Major Economic indicators (2007)

Source: Tongling Economic and Social Development Report 2007

Introduction

Tongling is seated in the mid-southern part of Anhui Province. Standing along the Yangtze River, the city neighbors Chaohu to the north, Wuhu to the east, Chizhou to the southwest and Anqing to the west. Mount Jiuhua Scenic Area, the most famous tourist attraction in Anhui, and Mount Huangshan are situated north of Tongling. Having a subtropical monsoon climate, the city enjoys temperate and humid weather. The average temperature is around 16 Celsius.

Lying in central Anhui Province between Wuhan, Shanghai, Nanjing and Jiujiang, Tongling serves as a transportation hub. Tongling Port, a large inland port, has a 5,000-tonnage wharf. The Nanjing-Tongling Railway, the Shanghai-Chongqing Railway and the Beijing-Fuzhou Highway run through the city, connecting it with other major cities in the mainland. Hefei Luogang Airport, 130 km from Tongling's downtown, offers daily flights to large domestic cities such as Beijing, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Haikou and Hangzhou, as well as flights to Inchon in South Korea.

Tongling is known as the ancient copper capital in China because of its long history of copper mining and its rich copper deposits. Tongling has over 1.7 million tons of copper reserves, accounting for 70% of Anhui's total. It is also rich in iron ore, gold, silver, limestone and sulfur reserves.

Economic Features

Tongling is the fourth smallest economy out of the 17 prefecture-level cities in Anhui Province in terms of GDP in 2007. The city's GDP grew 15.1% from a year earlier to RMB 28.7 billion in 2007, comprising 3.9% of Anhui's economy.

The industrial sector, the largest contributor to the city's economy, generated RMB 19.4 billion in value-added output in 2007, accounting for 67.8% of the city's GDP. The value-added industrial output from enterprises with designated size and above hit RMB 16.8 billion, making up nearly 95% of the city's total value-added industrial output.

Copper mining and dressing, raw chemicals and chemical products and construction materials are the pillar industries in the city. The gross industrial output value from these industries amounted to RMB 477.8 billion in 2007, constituting 81.8% of that from the city. The city produced over 0.4 million tons of copper, accounting for over 80% of Anhui's total copper output.

Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group, China Trinity Group and Tong Feng Electronics are the leading enterprises in Tongling. Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group, set up in 1992, is a large copper miner and copper products manufacturer in China. Its annual copper cathode production capacity surpassed 0.8 million tons in 2008. The group's sales revenue hit RMB 37.3 billion in the same year. China Trinity Group, founded in 1996, specializes in the manufacture of extrusion tools and equipment, packaging moulds and equipment, and automobile moulds. The assets of this group exceeded RMB 800 million in 2007.

The service sector, which accounted for 29.5% of the city's GDP in 2007, is the second largest contributor. In 2007, the value-added output from this sector was RMB 8.5 billion, representing a growth of 12.3% over the previous year. The logistics sector realized value-added output of RMB 1.9 billion in 2007 and comprised 22.4% of the total value-added output from the service sector.

The foreign trade value in the city rose 32.8% year on year to US$2.9 billion in 2007, accounting for 18.2% of Anhui Province's total foreign trade value. The export value sunk 58.7% year on year to RMB 203.7 million, while the import value soared 59.2% year on year to US$2.7 billion. Major export products are copper-related products, and electronic and mechanical products. The U.S., the E.U., Japan and Australia remain the largest foreign trade partners of Tongling.

The utilized FDI in the city reached US$115 million, with a rise 15.0% from 2006. Itochu and Sumitomo from Japan set up a joint venture, namely Jinlong Copper, with Tongling Nonferrous Metals in 1992 with investment of RMB 2.3 billion. Jinlong Copper is capable of producing 150,000 tons of high-grade cathodes and 500,000 tons of sulphuric acids annually.

Cultural Highlights

Tongling is one of the birthplaces of China's bronze-age culture. Copper mining and smelting in Tongling started in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties and was booming in the Tang and Song Dynasties. Bronze culture in Tongling is over 3,000 years old. Tongling was under the control of different administrative agents, such as Zhang Shire in the Qin Dynasty, Tongguan Town in the Eastern Han Dynasty and Nanling County in the Sui Dynasty. In 1971, Tongling City was set up.

Tourist Attractions

Tongling has many ancient copper smelting sites and a large number of ancient bronze cultural relics, which provide tourists an opportunity to become familiar with China's bronze culture. The city also enjoys many beautiful scenic spots, such as Tianjing Lake, River Dolphin Nature Reserve and Luosi Mountain. River Dolphin Nature Reserve is famous for the Baiji Dolphin (also known as Yangtze River Dolphin). In addition to the dolphins, there are also giant salamanders, Japanese brocade carp, Yangtze alligators and Chinese sturgeon in the reserve.

The city has many delicious local snacks, such as Ya Xue Soup (cooked with rice noodles and duck), Spicy and Salty Pig Feet, Braised Duck and Chicken Soup Noodle, which are worth tasting.

Honors

National Garden City (2008)
---Ministry of Construction of P.R. China