Major Economic Indicators (2010)
Jilin City shares the same name with Jilin Province, and is a prefectural-level city. It is the second-largest city of the province in terms of population.
Jilin is located at the center of the province, 100 km away from the provincial capital Changchun, in the east. The Changchun-Jilin Highway connects Jilin easily with Changchun. In addition to Changchun, Jilin is 220 km away from Harbin, and 340 km away from Shenyang.
Jilin has plenty of hydraulic power and water resources. Its water reserve is 1.8 times of the national average level. Jilin also has the nation's second-largest mine of molybdenum, the reserve of which accounts for 20.9% of the country's total.
Jilin was set up as a city in 1671. It later became a military headquarters of the surrounding area, and has developed at a rapid pace since then. Kangxi, once an emperor of the Qing Dynasty, occasioned once to make his rounds to Jilin. Drawing inspiration from a poem that Kangxi had written, Jilin has been called the "River City in Northland" since that time. Later in the Qing Dynasty, Jilin eventually became the provincial capital of Jilin Province, until Changchun took this position in 1956.
The major ethnic minorities in Jilin include people Manchu, Korean and Mongolian descent. Benefiting from the abundant, local natural resources and the different cultures, varieties of handcrafts are created, including root carvings, Manchu paper-cuts, wood carvings, bark drawing, et cetera.
Once the thriving centre of the surrounding area, Jilin is home to many historical, scenic spots, such as the Jilin Wen Temple, which is the largest Confucian Temple in North-East China, and the North Mountain Temple Group, which embodies the architectural styles from Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. The Jilin rime ice is the most famous natural tourist destination of Jilin, and may be viewed from November to February. It has the characteristics of having the longest duration, the highest quantity and the lowest density of the rime among all the rime in China. Jilin Meteorite, the largest stone meteorite in the world, is also very popular with tourists within this city.
Jilin Cuisine utilizes the catering cultures of the Manchu, Korean and Mongolian minorities. Famous dishes are banquets with food from Changbai Mountain, deer meat cooked in an earthenware pot, and steamed whitefish from the Songhua River.
By the end of 2010, Jilin had one state-level development zone.
Source: National Development and Reform Commission
Historic and Cultural City of China (2006)-State Council
Top 1 Place for Setting up Factory (2005)-Forbes
China Charming City (2004)-CCTV
National Garden City (2003)-Ministry of Construction
