Jiangsu province is the derivation of Wuyue and Yangtze River culture of ancient China. The fossil of ape-man discovered in Tangshan Nanjing made civilization in this fertile land trace back to 350, 000 years ago. As early as the Seventh Century AD, during the most prosperous period of Tang Dynasty, Jiangsu was well known for its great contribution to the trade along the famous Silk Road with its jade objects and silk fabrics. Nanjing, the capital city of Jiangsu Province, known as the capital for six dynasties created and developed the Yangtze River civilization in the history of China.
Jiagnsu province locates in the middle latitudes with an annual average temperature of 13.5C and annual rainfall of 800-1200mm. The frost-free period is 200-240 days. The climate here is damp and four seasons are clear. Facing the Pacific Ocean in the east, Jiangsu Province has a coastline of more than 1000km and circled by Zhejiang, Anhui, Shandong provinces and Shanghai. The Huaihe River, the Great Canal and Yangtze River went though the whole province, and the waterway of Yangtze River can lead to the inner China. With many other rivers and lakes and its extensive fertile plains Jiangsu has been called `the land of fish and rice. Jiangsu Province covers an area of 102,600 square kilometers, of which 69% are plains. It has a population of 71.66 million while its population density is 693 persons per square kilometer.
There are 13 municipalities under the jurisdiction of the provincial government namely Nanjing, Zhenjiang, Changzhou, Wuxi, Suzhou, Yangzhou, Nantong, Xuzhou, Lianyungang Yancheng, Huaiyin, Suqian and Taizhou. Under their jurisdiction there are 64 counties and county-level cities. Jiangsu is famous for its shoal exploitation and grain corps growing in the North. While in the South, many cities are just like bright stars well known for their great achievements in the industries of machinery, electronics, chemicals, automotive, textile and tourism.
Jiangsu is an province advanced in education and technology in our country. Its higher education institutions and the educated population ranked among the best of the whole country. Jiangsu carried out the compulsory education of nine years and established a multi-level and multi-type educational system including preschool education, elementary education, vocational education, higher education and adult education. It has more than 70 higher education institutions (over 500 specialties) with undergraduate students of 220,600. It has 200 polytechnic school and 6000 secondary vocational school with undergraduate students of 11 million. As for the adult education, it has all over 7000,000 registered all sorts of institutions and schools. The artistic appreciation of the whole population has been improved rapidly which laid down a solid foundation for the development of the economy and the society.
There are more than five hundreds state owned independent large and medium size scientific and technological research institutions in Jiangsu Province concerning over thirty fields such as agriculture, chemical, electronic, machinery, textile and light industries etc. Also, quite a number of higher education institutions and medium and large size enterprises established their own research institutions over 2000. These research institutions lead the way of technological development of all fields in Jiangsu. Jiangsu has a force of talented technicians numbered 700,000, among which 58 are academicians of Chinese Academy of Science and Chinese Academy of Engineering.
In 1996, 40 projects were honored as the great achievements of the state scientific and technological progress and 317 projects were honored as the great achievements of the province. The total number of signed technology contracts in 1996 is 31000 while their volume is RMB 2.23 billion yuan.
In recent years, Jiangsu government concentrated their efforts in making a favorable investment environment. There are many ports opening to the outside world, including the ports in Lianyungang, Nantong, Zhangjiagang, Nanjing, Zhenjiang, Jiangyin, Yangzhou, Taichang, Changsu and Gaogang, with the total import and export volume of 120 million tons. The airports in Wuxi, Changzhou, Nantong, Lianyungang, Yancheng and Xuzhou have opened up many air routes to other major cities in our country. Nanjing airport has also opened up 38 domestic air routes and the air route plane can fly nonstop to Hong kong. Nanjing Lukou international airport, which will be put into operation this year, will open several air routes which can get directly to major cities in the world so that it will shorten the distance between Jiangsu and the world. Beijing-Shanghai and Longhai railways cross the whole province. Longhai railway is known as " European-Asian continent Bridge" which connects Russia in its west and can get directly to Amsterdam in Holland. Lianyungang is known as the "Eastern Bridge Tower". Jiangsu is stepping into an economic period of continent bridge. As to the road construction, Jiangsu framed a dense net of highways. It takes 3 hours from Nanjing, the capital city of Jiangsu province to Shanghai municipality, the biggest city in our country by Nanjing-Shanghai expressway. Now, several expressways and road bridges crossing the Yangtze River are being constructed. In Jiagnsu, people can get anywhere in the world high-efficiently and conveniently by air, railway or sea.
The communication industry in Jiangsu Province made rapid progress. Its scale, capacity, level of installation, automation and digitization of communication net all have upgraded to a new stage. Its capacity and the total volume of business ranked the second in China. Now a long-distance communication net, whose main body is optical cable and the auxiliary part is digital microwave, has been formed in the province. The provincial wireless BP system, with the largest scale and the most functions has covered all the cities and counties in the province. Also, the movable communication net has covered all the province. Some new services and new business such as information services by telephone are being widely spread. The cable and the wireless communication nets make the province come into an era of information exchanging in high speed. These huge communication nets link Jiangsu with other provinces, even with the world.
The cities set up near the seas, rivers, highways, or railways provide Jiangsu with many convenient conditions which other domestic regions do not enjoy. The densely population with harmonious relations and high quality and the perfect infrastructures support the development of many enterprises. In recent years, more and more foreign enterprises invested in Jiangsu. Some famous international TNCs such as Motorola, Mercedes, Philips, Ericsson, BASF, Mitsubishi and Mitsui also established their branches or Joint Ventures in Jiangsu.
This is an area full of energy and vitality. Also it is a land with honest eastern culture and wonderful future. People living there are hardworking and hospitable
