Province View-china.org.cn

Governor: Shi Xiushi

Capital: Guiyang

Government office address: 242 North Zhonghua Road, Guiyang

Tel: 0851-682 5445

Website: www.gzgov.gov.cn

Geographic location

Guizhou is situated on the eastern part of Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau in southwest China. Its total area is 170,000 sq km. On this land of towering mountains and deep valleys, there are over 300 basins which are wide in the middle and narrow in both ends and each covers over 160 ha. The average annual temperature is between 14°C and 16°C.

Guizhou 2004 - The Year in Review

General Economy
Gross domestic product (GDP)	GDP for 2004 was 159.19 billion yuan, up 11.4% from the previous year.
GDP ratio (primary, secondary and tertiary industries)	The primary industry yielded a value added of 33.41 billion yuan, 5.3% more than that of the previous year; the secondary industry, 71.47 billion yuan, a growth of 14.2%; the tertiary industry, 54.31 billion yuan, a growth of 12%.
Revenue and expenditure	Provincial revenue was 29.65 billion yuan, an increase of 25.3% over the previous year. Provincial expenditure was 41.69 billion yuan, an increase of 25.5%.
Consumer price index (CPI)	CPI was up 4.0% from the previous year.
Investment in fixed assets	Fixed asset investment was valued at 86. 71 billion yuan, up by 15% from the previous year.
Major Industries
Agriculture	In 2004, the province's total grain output increased by 4.1% to reach 11.5 million tons.
Industry	The industrial added value totaled 57.46 billion yuan, an increase of 15.9%.
High-tech	High-tech product imports were valued at US$188 million, up by 27.2% from the previous year while the exports were valued at US$128 million, up by 128.4%.
Construction	Its added value was 14 billion yuan, up by 7.7%.
Transportation	The annual volume of goods handled by railway, highway and waterway was 57.01 million tons, up by 10% from the previous year. The volume of goods delivered by air was 41,600 tons, up by 26.4%. The annual passenger flow by railway, highway and waterway reached 27.31 billion, an increase of 12.7%.
Postal services	The annual turnover of postal operations totaled 550 million yuan, 10.4% up from the previous year.
Telecommunications	The annual turnover of telecommunications services totaled 12.84 billion yuan, up by 33.8%.
Retail	The annual turnover from retail sales reached 51.76 billion yuan, an increase of 12.8% from the previous year.
Tourism	Revenue from tourism totaled 16.76 billion yuan, up by 43.5% from the 2003 figure.
Continued Effects of Market Reform
Imports & exports	The annual value of imports and exports totaled US$1.51 billion, 53.8% up from the year before.
Foreign investment	The foreign direct investment which was materialized during the year stood at US$65.33 million, up by 16.1%.
Urban Construction and Management
Road transport	A total of 8,165 km of rural highways was built during the year.
Social Undertakings
Science and technology	A total of 162 scientific achievements above the provincial and ministerial level were made during the year.
Education	The nine-year compulsory education system had covered 82.4% of the school age population by the end of 2004. A total of 403 rural primary and middle schools were newly built and re-built.
Culture	By the end of 2004, the province had a total of 26 arts performance organizations, 84 cultural and arts centers, 90 public libraries, and 10 museums.
Public health	Eight counties began to pilot the reforming program of new rural cooperative medical services.
Sports	At the 28th Olympic Games in Athens in 2004, athletes from the province won a bronze medal.
Welfare and aid	Various welfare units across the province put up 8,700 homeless and vagrant people during the year. There were 3,600 urban community centers at the end of the year. The welfare lottery reaped sales of 235 million yuan in 2004, 25.7% up from the year before. Public donations totaled 11 million yuan, up by 10%.
Population, Employment, Social Security and Living Standards
Population	The birth rate in 2004 was 15.08‰, and the mortality rate was 6.35‰. The natural growth rate of the population stood at 8.73‰. At the end of the year, the total population stood at 39.04 million.
Employment	The employed population stood at 21.86 million, up by 1.9% from the previous year.
Registered unemployment rate	The number of registered unemployed population at the end of the year was 120,000, up by 8.3% from the previous year-end.
Social security	At the end of 2004, the endowment insurance plan had covered a population of 1.75 million, up by 4% from the previous year. About 472,500 urban residents received minimum living allowance from the government.
Residents' income	The disposable income of urban residents was 7,322 yuan per capita, up by 7.7% from 2003. Rural residents' per capita net income was 1,722 yuan, up 5.6%.
Residents' consumption	Urban residents' per capita expenditure was 5,494 yuan, up by 7.4% from the previous year while that of rural residents was 1,296 yuan, up by 5.1%.
Geography and Natural Conditions
Elevation extremes	Tall in the east and low in the west, Guizhou lies over 1,000 meters above sea level.
Natural resources	Guizhou enjoys ample precipitation. Rivers flow through steep terrain, resulting in drastic fall of the waters which gives rise to a hydro-power generating resource of 18.74 million kw, putting the province at the sixth place in the country. The province is also rich in gas stored in coal reserves. The abundant water and coal reserves allow the province to draw up the strategy of developing water and coal energy at the same time. As one of the great reserves of minerals, Guizhou boasts more than 110 kinds of minerals, out of which the amount of reserves of 76 kinds is already known. Guizhou is among the top ten sites in the nation in the reserve of 42 kinds of minerals and the top three in 22 kinds. The province is particularly strong in the reserves of coal, phosphorus, mercury, aluminum, manganese, antimony, gold, barite, raw materials for cement and bricks, as well as dolomite, sandstone and limestone. With a reserve of 241.9 billion tons of coal, Guizhou has been known as "home of coal in south China". Its phosphorus reserve accounts to 44% of the national total while the mercury reserve, after long years of tapping, still makes up 38% of the total amount in the country. The newly discovered gold reserve of 150 tons offers the country another gold production base. Over 3,800 species of wild animals inhabit Guizhou. Out of this figure, over 1,000 kinds are listed as rare species under state protection. More than 3,700 kinds of medicinal herbs, or 80% of the total number of medicinal herbs, are found in Guizhou.
Tourism resources	Guizhou is a newly rising tourist destination. Unique natural scenery, rich ethnic traditions, splendid culture and history as well as pleasant climate draw tourists to the province. Now over 120 tourist sites have been opened including national scenic areas of the Huangguoshu Waterfalls, the Dragon Palace, the Golden Brocade Cave, the Red Maple Lake, the Maling River Valley and the Shizhang Cave on the Chishui River, four national nature reserves (the Fanjing Mountain Botanic Garden, the Maolan Karst Primeval Forest, the Chishui Primeval Forest and the bird reserve at Caohai), eight national cultural relic sites and many villages with distinctive ethnic minority customs and ways of life.