The signing of CEPA and the to-be-built Zhuhai-Hong Kong-Macao Bridge provide an excellent opportunity for the take-off of Jiangmen, mid-south of Guangdong, the No. 1 Overseas Chinese Hometown in China.

The Third (2003) China Overseas Chinese Hometown (Jiangmen) Tourist Festival will be held ceremoniously in Jiangmen's Enping City, the Country of China hot spring on November 25th, according to a press conference held on Wednesday (November 19th).

According to He Xiansong, vice mayor of Jiangmen City, this tourist festival aims to promote tourism, to speed up the infrastructure construction, to strengthen the ties between home and abroad, as well as to improve the investing environment of the city.

Jiangmen is striving to build up a famous tourist resort of the world, he says, and this festival is to mainly highlight hot spring resources of the city.

The main activities in the festival include: 2003 Jiangmen Overseas Chinese Hometown Art Festival, 2003 Jiangmen Overseas Chinese Hometown Food Festival, traveling around the overseas Chinese hometowns, investing environment introduction conference, etc.

New Jiangmen, New Advantages, New Development

Being one of the key cities in the western part of Pearl River Delta (PRD), Jiangmen has its own advantages:

Unique Geographical Advantages

Jiangmen is located in the west of Pearl River Delta, facing South China Sea. It adjoins Hong Kong and Macao in the south and connects with Guangzhou and Fushan in the north, Zhuhai and Zhongshan in the east, Yangjiang and Zhaoqing in the west. It is 100 kilometers away from Guangzhou and Zhuhai by highway. The distance of water transport to Hong Kong and to Macao is 95 and 53 nautical miles respectively. In PRD, Jiangmen has unique geographical advantages and thus becomes a hub of transportation and communicational linking the vast southwestern part of the country and west Guangdong with the PRD and Hong Kong and Macao.

Hometown of Overseas Chinese

Jiangmen is the No. 1 hometown of overseas Chinese. More than 3.6 million overseas Chinese (about one tenth of the country's total), residing in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and 107 countries and regions, were originally from Jiangmen. They have strong ties with their ancestral home and have contributed a great deal to its economic and social development. In the past 20 years, the overseas Chinese and foreign friends have contributed money and things worth of HK$4.7 billion, to help develop the city's cultural, educational and other public facilities.

Sound Industry

Jiangmen has a strong industry foundation and it has already been ranked among the top 50 Chinese cities in respect of their comprehensive strength. In 2002, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Jiangmen reached 66.082 billion yuan and per capita GDP 2090 US dollars.

Excellent Environment

Jiangmen is a city with vast territory. Its land area is about ten thousand square kilometers, one quarter the size of Pearl River Delta.

Jiangmen is rich in natural resources. Hot springs, beach, culture of overseas Chinese and historic and cultural sites have been the four main tourist attractions in Jinagmen.

Jiangmen is called "the land of Hot Springs":

Jinshan Hot Spring

Didu Hot Spring

Taishan Hot Spring

Gudou Hot Spring

Other natural tourist's attractions:

Guifeng Mountain National Forest Park

Shangchuan and Xiachuan Tourist Area

Baishuidai Tourist Spot

Dayan Mountain Scenic Spot,

Bird's Paradise in Xinhui,

Qixingkeng Virgin Forest

Jiangmen also has a variety of historic and cultural sites with the unique style of an overseas Chinese homeland, which are state-class preservation spots of cultural relics.

The former residence of Liang Qichao

Watchtower in Kaiping

There are seven provincial preservation spots of cultural relics:

Yamen Ancient Fort,

Watchtower in Kaiping,

Stone Tower in Longxing Temple,

Zhenshan Pagoda

Last year, Liyuan in Kaiping, Guifeng Mountain Scenic Spot in Xinhui, Jinshan Hot Spring Holiday Village in Enping were rated as 4A scenic spots in China.

 (newsgd.com November 20, 2003)