(1)外文名称: Nanning City (Guangxi)
    (2)中文名称: 南宁市（广西壮族自治区）
    (3)内容:
                             Nanning City
                (Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region)
                Home of People of Zhuang Ethnic Group
     Nanning City has a long history. It has been an important town in China's southern border since ancient times. A prefecture was set up here in the Eastern Jin Dynasty in 318 AD, dating back to some 1,600 years ago. On December 4, 1949, Nanning was liberated and was established as a city which was directly under the jurisdiction of the Guangxi provincial government.
     In 1950, Nanning was chosen as the capital of the province. On March 5, 1958, the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region was established and Nanning became the capital of the autonomous region. Now it is the  region's political, economic, financial, cultural, scientific and technological, educational and information center.
     Nanning has jurisdiction over 5 cites, that is, Xingning, Xincheng, Yongxin, Jiangnan and 2 counties, namely, Yongning and Wuming, as well as a suburban district. It covers a total area of 10,029 square kilometers, including an urban area of 75.3 square kilometers.
     Nanning has many ethnic minorities. In 1995, the city's total population stood at 2.7318 million, including an urban population of 1.2186 million. Besides the Han group, the region has 35 ethnic minorities, mainly including Zhuang, Miao, Yao, Dong, Mulao and Maonan. The Zhuang group accounts for 63.2% of the city's population.
                 Enormous Potentials for Economic Takeoff
     Nanning is located in the southern part of Guangxi, which faces the Beibu Bay with back to the vast southwestern part of the country. It is also near Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao.
     The city is 104 kilometers from the Qinzhou Port and 173 kilometers from the Fangcheng  Port. It lies at the juncture of three railways of Xianggui, Qiangui and Lizhan.
     When the whole Nanning-Kunming Railway opened to traffic in 1977, the city became the hub of the vast south'western region's passage to the sea. It is only 200 kilometers from the important border town of the  Friendship Pass.
     Guangxi borders on Vietnam along a 1,020-kilometer borderline. The Yongjiang River is a tributary of the Xijiang River, which is the main stream of the Pearl River.
     Upon completion of the second-phase renovation project of the Xijiang River in 1997, ships of 1,000 DWT can sail through to Hong Kong  and Macao.
     Nanning lies in the south of the Tropic of Cancer and belongs to the subtropical monsoon zone which brings sunshine and plenty of rainfall. Its average rainfall reaches 1,300 mm a year. The advantageous natural conditions make the place rich in the production of farm and sideline products including rice, corn, peanuts, sesame, green soy beans, black soy beans, cassava, bluish dogbane, bamboo wood, silkworm cocoon, tea, dried ginger and anise.
     The city turns out 40 varieties of fruits including bananas, pineapples, oranges and tangerines, litchi, longan and  water chestnut. Its forest coverage reaches 266,000 hectares.
     Nanning has by now proven more than 20 types of minerals including coal, iron, manganese, copper, lead, tungsten, nickel, cobalt, gold, aluminum, phosphorus, tin, plaster stone, barite and quartz sand. Many of these minerals are of high quality and can be developed.
     The city is rich in water resources. Its power supply is mainly provided by the Xijin Hydroelectric Power Station and the Dahua Hydroelectric Power Station. The terraced hydroelectric power stations with a combined generating capacity of 12 million kilowatts on the Hongshui River is under construction, which will ensure sufficient energy supply of energy to the city.
               Rising Momentum for Economic Prospect
     With the deepening of the reform and open-up drive, Nanning's economic development is gaining increasing momentum. In 1994, its total GDP  was quadrupled six years ahead of schedule to reach 13.61 billion yuan. As a result, it became the first city of the autonomous region to exceed 13 billion yuan in total GDP. In 1995, its GDP  topped 17.038 billion yuan, up 16.23% over the previous year, ranking first in the region.
    The city has made new progress in both the open-up drive and export-oriented economic development.  In 1995, its total import and export volume hit 897 million U.S. dollars, up 43.65% over the  previous year. It has also recorded fast development in infrastructure construction.
     The outlook of the city has been further improved and the urban administration tightened. In 1995, Nanning stepped up urban construction for the purpose of establishing the hub of passage to the sea for the vast southwestern part of the country.
     The city launched 29 construction projects in 1995 with a total investment of 856 million yuan. It has made breakthroughs in a number of urban infrastructure projects. New headway has also been made in the development of the post and telecommunications sector.
     It has newly set up 6 agencies of postal services and increased 82 postal carriage vehicles. It  has also set up an express mail bureau and opened to traffic the autonomous region's longest express mail route from Nanning to Wuzhou.
     Moreover, it invested 500 million yuan in building telecommunications facilities. It has a telephone exchange capacity of 220,000 lines, in addition to 33,400 sets of mobile telephones and 200,000 beepers.
     Nanning has opened to service the satellite geological station in the directions of Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Guangzhou and Shenyang.  The telephone services of Yongning and Wuming have been connected to the telephone network of Nanning City.
     The scale of post and telecommunications and technology available in the city have been greatly upgraded.
     Nanning is one of the country's pilot cities in reforming the comprehensive economic system and also a pilot city in optimizing the capital structure.
    It has been approved by the State as one of the coastal cities to open wider to the outside world. In 1991, it ranked among the country's "top 500 cities" in terms of comprehensive economic strength.
    In 1995, Nanning was chosen as the "National Hygienic City" and one of the country's "excellent cities in terms of comprehensive environmental treatment."