Economy

In 2014, the GDP of Shijiazhuang reached CNY(RMB) ￥510.02 billion (about $80.45 billion in USD), an increase of 12 percent over the previous year.Shijiazhuang has become a major industrial city in North China and is considered to be the economic center of Hebei province. The city is a major base for the pharmaceutical and textile industries. Other sectors include machinery and chemicals, building materials, light industry and electronics. With abundant agricultural resources, Shijiazhuang has 590,000 hectares of cultivated land and is the main source of cotton, pears, dates and walnuts in Hebei province.In 2008, total imports reached US$1.393 billion, an increase of 42.1 percent over the previous year. Exports increased by 34.9 percent to US$5.596 billion.2006 World Bank reported that Shijiazhuang was spending less than RMB400 per capita on education, as opposed to Beijing (RMB1,044) and Weihai (RMB1,631).Development zonesShijiazhuang High-Tech Industrial Development ZoneThe zone was established in March 1991 as a state-level development zone and is divided into three districts. National highways 107, 207, 307, 308 pass through the zone. It is 15 km (9.3 mi) away from Shijiazhuang Railway Station, 105 km (65 mi) away from Tianjin Port. Industries include pharmaceuticals, electronic information, mechanical production, automobile manufacturing, chemicals production and logistics.The Eastern District, located in the eastern part of Shijiazhuang, covers an area of 5.8 km2 (2.2 sq mi), and serves as the primary section of the New High-tech Industrial Development Zone. The district focuses on the establishment of new high-tech enterprises. There are plans to expand the district into an area of 9.8 km2 (3.8 sq mi). A railway line operated by Shijiazhuang Oil Refinery runs through the zone from north to south, so enterprises in the zone can build lines of their own.The Western District, located in the southwest of Shijiazhuang, covers an area of 8.2 km2 (3.2 sq mi). It focuses on small- and medium-sized technology enterprises and technology incubation. Liangcun District, which borders the Western District, covers 4 km2 (1.5 sq mi), and focuses on the pharmaceutical industry and the petrochemical industry.By 2009, some 2,600 enterprises had settled in the zone, of which 185 were foreign-funded enterprises. Firms from Japan, the US, the Republic of Korea, Germany, Italy, Canada, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan had established themselves in the zone.Dairy centreThe city is a centre for the dairy trade, being the headquarters of the Sanlu Group. Sanlu became Shijiazhuang's largest taxpayer since it had become the largest formula seller in China for a continuous 15-year period. Richard McGregor, author of The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers, said that Sanlu became "an invaluable asset for a city otherwise struggling to attract industry and investment on a par with China's premier metropolises."Both the dairy trade and Sanlu were affected by the 2008 Chinese milk scandal. The chairman and general manager of Sanlu, and several party officials, including the vice-mayor in charge of food and agriculture, Zhang Fawang, were reportedly removed from office. Mayor Ji Chuntang reportedly resigned on 17 September.

Geography

Shijiazhuang is located in south-central Hebei, and is part of the Bohai Economic Rim. Its administrative area ranges in latitude from 37° 27' to 38° 47' N, and the longitude 113° 30' to 115° 20' E. The prefecture-level city reaches a 148 kilometres (92 mi) north-south extent and a 175 kilometres (109 mi) wide from east to west. The prefecture has borders stretching 760 kilometres (472 mi) long and covers an area of 15,722 square kilometres (6,070 sq mi). Bordering prefecture-level cities in Hebei are Hengshui (E), Xingtai (S), and Baoding (N/NE). To the west lies the province of Shanxi.The city stands at the edge of the North China Plain, which rises to the Taihang Mountains to the west of the city, and lies south of the Hutuo River (Chinese: 滹沱河; pinyin: Hūtuó hé). From west to east, the topography can be summarised as moderately high mountains, then low-lying mountains, hills, basin, and finally plains. Out of the eight east–west routes across the Taihang Mountains, the fifth, the Niangzi Pass, connects the city directly with Taiyuan, Shanxi.The mountainous part of the prefecture consists of parts of:Jingxing Mining DistrictJingxing CountyZanhuang CountyXingtang CountyLingshou CountyYuanshi CountyLuquan DistrictThe Hutuo River Basin in the east juts into:Xinle CityWuji CountyShenze CountyJinzhou CityGaocheng DistrictGaoyi CountyZhao CountyLuancheng DistrictZhengding CountyThe metropolitan area and its suburbs, in their entiretyAll of the divisions mentioned in the above list, except for Jingxing Mining DistrictClimate[edit]The city has a continental, monsoon-influenced semi-arid climate (Köppen BSk), characterised by hot, humid summers due to the East Asian monsoon, and generally cold, windy, very dry winters that reflect the influence of the Siberian anticyclone.[citation needed] Spring can see sandstorms blowing in from the Mongolian steppe, accompanied by rapidly warming, but generally dry, conditions. Autumn is similar to spring in temperature and lack of rainfall. January averages −2.3 °C (27.9 °F), while July averages 26.8 °C (80.2 °F); the annual mean is 13.38 °C (56.1 °F). With the monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 45 percent in July to 61 percent in May, the city receives 2,427 hours of sunshine annually. More than half of the annual rainfall occurs in July and August alone.

History

The oldest name of the city was Shiyi. In pre-Han times (i.e., before 206 BC), it was the site of the city of Shiyi in the state of Zhao, and from Han (206 BC–AD 220) to Sui (581–618) times it was the site of a county town with the same name. With the reorganization of local government in the early period of the Tang dynasty (618–907), the county was abolished. Shijiazhuang then became little more than a local market town, subordinated to the flourishing city of Zhengding (modern Zhengding) a few miles to the north.The growth of Shijiazhuang into one of China's major cities began in 1905, when the Beijing–Wuhan (Hankou) railway reached the area, stimulating trade and encouraging local farmers to grow cash crops. Two years later the town became the junction for the new Shitai line, running from Shijiazhuang to Taiyuan, Shanxi. The connection transformed the town from a local collecting centre and market into a communications centre of national importance on the main route from Beijing and Tianjin to Shanxi and later, when the railway from Taiyuan was extended to the southwest to Shaanxi as well. The city also became the centre of an extensive road network.Pre-World War II, Shijiazhuang was a large railway town as well as a commercial and collecting centre for Shanxi and regions farther west and for agricultural produce of the North China Plain, particularly grain, tobacco, and cotton. By 1935 it had far outstripped Zhengding as an economic centre. At the end of World War II the character of the city changed when it took on an administrative role as the preeminent city in western Hebei, and developed into an industrial city. Some industries, such as match manufacturing, tobacco processing, and glassmaking, had already been established before the war.On November 12, 1947, the city was captured by Communist forces. In 1948, the city, formerly known as Shímén (石門), was renamed Shijiazhuang.Xibaipo, a village about 90 km (56 mi) from downtown Shijiazhuang, in Pingshan County was the location of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the headquarters of the People's Liberation Army during the decisive stages of the Chinese Civil War between May 26, 1948 and March 23, 1949, at which point they were moved to Beijing. Today, the area is a memorial site.After 1949, the industrialisation of the city gathered momentum. Its population more than tripled in the decade 1948–58. In the 1950s, the city experienced a major expansion in the textile industry, with large-scale cotton spinning, weaving, printing, and dyeing works. In addition there are plants processing local farm produce. In the 1960s it was the site of a new chemical industry, with plants producing fertilizer and caustic soda. Shijiazhuang also became an engineering base, with a tractor-accessory plant. There are important coal deposits at Jingxing and Huailu, now named Luquan, a few miles to the west in the foothills of the Taihang Mountains, which provide fuel for a thermal-generating plant supplying power to local industries.In 1967, Tianjin was again carved out of Hebei, remaining a separate entity today, and thus the provincial capital was moved to Baoding. It was chaotic in the midst of the Cultural Revolution, and under the direction of Mao Zedong, in 1968, to "prepare for war and natural disasters", Shijiazhuang became the provincial capital.