Being the capital city of Hubei Province, Wuhan is an important central city in China and the political, economic, scientific & technological, cultural and financial center in inland China. The third longest river of the world, the Yangtze River, and its longest branch, the Han River, cross here and divide the city into three parts, Hankou, Hanyang and Wuchang. There are 13 administrative districts in the city. It covers an area of 8,467 square kms and has a population of 8.31 million.

Wuhan has been known as the 'Thoroughfare to Nine Provinces'. Since it is about 1,000 kilometers away from Shanghai in the east, Chongqing in the west, Guangzhou in the south and Beijing in the north, the megalopolis is definitely aimed to be the center of China's economic geography.

Since the opening to the outside world, Wuhan has developed very quickly and the economy has kept a continual and steady growth. The scale and comprehensive strength of the economy have largely increased after it was approved to be the opening city along the Yangtze River in 1992. The average economy growth from 1992-1998 reached 16%, which is above the average level of the province and country. For several years, Wuhan has been ranked No.6 in the top 50 cities of China for comprehensive economic strength. The GDP of 2001 reached 134.8 billion RMB, grew by 12% than that of last year. The accomplished fixed asset investment of the society was 50.1 billion RMB, an increase of 10.1%.

As one of the biggest commercial centers in inland China, Wuhan has strong commercial distribution ability. It has a vast potential market. There are about 1 million commercial organizations in the city. 3 commercial groups and 3 department stores were ranged within the top 100 largest commercial groups in the country. Supermarket and chain stores grew fast. There are altogether 800 various kinds of commodity transaction markets. The financial departments of the city operated smoothly and the capacity of resisting the risk has been enhanced. Banks and securities exchange networks are dotted all over the city. Up to now, there are 2 foreign funded banks opened their branches here, and 7 more have setup the representative offices. The financial radiation and service capacity of the city have been improved.

Being the technology, culture and education center in central China, the comprehensive technology research and education strength of Wuhan is ranked third in the country, just following Beijing and Shanghai. There are 30 universities, 736 scientific research institutes and 10 state level labs. The city has a solid education and technology research basis with completed facilities and strong technology supporting capacity. There are 45 academicians of China Academy of Science and China Academy of Technology in Wuhan together with more than 400 thousand professional technicians. The state level Opt electric Information Industry Base of China is in Wuhan. Wuhan China Optical Valley has become a competent brand in the competence among the large cities in the world. In the new millennium, Wuhan will continually promote the development of industry and city function, to establish a sustainable economic development model. We will concentrate on the development of telecom, IT, biology engineering, new medicine, integration of the optical, machinery and electricity, new material, laser, software, etc. At the same time, we will transform the existed iron and steel, automobile and machinery industry, finally change Wuhan into an important high-tech industry base in the country.

Wuhan takes great advantage of water supply and power supply. Yangtze River, the third largest river of the world and its largest branch, Hanjiang River intersects at Wuhan, where there are 189 lakes located. The average water resource per person of Wuhan stands at the head of the large cities in the world.

Having abundant human cultural and tourist resources, Wuhan is also a famous city in Chinese history and culture as well as a city with beautiful scenes of hills, water and parks. The famous Yellow Crane Tower, The Guiyuan Temple, East Lake Scenic Zone are all located in Wuhan. The famous 1911 revolution also took place in Wuhan. Wuhan is also the transit city to the famous Three Gorges.

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