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Guiyang

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For other uses, see Guiyang (disambiguation).
Guiyang
贵阳
Prefecture-level city
贵阳市
Skyline of Guiyang
Skyline of Guiyang
Nickname(s): 
The Forest City, The Summer Capital of China, The Second Spring City
Location of Guiyang City (yellow) in Guizhou and the PRC
Location of Guiyang City (yellow) in Guizhou and the PRC
CountryPeople's Republic of China
ProvinceGuizhou
Area
8,034 km2 (3,102 sq mi)
 • Urban
2,403.4 km2 (928.0 sq mi)
Elevation
1,275 m (4,183 ft)
Population
 (2010 census)
4,324,561
 • Density540/km2 (1,400/sq mi)
 • Urban
2,552,635
 • Urban density1,100/km2 (2,800/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+8 (China Standard)
Postal code
550000
Area code(0)851
Websitehttp://www.gygov.gov.cn/

Guiyang (simplified Chinese: 贵阳; traditional Chinese: 貴陽; pinyin: Guìyáng) is the capital of Guizhou province of Southwest China. It is located in the centre of the province, situated on the east of the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau, and on the north bank of the Nanming River, a branch of the Wu River. The city has an elevation of about 1,100 meters. It has an area of 8,034 square kilometers.[1] Its population is 4,324,561 at the 2010 census whom 2,552,635 live in the built up area made of 7 urban districts.

History

An early-18th-century French map of Guiyang

The city was first constructed as early as 1283 AD during the Yuan Dynasty. It was originally called Shunyuan (順元), meaning obeying the Yuan (the Mongol rulers).

Originally the area was populated by non-Chinese. The Sui Dynasty (AD 581–618) had a commandery there, and the Tang dynasty (618–907) a prefecture. They were, however, no more than military outposts, and it was not until the Yuan (Mongol) invasion of southwest China in 1279 that the area was made the seat of an army and a "pacification office." Chinese settlement in the area also began at that time, and, under the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) dynasties, the town became the seat of a superior prefecture named Guiyang.

Locally Guiyang was an important administrative and commercial center with two distinct merchant communities, consisting of the Sichuanese, who lived in the "new" northern part of the city, and those from Hunan, Guangdong, and Guangxi province, who lived in the "old" southern part. Nevertheless, until the Sino-Japanese War (1937–45), Guiyang was no more than the capital of one of China's least-developed provinces. As elsewhere in the southwest, considerable economic progress was made under the special circumstances of wartime. Road transport infrastructure with Kunming in Yunnan province and with Chongqing in Sichuan (China's wartime provisional capital) and into Hunan were established. Work was begun on a railway from Liuzhou in Guangxi, and after 1949 this development was accelerated. Guiyang has subsequently become a major provincial city and industrial base. In 1959 the rail network in Guangxi was completed, allowing seamless connection from Guizhou to Chongqing to the north, to Kunming to the west, and Changsha to the east.

Geography

Guiyang
Simplified Chinese贵阳
Traditional Chinese貴陽
Hanyu PinyinGuìyáng
Literal meaningThe South of The Gui Mountain
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinGuìyáng
Yue: Cantonese
Jyutpinggwai3joeng4
Southern Min
Hokkien POJKùi-iông

Guiyang has grown exponentially since the 1990s. The city's heart is around the 大十字 (literally "Big Ten") which is a cross, resembling the Chinese character for ten, and 喷水池 (literally "Fountain Pool") which is a traffic intersection which had a large fountain at its center, until the fountain was paved over in early 2010 to help improve the flow of traffic.

The city is situated on the Nanming River, a headstream of the Wu River, which eventually joins the Yangtze River at Fuling in Sichuan province. Guiyang is a natural transportation center, with comparatively easy access northward to Sichuan, eastward to Guangxi and Guangdong, westward to Yunnan, and northeast to Hunan province.

Climate

Guiyang has a four-season, humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cwa), tempered by its low latitude and high elevation. It has fairly mild winters, very warm summers and a monsoon season, where the majority of the year's 1,120 millimetres (44 in) of precipitation falls; the seasons are not particularly distinct. The mean temperature in January is 5.1 °C (41.2 °F) and for July 23.9 °C (75.0 °F). Rain is common throughout the year, with occasional flurries in winter. At only 1150 hours of sunshine, it is also one of China's least sunny cities. Relative humidity is consistent throughout the year.

Climate data for Guiyang (1971–2000)
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) 8.8
(47.8) 		10.8
(51.4) 		16.1
(61.0) 		21.2
(70.2) 		24.1
(75.4) 		26.4
(79.5) 		28.3
(82.9) 		28.5
(83.3) 		25.1
(77.2) 		20.5
(68.9) 		15.9
(60.6) 		11.6
(52.9) 		19.8
(67.6)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) 2.7
(36.9) 		4.0
(39.2) 		7.8
(46.0) 		12.7
(54.9) 		16.3
(61.3) 		19.1
(66.4) 		20.7
(69.3) 		20.2
(68.4) 		17.4
(63.3) 		13.3
(55.9) 		9.0
(48.2) 		4.7
(40.5) 		12.3
(54.1)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 20.5
(0.81) 		20.1
(0.79) 		32.8
(1.29) 		87.6
(3.45) 		164.6
(6.48) 		225.2
(8.87) 		177.0
(6.97) 		126.8
(4.99) 		100.1
(3.94) 		97.5
(3.84) 		47.4
(1.87) 		18.1
(0.71) 		1,117.7
(44.00)
Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) 13.7 12.8 13.3 15.6 18.4 16.7 15.3 14.1 13.0 14.4 12.1 10.3 169.7
Average relative humidity (%) 80 78 76 75 76 78 77 76 76 77 77 76 76.8
Mean monthly sunshine hours 41.2 47.1 81.8 103.5 108.4 104.2 154.4 167.1 119.4 91.4 69.0 62.4 1,149.9
Source: 中国气象局 国家气象信息中心

Administrative divisions

Subdivisions of Guiyang
  1. Wudang District (乌当区)
  2. Nanming District (南明区)
  3. Yunyan District (云岩区)
  4. Huaxi District (花溪区)
  5. Baiyun District (白云区)
  6. Xiaohe District (小河区)
  7. Qingzhen City (清镇市)
  8. Kaiyang County (开阳县)
  9. Xiuwen County (修文县)
  10. Xifeng County (息烽县)
  11. Jinyang New District (金阳新区)

Economy

File:Guiyang-far view of jiaxiu lou.png
An Aerial View of Jiaxiu Lou

Guiyang is the economic and commercial hub of Guizhou Province. The GDP per capita was ¥24,585 (US$3,637) in 2009. The city is also a large center for retail and wholesale commercial activities with operations of major domestic and international general retailers such as Wal-Mart, Carrefour, RT-Mart, Beijing Hualian, Parkson, and Xingli Group as well as consumer electronics and appliance sellers Gome and Suning. Wholesale operations include large regional produce, furniture, and industrial and construction machinery depots. Wal-Mart's southwest China regional vegetable and produce distribution center is located in Guiyang.

Hydro-electric power generators are located along the city's main rivers including the Wu River. By 2007, the city's hydro electric plants supplied over 70% of the city's electricity. Coal is mined in the locality of Guiyang and Anshun, and there are large thermal generating plants at Guiyang and Duyun, supplying electricity for a portion of the city's industry. A large iron and steel plant came into production in Guiyang in 1960, supplying the local machinery-manufacturing industry.

Large deposits of bauxite have been discovered to the north, and by the 1970s Guiyang had become a major producer of aluminum. Guiyang also manufactures aerospace engine parts and equipment, industrial and mining equipment, as well as railway vehicles and equipment. It has a large chemical industry, producing fertilizers, and a rubber industry, manufacturing automobile tires. Guiyang also has a sizable domestic pharmaceuticals industry, producing traditional Chinese medicines as well as western medicines, textile plants, and makes glass, paper, and other consumer goods.

Demographics

Guiyang is populated by 23 different minorities, the most populous of which is the Miao people, in addition to the ethnic Han.

As of 2008 , the total population of Guiyang municipality was 3.93 million, among which 2.72 million were urban residents.

Transport

  • Transportation in Guiyang consists of an extensive network of roads, railways, river and air transport as well as public transportation system with bus system and many taxis. Guiyang Urban Rail Transmit has been constructing since 2011. Based on the current planning, the whole network is formed by the 8 lines. Line 1 will be operational in 2016.

Air

Railway

  • Guiyang is a railway hub in southwest China. The Guizhou-Guangxi Railway (built in 1959, 2009 modified), the Sichuan-Guizhou railway (completed 1965), the Guiyang-Kunming Railway (completed 1970), and the Hunan-Guizhou Railway (completed 1975) are intersecting in Guiyang Railway Station. This main southern railway station is being rebuilt in 2008.
  • There are four high-speed rail lines to and from Chengdu, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Kunming, and Changsha and that will commence operations in 2012. The high speed railway lines will provide rapid freight service from two marshalling yards, and passenger service from a new high-speed railway station, called Guiyang North Railway Station, in the city's Jinyang New District.

Expressway

  • The city is located at the junction of four major segments of the national highway grid: the Gui-Huang, Gui-Zun, Gui-Bi, and Gui-Xin Expressways.
  • The Gui-Huang Expressway (G60) links Guiyang with the cities and tourist areas of central and western Guizhou including Anshun, Guanling, and the Huangguoshu Waterfall. The expressway continues west to Yunnan Province as the Gui-Kun Expressway and terminates at Yunnan's capital city of Kunming.
  • The Gui-Zun Expressway (G75) begins in Guiyang and runs north 180 km to the regional Guizhou city of Zunyi and is the most heavily travelled major highway in Guiyang. In Zunyi, the expressway becomes the Zunyi-Chongqing Expressway and runs a further 210 km north to its terminus in Chongqing.
  • The Gui-Bi Expressway (G76) links Guiyang with the regional cities of Bijie and Dafang in northwest Guizhou province, southeastern Sichuan province, and the Sichuan cities of Luzhou, Neijiang, and Chengdu - Sichuan's provincial capital. The Gui-Bi Expresway begins at an interchange with the Gui-Zun Expressway in the city's Xiuwen County approximately 20 km north of the city center, before terminating at the city of Bijie. In the city of Dafang, approximately 40 km east of Bijie, the Gui-Bi Expressway connects with the new Sichuan-Guizhou Expressway, a modern highway providing access to Luzhou and central Sichuan.
  • The Gui-Xin Expressway begins at the junction of the Guiyang Outer Ring Road (G75-G60.01) and the Tang Ba Guan Road, approximately 5 km southeast of the city center. The Gui-Xin Expressway (G60-G75) runs east and southeast through the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (G76) and its capital city of Guilin before entering Guangdong Province and terminating at the city of Guangzhou.
  • Approximately 170 km east of Guiyang in the regional city of Kaili, the Hunan-Guizhou Expressway (G56-G60) links with the Gui-Xin Expressway providing high-speed vehicular access to and from Guiyang to the eastern Guizhou city of Tongren before continuing through Hunan Province to the major cities of Huaihua, Changde, and Changsha.
  • In 2009 Guiyang added a modern orbital expressway to its highway network. The Guiyang Outer Ring Road (Guiyang Orbital Highway) opened in December 2009 and is a six to eight lane divided high-speed expressway that provides efficient links to and from large employment centers in the Jinyang New District, Baiyun District, Huaxi District, the Guiyang Longdongbao International Airport, the major multi-lane national highways, and the city's main roadways, allowing vehicular traffic to circumnavigate the heavy traffic of the city's inner city areas.
  • China National Highway 210

Education

The city is the cultural and educational center of Guizhou province and has a university, a teacher-training college, and a medical school.

Religion

On October 15, 1696, the city was made the seat of the Roman Catholic Apostolic Vicariate of Kweichow. This was suppressed in 1715 and restored in 1846. In 1924 it was renamed as the Apostolic Vicariate of Guiyang, and in 1946 it was promoted to its current status as the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Guiyang.

International relations

Main article: List of twin towns and sister cities in China

Twin towns — Sister cities

Guiyang is twinned with:

References

  1. ^ Template:Zh-cn"Profile of Guiyang". www.xzqh.org. Archived from the original on 2008-05-07. Retrieved 2008-06-11.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Guiyang.
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