[BACK] 
       
        (1)外文名称: Tianjin City
       (2)中文名称: 天津市
       (3)内容: Tianjin City

    Tianjin is one of the Chinese municipalities directly under
the administration of the Central Government. As the largest industrial and commercial city as well as the largest coastal open city in northern China, it has long enjoyed the reputation as the "Pearl on the Bohai Sea".
Located in the northeastern part of the North China plain,
Tianjin is 120 km east of Beijing and covers an area of 11,919.7 sq km. By the end of 1995, Tianjin had had 9.4183 million permanent residents. The whole of Tianjin is divided
into 13 districts and five counties. Tianjin as a city has a
long history. When the Great Canal was opened in around the year
of 610 in the Sui Dynasty (581-618), Tianjin became a major hub
of transportation linking the river and sea in North China. In
1404 of the Yongle Period of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), Tianjin became to be built as a city called "Tianjinwei". After the 17th century, the scope of urban areas in Tianjin expanded continuously along with further economic and social development in the area. In the middle of the 19th century, troops of the Western imperialist powers landed at Tianjin and
marched on Beijing, forcing the corrupt Qing Dynasty government to declare Tianjin as an open trading port in 1860. From then to 1943, the city was largely under the control of nine foreign
countries. In 1986, it was opened as a trading port for foreign
commercial operations. Since then, its industrial
production and foreign trade have developed rapidly, and Tianjin
has been able to become China's second largest industrial and
commercial city next only to Shanghai and also an economic hub in North China.
   Tianjin is rich in natural resources. It has two priority
oil and natural gas fields of the State -- the Bohai
Sea Oil and Natural Gas Field and the Dagang Oil and Natural Gas
Field which produce more than 5 million tons of crude oil and
650 million cu m of natural gas annually. With a coastline of
more than 130 km, it produces a quarter of China's salt
annually. Under the ground of 72 sq km of Tianjin is a vast
deposit of coal with reserves estimated at 680 million tons, with a coal-containing layer of 530 m in thickness. In an area of hundreds of square kilometers, there exists a source of terrestrial heat that can be developed and utilized, with a total deposit of hot spring of 110.3 billion cu m, whose temperatures range between 30 and 90 degree centigrade. This geothermal source has been the largest medium- and low temperature geothermal field ever discovered in China. Tianjin has 20 types of verified minerals, including manganese, gold, tungsten,
molybdenum and copper. Most of these minerals are worth exploitation. Tianjin covers a total area of land of
1.19197 million ha, including 495,530 ha of cultivated land. Between the city proper and the coastal zone, there exists a barren land area of nearly 200 sq km, where transport conditions are good and development costs are low.
   Tianjin has a solid industrial foundation and a strong
scientific-technological and educational force. It has a
whole range of industrial sectors, which meet high technical standards and have a large capacity for coordination. The city has well established its four priority mainstay industrial sectors - the automobile and machinery equipment industries, electronics and micro-electronic telecommunications equipment industries, marine chemical and petrochemical industries and quality steel pipe and steel products industries. Tianjin is the birthplace of China's marine chemical industry. As a car production base designated by the State, it is capable of building 150,000 Charaade cars annually. It has an extra-large enterprises of the iron and steel industry, the Tianjin Steel Pipe Corporation which is capable of producing 600,000 tons of steel and 500,000 tons of seamless steel pipes annually.
   As one of the major Chinese cities where scientific and technological personnel are concentrated, Tianjin has a number of universities and colleges, including Nankai University, Tianjin University and Tianjin Medical University; more than 900
scientific research and technological development institutions; and more than 600,000 scientific and technological
personnel of various specialties, including more than 300,000
professionals of natural sciences. Among every 10,000 people in Tianjin, 637 are scientific and technological personnel. This
powerful team of scientific and technological personnel score
more than 1,000 outstanding findings in scientific and
technological development annually, one third of which meet
advanced domestic and international standards. In 1988, Tianjin
established a zone of new technology industries, which was then
designated by the Chinese Government as a national development
Zone for high and new technology industries. Now, the zone has more than 2,200 enterprises, which generate 6.194 billion
yuan (Renminbi) of revenue from scientific technological
development, industrial production and trade annually. The
city's 25 colleges and universities have 68,100 students
and its 144 adult colleges and universities have 59,400
students. The 75 secondary technical schools in the
city have 59,700 students and the 672 high schools
have a total of 410,400 students. A total of 18 districts and
counties of Tianjin have basically made the nine-year
compulsory education universal and have also basically eliminated illiteracy among youths and middle-aged people. With complete infrastructure, the Port of Tianjin is the largest comprehensive trading port in northern China, with a total area of 200 sq km and more than 140 berths of various types. Its capacity to handle container transportation is the largest in China. As the largest air cargo transportation center in North China, Tianjin Airport can handle the takeoff and landing of various types of jumbo passenger and cargo
planes. In 1995, it was upgraded to become an international airport. Tianjin is where the Beijing-Harbin Railway and the Beijing-Shanghai Railway meet, which are two of the largest trunk railway lines in China. The Beijing-Kowloon Railway and the Beijing-Shanghai High Speed Railway run through Tianjin. Tianjin has a complete highway network leading to all directions, including the urban highway networks of three ring roads and 14 radius trunk roads. The Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan Expressway directly links the Port of Tianjin and the Tianjin International Airport to Beijing.
   Tianjin has a relatively developed sector of
telecommunications, with the capacity of program-controlled
telephones reaching 1.5 million lines. The whole city
has 1.352 million telephone sets, capable of directly dialing to more than 1,700 cities in China as well as to more than 260 countries and regions. The newly established satellite telecommunications ground stations are capable of directly linking to telecommunications satellites over the Pacific and Indian oceans. The city's generating capacity in Tianjin has reached more than 3.4 million kw, with power output of 12.2 billion kw annually. The total capacity of tap water supply a
day in Tianjin has reached 2.25 million tons, including 1.65
million tons supplied to the urban areas. Approximately 90.8% of the homes in urban areas of Tianjin have access to the supply of gas.
As a member of the first group of major Chinese cities open
to the outside world, Tianjin has improved its investment environment and has become a hot spot attracting foreign investment. Many first rate international financial groups and giant companies have a good prospect of investing in
Tianjin. In particular, a large number of overseas companies,
including Motorola, Otis and Mobil of the U.S., NEC, Honda and
Yamaha of Japan, Siemens, Henkel and Volkswagen of Germany,
Samsang Electronics and Daewoo Electronics of the Republic of Korea, Shell of Britain, Remy Martin of France, Nestle of Switzerland, Zanussi of Italy, Novo Nordisk of Denmark, Chiatai Group of Thailand, and Kerry and Shun Tak of Hong Kong, have established enterprises in Tianjin. By the end of 1995, the
government had approved 9,410 foreign-funded enterprises in Tianjin, with the agreed investment reaching U.S.
$11.705 billion and the actual investment totaling U.S. $7.903 billion.
In the course of opening to the outside world, the
Coastal New Development Zone has been the most vigorously
developed zone in the city. With an area of more than 300 sq km,
the Coastal New Development Zone is located between downtown
Tianjin and the Port of Tianjin, and is rich in petroleum, natural gas and crude salt. In the vicinity of this
zone are the urban infrastructure at Tanggu, Hangu and
Dagang Districts as well as industries bases with petrochemical
and marine chemical industries as their mainstay. In 1995, the
GDP generated by the Coastal New Development Zone reached 24.164
billion yuan (Renminbi).
Established in late 1984, the Tianjin Economic and Technological Development Zone with an area of 33 sq km has more
than 6,000 Sino-foreign joint ventures, Sino-foreign cooperative ventures and wholly foreign-funded enterprises as well as Chinese-financed businesses. When Deng Xiaoping inspected the zone, he wrote an inscription: This development zone is highly hopeful. As a matter of fact, the Tianjin Economic and Technological Development Zone has the largest international trade window in northern China - the Bonded Area of the Port of Tianjin. As the first bonded area approved by the Chinese Government, it has more than 2,700 Sino-foreign joint ventures, Sino-foreign cooperative ventures and wholly foreign-funded enterprises, with the agreed investment reaching U.S. $2.1 billion. The GDP generated by the area and the exports from it both increase at an annual rate of 50%.