brief of luoyang

BACK

    Luoyang is situated in Western Henan Province,
and stretches over both the south and north banks
of the Yellow River, "lying in the centre of the earth"
, she is one of the most important places of origin
of Chinese civilization.   The city is named Luoyang
because it lies in the south of the Luo River.
    Luoyang is one of the seven ancient capitals in
China, with one city, eight counties and six urban
districts under its jurisdiction. It has a total area of
15,208 square kilometres, including 544 square
kilometres of urban area, and it has a population of
6.1million, 1.35 million of which are city inhabitants.

Luoyang is blessed with a favorable geographic location and convenient transportation. She enjoys a mild climate with a clear distinction between the seasons. The yearly average temperature is 14.20C, the annual rainfall is 546mm. It neighbours Zhengzhou in the east and Sanmengxia city in the west, on the opposite side of the Yellow River in the north is Jiaozuo, and Pingdingshan. Nanyang lies in the south of the city. Luoyang is 179 kilometres long from east to west and 168 kilometres wide from the south to the north. It is located between 11008'E and 12208'E, 33050'N and 35005'N.

Luoyang's terrain slopes down from west to east in which there are many mountains and hilly lands. Mountain areas occupies 45.5%; hilly land occupies 40.7%; the plain occupies 13.8%.Around Luoyang,there are Yushan, Mangshan, Qingyaoshan, Jingzishan, Zhoushan, Yingshan,Longmenshan, Xiangshan,Wananshan, Shouyangshan, Songshan mountains; more than ten rivers such as the Yellow River, the LuoRiver, theYi River, the Qing River, the Ci River, the Tieluang River, the Jian River and the Chang River all flow in Luoyang: not only does Luoyang enjoy a good name for trafficconvenience but also she enjoys amilitary importance, and thus it has always been an ideal place for kings of many dynasties to build their capitals.

Luoyang is a place filled as many as 32 nationalities, Han nationality has 6.02 million, occupying 98.8%, other minorities amounts to 80 thoasand, occupying 1.2%. The largest minority is Hui nationality which has a population of 60 thonsand, occupying more than 70% of theminorities.
Luoyang enjoy a rich history. From the first dynasty in the history--Xia dynasty, 13 dynasties have built their capitals here. For 1529 years, it has ever been the capital, and it thus becomes an ancient city with the longest history. In history, six times it has been listed as the world's largest city. In its most prosperous time, the urban population surpassed one million. From Shan Zhou to Sui and Tang dynasty, Luoyang has been the eastern starting point of the silk Road, and has communicated much with Europe, north Africa and Asian countries.
Brilliant place produces remarkable thinkers and artists, the origins and development of Chinese civilization is closely connected Luoyang. China's four great inventions cannot be separated from Luoyang.
Great thinkers such as Lao Zi and Kong Fu Zi, Ban Biao, Ban Gu and Ban Zhao and so on have all ever been to Luoyang and wrote their masterpieces here. Luoyang has ever experienced a period of "Luoyang's paper is expensive". Some greatest poets in China's history were either born here or ever lived here and worked out lots of poetic masterpieces through ages. Luoyang's rich historical civilization has made great contribution to the development of China and left boundless riches for the late comers. Luoyang has 7 places of national preservation of cultural relics, 53 provincial ones and more than 650 at the city level Long Men grotto is one of the three greatest treasures of stone inscription;White Horse Temple is the first temple built since the introduction of Buddhism into China. Along northern Mang Mountain, a large group of ancient tombs have been found and more than 0.4 million pieces of cultural relics have been unearthed, and the first museum of ancient tombs in the world has been set up. Near Luoyang, there are Shao Lin Temple and Zhong Yue Temple, Bai Yan Mountain and Hua Guo Shan National Park. Rich history, splendid civilization, and unique sources of tourism has made Luoyang quite attractive to outside world.

Luoyang enjoys very rich resources. Here we have many rare plants such as Chun Mo, Tie Shang, Lian Xiang, Ying Xing, Shan Bai Shao and so on; chemical raw material plants such as Qi SHu, You Tong etc; economic plants such as walnut, Chinese hawthorn, apple, and persimmon. Luoyang is an important place of medical plants. Two zones of the preservation of wild animals have been established, which cover an area of more than 0.1 million Chinese mu, in which over 190 species of rare animals live. Luoyang plays an important role in wheat production. lanting technique of wheat Pin well-known all over the country production of each mu reaches more than 500

kg., The major economic plants are cotton, tobacco, and oil etc. Meanwhile, there are some wel-known local products, the most famous ones being paulownia of Yang She, Pear of Mengjing, persimmon and cherry of Xinan, green bamboo and Yang Tao of Luo Ning, etc. Goat of Meng Jing and ox of Yi Chuan are nationally well-known and have been named as the productive base of goats and oxen respectively.
Luoyang is very rich in mineral resources, which is characterized by large reservation and convenient extraction. 55 kinds have already been ascertained, such as Mo, aluminium, wolfram, coal, sulphur, silica and the like. The reserves of mu reaches more than 2 million tons, and it is the biggest in China the third largest in the world. Reserves of aluminium amounts to more than 100 million tons. Gold mines spread out in Luo Ning, Song Xiang, Luan Chuan, 92 tons of which have been ascertained, the reserves of coal reaches 150 million tons. Rich mineral resources have laid a solid foundation for the development of energy, metallurgy, building materials and chemical industry.

zf52.gif (29175 bytes) Through more than forty years of construction, Luoyang has laid a good foundation for industry.During the first five-year plan period, 7 of the 156 key projects werein Luoyang. Large-scaled economic construction has made Luoyang a new industrial base. At present, there are 36 kinds of industries of 5050 enterprises, with machinery, electronics, metallugy, building
materiales,chemicals, textile, food as its mainstay industries. Luoyang
is famous for its many large enterprise groups such as No.1 Tractor &Engineering Corporation, Luoyang Bearing (group) Corporation, Luoyang Fufa Glassworks (group), Luoyang Fire-resistant Materials Factory, Luoyang Petrolium chemical Corporation, Zhongxin Heavy Machinery Corporation,Baima Group, Luoyag Chundu (group) Corp Ltd, Luoyang North Yichu motorcycles Corporation and Luoyang Telephone Facilities Factory, etc. In recent years, the production capability and the product quality have been both enhanced by introductionand renovation of technology. No.1 Tractors & Engineering Corporation, Luoyang Bearing (group) Corporation, Zhongxin Heavy Machinery Corporation and Luoyang Fufa Glassworks (group) as the mainstay of their respctive trades, play animportant role in the development of national economy.

Luoyang also boasts of many research institutions, of which 14 are at the state or ministry level and 77 at the provincial or municipal level with 120,000 scientists and technicians. There are 1488 technicians among 10,000 staff and workers which is more than the average of both the country and the province. And most of the research institutions take a lead in the study of related areas in the country. Each year, they are able to turn out more than 300 new products or projects, one-third of which are of high technology in areas such as aviation, spaceflight, electronics, communication, and the integration of machinery and electronics. Ever since the approval of the establishent of Luoyang High and New Technology Developement Zone in 1992 by the State Council, businessmen from 18 countries and regions have come to make investments here and now there are 483 enterprises in the zone with products of high and new technology occupying 75 per cent of the total output value of all the enterprises. Now the zone not only has turned into a base to reform traditional industries by introducing high and new technology but also has turned into an important window for opening to the outside world.

zf54.gif (20328 bytes) Luoyang enjoys efficient transportation with increasingly perfect infrastructure. Luoyang has long been well-known as the "pivot of 10 provinces". Dating back to the beginning of West Zhou, Luoyang was the center of the first road network in the world. Luoyang also has a long history in water transportation and its water transportation was highly developed. During both Qin and Han dynasty, " transportation is very busy on the Luo River with 10,000 large ships coming and going as far as the 3 rivers and 5 lakes." During East Han dynasty, the port nearby Taicang to the east of Luoyang was one of the largest inland water transportation ports. The 2,000-kilometer-long Great Canal during Sui and Tang dynasty, with Luoyang in the center, reached Yuhang in the south and Yanjing in the north, connecting the Hai River, Yellow River, the Huai River, the Yangzi River and the Qiantang River. In 701, Xintan was built in Luoyang and was then the largest inland river port with "tens of thousands of ships from all over the country packing the waterway for one thousand li on end". Inland water transportation in Luoyang was highly developed until the beginning of the North Song dynasty and it was the hub of communications in delivering goods from Jingxi, Shanxi and Hedong to Bianjing.
    Nowadays Luoyang remains a hub of communications in the central part of China. Three railways, namely the Longhai railway, the Jiaozhi railway and the Luoyi railway meet in Luoyang. It has a large capacity for both passengers and cargoes with good storing facilities. The opening of the second bridge crossing Asia and Europe will make Luoyang more advantageous as the part connecting both the east and the west. In addition, roads within Luoyang form a network with 310 and 207 national roads crossing the city. The expressways to Zhengzhou and Kaifeng have both been open to traffic and the high grade road to Sanmengxia is under construction. Luoyang airport is the best among grade 2 airports with perfect facilities for large airplanes to take off or land under all-weather. As many as 10 airlines to Beijing, Guangzhou, Dalian, Fuzhou, Wulumuqi, Xian and Chongqing have been opened up and charters to Hongkong and Gangshan in Japan, too.
      Since 1983, Luoyang Peony Fair is held every year from 15th to 25th in April to make friends to develop economy. In 1991, the provincial Party committee appoited Luoyang Peony Fair the provincial window for opening to the outside. In order to quicken the step of opening to the outside, infrastructure construction is further strengthened and investment environment is continually improving. The establishment of Luoyang aviation and railway ports and the corresponding checking institutions also help Luoyang open to the outside world. The installed capacity of telephones reaches as many as 460,000 pieces which reach all the countries and regions in the world;18 hotels of star level provide good entertainment and recreation facilities. Luoyang is very active in developing overseas friendship and has made friends with many foreign cities such as Gangshang and Suhecchuan city in Japan, Ruckrose in U.S., Tour in France, Purovdiv in Bulgaria and Fuyujun in South Korea.
      With the deepening of opening to the outside and development of economy, the emphasis of investment is moving to the central and western part of China. Situated in the middle, Luoyang connects both the east and the west and therefore it will certainly become a hot investment region. The establishment of "experimental city" for "optimising capital structure" and "comprehensive reform" provides new opportunities for rapid economic development. The Yellow River Xiaolangdi project and the Luoyang Chemical Fibre project with a total investment of 40,000 million and 6,407 yuan respectively will add new stories for the development of Luoyang.
      "If one wishes to learn stories about the development and decay both at present and in history, it will be enough to study Luoyang." The 6,100,000 people in Luoyang are working hard with enterprising spirits and enthusiasm to expedite reform and opening to the outside world for a modern industrious and tourist city with fairly developed science, technology and education based upon its long history and culture.