Tongling

Tongling

铜陵
Tongling 铜陵
Prefecture-level city
Chinese transcription(s)
• Simplified	铜陵
• Traditional	銅陵
• Pinyin	Tónglíng
Country	China
Province	Anhui
County-level divisions	4
City seat	Tongguanshan District; (30°56′N 117°46′E / 30.933°N 117.767°E)
Government
• CPC Secretary	Shen Suli (沈素琍)
• Mayor	Chen Liangping (陈良平)
Area
• Total	1,113 km2 (430 sq mi)
Population
• Total	716,300
• Density	640/km2 (1,700/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+8 (China Standard)
Area code	562
GDP	¥32.5 billion
GDP per capita	¥44,870
License Plate Prefix	皖G
Website	http://www.tl.gov.cn Template:Zh icon

Tongling (simplified Chinese: 铜陵; traditional Chinese: 銅陵; pinyin: Tónglíng; Wade–Giles: T'ung-ling; former names: Tunglinghsien, Tungkwanshan; literally "Copper Hillock") is a prefecture-level city in southern Anhui province, People's Republic of China. A river port along the Yangtze River, Tongling borders Chaohu to the north, Wuhu to the east, Chizhou to the southwest and Anqing to the west.

The asteroid 12418 Tongling was named after the city.

Administration

The prefecture-level city of Tongling administers 4 county-level divisions, including 3 districts and 1 county.

Tongguanshan District (铜官山区)
Shizishan District (狮子山区)
Jiao District (郊区)
Tongling County (铜陵县)

History

Tongling has been famous as a beautiful mountain city since its origins in the Han dynasty over 1500 years ago. Owing to its copper and tin deposits, it was an important center in the past for bronze production. The scale of industrial activity gradually increased through the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) dynasties, the Japanese occupation of 1938-45, and especially under the Communist government since 1949.

Economy

Today the city's industrial base still revolves around the several nearby copper mines and copper processing operations. The local mineral resources also include : iron, coal, gold, silver,tin, Iron sulfide, plus more than twenty other rare minerals associated with them such as nickel, cadmium, gallium, molybdenum, germanium and selenium. Other important industries include chemical works, textiles, building materials, electronics, machinery and food processing. Long a hub of water transportation, in 1995 Tongling became the site of Anhui Province's first highway bridge spanning the Yangtze River.

Although Tongling City is mostly mountainous, the surrounding flatlands are rich agricultural regions producing rice, wheat, cotton, beans, garlic , herbal medicines and ginger. Large amounts of fish are also harvested in the region.

Tongling is the center for conservation efforts to preserve the last remaining Yangtze freshwater dolphins. Two semi-natural reserves have been established in the Tongling area, in the Tongling and Shishou oxbow lakes, but as yet no dolphins have been successfully captured and moved from the river into the lakes.

Tongling has developed at a rapid speed in the past 5 years,i.e. 2003 to 2007.The average GDP per capital has reached ¥44,870 in 2008 which is the second in Anhui province. And the increasing rate is 13%, far more than the average increasing rate of the whole province which is 12.8%.And it aims to achieve $10000 GDP per capital in 2012

Culture

The famous poet of Tang Dynasty, Li Bai (c.700–762, also known as Li Po) praised the beauty and richness of Tongling.

International Relations

Tongling has established relations to several cities throughout the world.

Twin towns:

The contract of town-twinning with the city of Marbach am Neckar in Germany was established in 1990 and was among the first town-twinnings between China and Germany, ever. One lady citizen of Marbach am Neckar has been awarded honorary citizenship of Tongling City in 2005, rewarding restless efforts for keeping up the town-twinning. Marbach is the birthplace of the famous german poet Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805), as a symbol of friendship a statue was erected in local Tianjinhu-Lake-Park.

File:Schillerdenkmal Tongling.jpg

Schiller-Statue in Tongling

External links

Government website of Tongling (in Simplified Chinese)