Shaoguan City is located in the north of Guangdong Province, bordering in the north on Chunzhou of Hunan, and Ganzhou of Jiangxi, with Guangzhou and Huizhou to the south. So it is called the North Gate of Guangdong. It exercises jurisdiction over 3 districts-Beijiang, Wujiang and Zhenjiang-5 counties-Qujiang, Renhua, Wengyuan, Xinfeng-Ruyuan Yao Autonomous County, with mandate of Lechang City and Nanxiong City. The Municipality is seated in Fengdubei Road, Beijiang District. The whole area is 1.8385 million hectares. The population in the end of 2001 was 0.53 million.

Shaoguan is an important historical cultural city of Guangdong. Since it was set up as Qujiang County in the Han Dynasty(111BC) the urban district of Shaoguan has witnessed over 2100 years. In 265 AD there was Shixing Prefecture in the place, with jurisdiction over 6 counties like Qujiang and Shixing (in a scope of the North Region of Guangdong today). In 589 AD Shixing was named Shaozhou, for there was Shaoshi Mountain, a scenic spot. The name got stuck in the dynasties afterwards. Shaozhou was reputed in history as "Famous Prefecture of Lingnan", occupying an important position in the development history of Lingnan. Shaozhou (Shixing Prefecture) was the most important pass for Central China to the coast areas in South China. In early period of history it was a production base of agriculture, forestry and minerals and a military key position. The agricultural economy was fairly developed in the Han Dynasty, and it was a well-known metallurgical center in the Tang and Song Dynasty, and in the Ming and the Qing Dynasty it was an important place for tax collection; the commerce and trade were very prosperous.

The topography is hilly in the main, with big and small rivers crisscrossing. There was certain ratio of valley basins. There is clear-cut difference in the four seasons. The hot and cold seasons are short, with pleasant weather. It is bestowed with rich natural resources, making it a famous homeland of non-ferrous metals, key forest area, production base of bamboo. It was reputed as the species gene bank of South China and the eco-protection screen of the Pearl River Delta.

Shaoguan City is a production base of heavy industry of Guangdong, with prominence of metallurgy and energy. The major industrial products are: iron and steel, non-ferrous metals, electric power, coal, minerals, cement, machinery, electrical machinery, food and textile. The agricultural base is very strong: the counter-season pollution-free vegetables, fine quality rice, timber, bamboo, sugar canes, tobacco and local products like dried mushrooms, tea leaves, winter bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, preserved duck are well-known.

With the long history, the City has numerous relics and there are beautiful scenery in many places, thus it is called "a collection of scenes in South China" and it is appraised as "Fine Tourist City of China". The major cultural spots are: the site of Maba Man, the site of Shijia culture, dinosaur fossils in Nanxiong, Nanhua Temple, Yunmen Temple, Legend Temple, Zhuji Lane, Hakka Round House, Fengcai Building, Zhang Jiuling's Tomb, Three Shadows Pagoda, Shuangfeng Stockade Village, Bibei Yao Village. The major natural scenes are: Danxia Mountain, Shaoshi Mountain, Golden Rooster Ridge, Meiling Ridge, Cheba Ridge, Ancient Buddha Crag, Tongtianluo, Xiaokeng, Nanhua Hot Spring, Nanshui Lake, Nine Rapids and Eighteen Shoals (for drifting), etc. In 2001, there were 3.50 million person times of tourists.

Shaoguan is an important pivot of highway communication in South China, an important land passage of areas north of Central and East China to the coastal areas in South China. Beijing-Guangzhou Railway, Beijing-Zhuhai Expressway, State Highways 106, 323 and Beijiang waterway run across the area. The distance of Guangzhou-Shaoguan Expressway is only 198 km. The traffic mileage of the city is about 9,000 km. The cities and villages are joined by highways: cement-paved highways connect counties and townships, villages are interconnected with highways.
There is a modern communication network of railways, highways and waterways organically connected.

The capacity of program-controlled telephones is over 0.70 million, 0.52 million users of fixed telephones, mobile telephone net and broadcast paging cover the cities and villages with users of 0.20 million and 0.17 million respectively. The installed capacity is 1.85 million KW, with a generation capacity of 7 billion KWHs annually, and transmitted power of over 2 billion KWHs. The capacity of running water supply is about 0.80 million cubic meters. There is plenty supply of water and power.

The Municipality lays emphasis and encourages foreign investment, formulating fairly preferential policies to draw foreign fund to the industrial parks, modern manufacturing industries, power industry, urban construction, export-oriented green farming, and tourism. Yuebei Industrial Development District and Economic Belt on Expressways have been set up. Foreign investment and exploration are encouraged.

Foreign Investment Enterprise Service Center has been set up to provide 'streamlined services", There are five port loading points, two container truck inspection factories, and one import container port. Export and import goods may be stored, transferred, inspected at Shaoguan. The railway port may reach Hong Kong. Joint shipment by air, land and water may be done in containers to various places in the world. There are container truck caravans at the highway port going direct to Hong Kong.

In recent years, great amount of foreign fund have flown into Shaoguan, over US$ 400 million annually, of which half was outside the territory. Since 1995, foreign fund in actual employ has reached over US$1 billion, making the city a hot spot for foreign investment. In 2001, there were about a thousand enterprises with foreign investment, foreign fund enterprises have become an important component part of the local economy.
Shaoguan people warmly welcome compatriots from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and foreign friends to visit and invest, we are in good earnest to provide the best service..

Contact telephones: (area code )0751-

Office of the People's Government of Shaoguan: 8884114 Fax: 8883558

Foreign Investment Enterprise Service Center: 8915681 Fax: 8913856

Foreign Trade and Economy Cooperation Bureau: 8883451 Fax: 8876021

Economy and Trade Bureau: 8884837 

Agriculture Bureau: 8885744 Fax: 8897468

Yuebei Industrial Development District: 8280323 Fax:8280322

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