.jpg "Jinhua")
Jinhua is a prefecture-level city in central Zhejiang province in eastern China. It borders the provincial capital of Hangzhou to the northwest, Quzhou to the southwest, Lishui to the south, Taizhou to the east, and Shaoxing to the northeast. Its population was 5,361,572 at the 2010 census including 1,077,245 in the built-up area made of two urban districts even though Lanxi City is also being calculated soon. One can notice that the cities of Dongyang and Yiwu are now in the same agglomeration, a built-up area of 2,038,413 inhabitants bigger than the one of Jinhua itself.
Jinhua is rich in red soil and forest resources. The Jinhua or Wu River flows through the Lan and Fuchun to the Qiantang River beside Hangzhou, which flows into Hangzhou Bay and the East China Sea. In mediaeval China, it formed part of the water network feeding supplies to the southern end of the Grand Canal. It is best known for its dry-cured Jinhua ham.
History and culture
The history of Jinhua dates back to the 2nd century BC, when it was a county subordinate to Shaoxing. It was given the name Jinhua under the Sui dynasty in ad 598 and later became the seat of a prefecture. The present city and its walls date to the time of the Mongol emperors in 1352.
The most famous native of Jinhua is Huang Chuping, a Daoist holy man of the 4th century and reputed immortal whose descendants still live in the area. Wuyang Shan ("Reclining Sheep Mountain") is said to be a sheep which was turned to stone by Huang, a trick which he learned through his years of diligently studying Daoism.
Economically Jinhua has always prospered from its position as the regional collecting and processing center for agricultural and forestry products (chiefly rice and bamboo). It is currently the second most important grain producing area in Zhejiang. In 1985 Jinhua was promoted to City status, and now is responsible for administering four cities, four counties and a district. Animals raised there include dairy cattle, meat hogs (for the production of Jinhua ham, a famous local product for 900 years) and honeybees. Jinhua's industrial sector has developed more recently, producing machinery, metallurgy, pharmaceuticals, building supplies and electrical and electronic equipment.
The Tang dynasty painter Guan Xiu) was born in Jinhua. He is known for his paintings of Buddhist holy men.
There are numerous scenic and historical sites in the Jinhua region, including many places associated with the Immortal Huang, and a palace of the Dukes of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
Climate
Jinhua has a humid subtropical climate with four distinctive seasons, characterized by hot, humid summers and chilly, cloudy and drier winters (with occasional snow). The mean annual temperature is 17.33 °C (63.2 °F), with monthly daily averages ranging from 5.2 °C (41.4 °F) in January to 29.0 °C (84.2 °F) in July. The city receives an average annual rainfall of 1,450 millimeters (57.1 in) and is affected by the plum rains of the Asian monsoon in June, when average relative humidity also peaks.
Economy
Jinhua has a rather flexible economic system with distinctive economic characteristics in different areas. Its economic structure is largely dependent on private sector activity. 90% of enterprises are in the private sector. Up to 88% of its GDP comes from the private sector.
Industry
A bus made by the local Jinhua Youngman Vehicle factory.
Jinhua enjoys an advanced civilian-owned economy, with its industry mainly supported by processing and manufacturing. Leading industries of the City include clothing and textile, mechanics and electronics, pharmacy and chemistry, manufacturing crafts, metalwork processing architecture and building materials, automobile-and-motorcycle accessories, food processing, plastic ware, etc.
Industries are distributed with different characteristics in different counties or county-level cities. For instance, Yiwu is characterized by its light-industry commodities, Yongkang by its automobile-and-motorcycle accessories and mechanical and electric tools, Dongyang by its clothing, architecture and magnetic materials, the City Proper by its pharmacy, construction materials and industrial measures, Lanxi by its non-ferrous metal, cement, towels and daily chemicals, and Pujiang by its textile, lock making, and lantern ornaments of crystals, etc.
Handicrafts
Traditional handicrafts have been flourishing in Jinhua. The wood carving and bamboo weaving in Dongyang, the straw plaiting, lace purling and crystals carving in Pujiang, and the hardware crafts in Yongkang, all enjoy a long history of development and the products sell well both abroad and at home.
Transportation
Jinhua is approximately three hours by car from Shanghai. There is also the D-train which takes approximately 2.5 hours, or about four hours by ordinary train.
Jinhua enjoys convenient transportation, being the communications center in Southeast China between coastal and inland areas, and one of the major hubs of landway transportation in the country. The Zhejiang-Jiangxi, Jinhua-Wenzhou and Jinhua-Qiandaohu Railways intersect in the City. The Hangzhou-Jinhua-Quzhou Expressway, the Jinhua-Lishui-Wenzhou Expressway, the No. 330 and 320 National Highways, and other provincial highroads, also traverse the area. The city aggregation around Jinhua Proper has formed a "Half-an-Hour's-Ride Economic Circle", there being merely a 90-minute and a 3-hour journey driving from the city to Hangzhou and Shanghai respectively. At present, Yiwu Airport offers airlines destined for Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xiamen, Qingdao, and Hong Kong.
Population: 5.36 million
Temperature: average 17.33 °C (63.2 °F)
