Yingze District

    Geographical and Natural Conditions:

    Yingze District, a centre of commercial trade, culture and communications in Taiyuan City , is located in the middle east of Taiyuan proper and covers an area of 117 square kilometers. Now it governs 6 subdistrict offices and 1 town, including 89 community commissions and 29 villages, with permanent resident population of 487, 000, including non-agricultural population of 461,000, accounting for 96.8 per cent of the total.

    History:

    Yingze District is an important part of Taiyuan City . It was an old town dated from thousand years ago and was expanded in the Song Dynasty (420-479). The word of Yingze came from the Yingze Door (also named as South door) of ancient Taiyuan town expanded in the ninth year of Hongwu reign (1368- 1398) of the Ming Dynasty. Yingze District was named in 1998 when the administrative division of Taiyuan City was readjusted.

    Advantages in Geographical Location:

    Yingze District serves as a window for Taiyuan opening up to the outside world and is an important part of Taiyuan City .

    Many scenic spots such as the lofty Twin Pagodas of Yongzuo Temple-symbol of Taiyuan City, Confucious Temple, Chongshan Monastery, Mosque, Ciyun Temple, Baiyun Temple, the painted murals of the Northern Qi Dynasty (550- 577) and porcelain kiln site, are in the district. It has lots of time- honored foodstuff enterprises as Shuanghecheng, Laoxiangcun, Liuweizhai, Qingheyuan and Ninghuafu, enjoying high reputation in Shanxi 's history. A number of ecological landscapes and recreation resorts as Fenhe Park , Yingze Park , Beilin Park and Children Park attract more and more tourists coming here. The thriving and prospering commercial and tourism industries promote the development of other sectors as IT, finance, real estate and catering service rapidly. Yingze District is a traditional commercial trade district, where the traditional business streets of Liuxiang, Zhongloujie and Kaihuasi were deemed as demonstrative streets of shops without maketing counterfeit and substandard goods by the six departments under the Ministry of Publicity of the Communist Party of China. A lot of shops and commercial buildings are centralized here. Trade has become a pillar of the national economy and a main source of financial revenue in the whole district.

    Social and Economic Development:

    In 2003 its GDP was 1.362 billion yuan, up 16.9 per cent over the last year. Its financial income totaled 450.00 million yuan, up 18.4 per cent. Its retail sales of consumer goods for the whole society hit 6.733 billion yuan, up 17.0 per cent. Per capita net income of farmers was 4062 yuan, up 6.0 per cent. The proportion of the primary, the secondary and the tertiary industries accounted for 0.4 per cent, 14.9 per cent and 84.7 per cent, respectively. The three indexes of GDP, financial income and per capita net income of farmers all have ranked the top in its historical records.

    Development Target:

    In 2004, it follows the general target of "building a central business district and showing a modern image of Taiyuan City" and adheres to the strategy of " placing the tertiary industry as pillar, invigorating the district through commercial business and developing the nonpublic economic sector" , It optimizes its industrial structures, speeds up its reform of enterprises, and supports the nonpublic enterprises, so as to promote the coordinated development in material and spiritual civilization and to take the development of national economy and social undertakings forward.