousand years ago. Liuzhou was set up in the West Han Dynast over 2,100 years ago. Liu Zongyuan, a famous and great intellectual in ancient Chinese history, was assigned by the Emperor to govern Liuzhou and stayed his rest life here, and his temple, tomb as well as some epigraphs scribed by him are fully and completely protected here.
Liuzhou city is encircled by green mountains and embraced by Liu Jiang River, and thus wins the glorious title¡ª¡°The World¡¯s Best Natural Bonsai¡±. Some talented and famous poets in history praised Liuzhou city greatly in their poems, such as ¡°Trees over trees cover nearly everything, winding rivers bends itself beautifully¡± by Liu Zongyuan, and ¡° Thousands of peaks stand around the city, Flowing river embraces the town¡± by Xu Xiake, which is vivid depiction of the Liuzhou city¡¯s charming sceneries. Liuzhou is also known as the ¡°Stone Capital in China¡± since ¡°Stones in Liuzhou are the oddest and most unique all over China¡±. Liuzhou, as the hometown of Liu Sanjie (a famous and popular folk song singer in history), is also the grand place where folk songs are extremely popular. Liuzhou commands unique and special folk features and traditions, ¡°Zhang people¡¯s song, Yao People¡¯s dance, Miao people¡¯s festivals and Dong people¡¯s house¡± are well-known as the ¡°Top 4 uniqueness¡±, and the Chengyang Rian & Wind Bridge in as well as the Drum-town house in Sanjiang county also enjoys world-wide praise and fame.
Liuzhou is also an experiment city of ¡°City Planning, Management and Development in 21st Century¡± in China by United Nations Development Program. In the past 5 years, Liuzhou has invested moe than 30 billion RMB totally in the construction of city infrastructure and eco-system, developing the city to be a modern city that is suitable both for living and establishing business. The water quality of Liu Jiang River ranked first all over Guagnxi according to the water quality assessing held last year, and the good rate of air quality in the city area reached 96.2%. Premier Wen Jiabao investigated Liuzhou in October 2006, during his visit, he praised Liuzhou greatly¡ª¡°Liuzhou is a city commanding green mountains, clean water and excellent environment¡± and regarded ¡°Liu Jiang River as the most valuable brand of Guangxi which is absolutely unique all over China¡±.
At present, Liuzhou comes across the most promising developing opportunity since the opening and reforming. In the past five years, the annual economic increasing rate surpasses 14%. In 2007, the total output value all over Liuzhou reached 73.88 billion RMB and per capital GDP was over 20 thousand RMB, 16.5% higher; the financial revenue amounted to 11.64 billion RMB, 22.3% higher; gross industrial output value was 138.91 billion RMB, 24.8% up; the overall investment in fixed assets amounted to 30.55 billion RMB, up 52.2%; per capital disposable income was 12,866 RMB, 16.9% higher; net income of farmers reached 3,390 RMB, 16.4% higher. By far, the industrialization rate and urbanization in Liuzhou are separately 50.63% and 47.13%.
The coming years offers a critical period for Liuzhou to fasten industrialization and urbanization as well as to carry out the full construction of well-being society. Liuzhou will, follow ¡°One Guideline¡±, concentrate efforts on ¡°Two Initiative¡±, achieve ¡°Three together¡±, build up ¡°Four Famous Cities¡±, and finally fulfills scientific and leaping development. This means, Liuzhou will stick to the overall developing guideline that ¡°strengthen the city by industry, prosper Liuzhou via enriching its citizens¡±; concentrate on the goal to take the initiative to achieve industrialization and urbanization in Guangxi; paying efforts on protecting environment while developing economy, cultivating a city suitable for living while constructing a city of prosperity and increasing people¡¯s living standard while developing the social economy; pay efforts to build up a well-known industrial city, a well-known historical city, a well-known cultural city and a well-known tourism city. Liuzhou will develop itself to be an industrial eco-city as well as a city that is suitable for both living and establishing business. It aims at increasing its gross output value reaching 120 billion RMB, gross industrial output value 240 billion RMB, industrialization rate reaching 53% and urbanization 50% in 2010.
