Basic Data of Guizhou Province

1. Name: Guizhou Province

2. Area: 170,000 square kilometers

3. Population: 35.25 (the 2000 population census)

4. Capital: Guiyang

5. Geography:

It is located in the northeastern part of the Yungui Plateau, which is situated in the southwest of China. It is within the middle sub-tropical zone sharing borders with the provinces of Sichuan, Hunan, Yunnan and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Guizhou has waves of mountains of various sizes and complex landforms and topography. Its climate varies from place to place and the natural landscape is unique. With its warm weather and sufficient precipitation, Guizhou is a mountainous area typical in the sub-tropical plateau zone. The landforms with widely dispersed karst topography in Guizhou Province have created picturesque scenery.  

6. Natural Resources:

The arable land in Guizhou Province totals more than 28 million mu (15 mu = 1 hectare). The arable land per capita is only 0.8 mu. The land for grain production accounts for three fourths of the total arable land. Guizhou is rich in forest resources. The production of some famous forestry products in Guizhou ranks it high on the list of provinces in China. Guizhou also boasts of rich deposits of minerals, water resources and wildlife. It has a unique natural landscape such as the well-known Yellow Fruit Tree Waterfall and the nearby Limestone Cave and the Stone Woods, constituting its exclusive tourism resources.

 

7. Economy:

The GDP in 2000 totaled 99.353 billion Yuan with per capita GDP being 2,662 Yuan. The total industrial output was 85.551 billion Yuan and the total agriculture, forestry and fishery output was 41.297 billion Yuan. The total revenue amounted to 15.304 billion Yuan. The total output of grain amounted to 11.613 million tons. Apart from its uneven topography, landlocked situation, difficult traffic access, late development of its economy and weak agricultural base, the big size of the population, especially the large proportion poor, becomes another constraining factor in the social and economic development of Guizhou Province.

8. People's life:

According to statistics at the end of 2000, number of employed persons was 18.6623 million, accounting for 52.94% of the total population. The total wages of staff and workers in 2000 was 14.456 billion Yuan, the average wage of staff and workers was 7,468 Yuan. The per capita disposable income of the urban population was 5,122.21 Yuan and the average per capita net income for the rural population was 1,374.16 Yuan. The per capita annual living expenditures for consumption of urban households were 4,278.28 Yuan. The annual per capita expenditure for living cost of rural residents was 1,096.59 Yuan. The per capita urban and rural resident savings were 1,436.45 Yuan. The per capita net floor space of urban and rural residents was 9.2 m2 and 19.75 m2 respectively. On average, there are 14.8 hospital beds and 12.2 doctors for every 10,000 people.

9. Education:

According to the statistics, there were 24 higher education institutions with 75,493 students and 7,240 teachers; 2,315 medium education institutions with 1,771,953 students and 93,152 teachers, and 17.985 primary schools with 5,002,082 pupils and 174,822 teachers. The general feature of change in terms of the education for the Guizhou population is that the percentage of the educated population at different levels was increasing year by year while that of the illiterate and semi-literate population was declining. The enrollment rate of school-age children was 98.5%. There has been some development in adult education.

10. Population, Resources and the Environment

With its large population, narrow land base, high population density and small area of arable land per capita, the competition between people and land is intensifying. Despite the high per capita availability of water resources, water energy and various minerals, the actual per capita ownership of resources is low due to the limited development and application of those resources. The relationship between population and natural resources is characterized by the following features: insufficiency of economic resources, relatively too large a population and over-stretched economic capacity. In addition, given the vulnerable ecological environment in Guizhou, the frequent activities of the population have caused a decrease in natural forests, reduction in resources and environmental quality, loss of soil because of the over-cultivation of land and pollution caused by three kinds of industrial waste, worsening the damage by mankind to the environment.

11. Ethnic Population

Guizhou has a concentration of multiethnic groups. The minority groups account for more than 37 percent of the total population and they include Yao, Miao, Yi, Qiang, Dong, Zhuang, Buyi, Bai, Tujia, Gelao and Shui. The ethnic groups in Guizhou live far apart from each other and are scattered in wide areas. Many ethnic groups are mixed and some of them are concentrated in small areas. The distribution of the ethnic population in urban and rural areas is even to some extent. The overall education level of the ethnic groups is low and the social and economic development of the ethnic areas is lagging behind compared with other area

Basic Data of Gansu Province

1. Name: Gansu Province

2. Area: 390,000 square kilometers

3. Population: 25.62 million (the 2000 population census)

4. Provincial Capital: Lanzhou

5. Geography:

Gansu lies at the juncture of three highlands: Qinghai-Xizang（Tibet） Plateau, Inner-Mongolia Plateau and Huangtu Plateau, and is bounded on the east by Shanxi, on the west by Xinjiang, on the south by Sichuan, on the north by Inner-Mongolia, Ningxia and Mongolia. Most areas of Gansu are plateau and mountainous with an altitude above 1,000 meters. The provincial terrain varies in elevation, sloping downhill from west to east and from south to north respectively. The Gansu corridor stretches at the province’s northwest part. Most of the rivers in the province belong to the Yellow River water systems. Its climate features both temperate monsoon and continental, transferring from subtropical zone in south to temperate zone northward of semi-arid and arid area.

6. Natural Resources:

Gansu is rich in minerals, with 111 types having been found to date. It is also rich in hydro-power because the Bailong River, a branch of the Yangzie River, and Huanghe River flow through Gansu. But the precipitation is scarce and not regular, so Gansu is also a province that suffers from drought. Gansu has large land resources as well, but the percentage of utilizable land is low, the proportion of cultivated land is small and the capacity of the land is low. Gansu also has plentiful biological resources， especially Chinese herbal medicine (such as Chinese angelica), and it is one of the most important Chinese herbal medicine production areas. Mount Qilian is reputed as a cornucopia or ‘treasure house’ for it’s richness in minerals. The Gannan Plateau is an important pastureland with famous species of Aqu horse and Ola goat.

7. Economy:

In 2000, the gross domestic product (GDP) of Gansu was 98.30 billion Yuan, and the per capita GDP was 3,838 Yuan; the gross output value of industrial and farming forestry, animal husbandry and fishery was 141.034 billion Yuan, the total imports and exports was 569.53 million US dollars; and the total provincial government revenue was 10.838 billion Yuan; the yield of grain was 7.1348 million tons. Compared with other provinces in China, the economic level of Gansu is still low. The situation could be shown to be the result of a weak economic and technological foundation for resources exploitation, the low degree of resource exploitation, poor industrial foundation, inadequate communication and transportation, static economic structure, less developed agricultural production, government revenue problem, capital shortage, and so on.

8. People's life:

By the end of 2000, Gansu had employed persons of 14.92 million, or 58.24% of the total provincial population. The total wages of staff and workers were 17,997.603 million Yuan, and the total social insurance and welfare funds of employed and retired staff and workers were 2.568 billion Yuan. The average wage of staff and workers was 7,913 Yuan, and the per capita net income of rural residents was 1,428.70 Yuan. The per capita annual disposable income of urban households was 4,916.25 Yuan. The average household consumption was 1,734 Yuan, 993 for rural residents and 4,890 for urban residents. The number of hospital beds per 1,000 persons was 2.33, and the number of doctors per 1,000 persons was 1.48.

Major ethnic minority: Kazak, Mongolian, Tibetan, Hui, Dongxiang, Tu and Manchu. 

9. Education:

According to the statistics, there were 18 institutions of higher education, with the number of students enrolled being 81,700 and 7,208 teachers; 3,661 secondary schools and regular secondary schools with 2,764,300 students and 159,492 teachers; 21,557 primary schools with 3,164,600 students and 125,712 teachers. The school-age children enrolment rate was 98.83%. Although education developed at a rapid speed never seen before, the overall education level is still very low, and the nine-year compulsory education requirement has not become popular in the province. Thus, much more attention must be paid later to education, and efforts such as raising the investment in education and improving educational facilities should be taken. Meanwhile, illiteracy-alleviation measures should be carried out firmly.

10. Population, Resources and the Environment

Resources per capita declined continuously with the rapid growth of the population. The conflict between limited resources and fast population growth became more serious. Per capita farmland decreased, and water resources per capita are tight too. Furthermore, the per capita deposits of minerals are declining due to overexploitation. The forest coverage rate is at a low level. Economic activity has led to the over-exploitation of natural resources, which deepened the conflict between humans and the environment.

11. Famous sights and culture relics

Gansu has a long history and spectacular scenery, and thus become one of the originals of Chinese culture. It is the place where Chinese ancestor Fuxi once stayed and it is also the place where Marco Polo once visited. The province boasts abundant cultural relics such as the Silk Road, with an expanse of 1,600 kilometers symbolizing the friendly communications between China and Western peoples for generations. Mogao caves at Dunhuang, which is a world cultural heritage, Maiji Mountain Grottoes famous for its fine sculptures and the Labrang Lamasery, which is one of the six great lamaseries of the Yellow Sect of Buddhism in China. The Singing (Soughing) Dunes (Mount Mingshan) and the Crescent Spring are fanciful for their co-existence.