General Economy

Gross domestic product (GDP)

GDP for 2004 was 295.82 billion yuan, up 12.2% from the previous year.

GDP ratio (primary, secondary and tertiary industries)

The primary industry yielded a value added of 56.096 billion yuan, 8.0% more than that of the previous year; the secondary industry, 137.93 billion yuan, a growth of 14.8%; the tertiary industry, 101.79 billion yuan, a growth of 11.1%. The proportion of the three sectors is 19.0: 46.6: 34.4.

Revenue and expenditure

Provincial revenue was 32.9 billion yuan, an increase of 13.7% over the previous year. Provincial expenditure was 50.78 billion yuan, an increase of 24.1%.

Consumer price index (CPI)

CPI was up 4.1% from the previous year.

Investment in fixed assets

Fixed asset investment was valued at 117.16 billion yuan, up by 20.9% from the previous year.

Major Industries

Agriculture

In 2004, the province's total agricultural output value was 48.62 billion yuan, an increase of 8.5% from the previous year.

Industry

The industrial added value totaled 99.43 billion yuan, an increase of 18.6%.

Construction

Its added value was 23.72 billion yuan, up by 4.9%.

Transportation

Freight carried by various means of transport during the year amounted to a total of 69.95 billion ton-kilometers, 12.8% up from the previous year. Passengers carried by various means of transport numbered 25.615 billion person-kilometers during the year, up 18.3%.

Postal services

The annual turnover of postal operations totaled 1.13 billion yuan, roughly the same as that of the previous year.

Telecommunications

The annual turnover of telecommunications services totaled 20 billion yuan, up by 39.5%.

Retail

The annual turnover from retail sales reached 125.26 billion yuan, an increase of 12.8% from the previous year.

Tourism

Revenue from tourism totaled 18.4 billion yuan, up by 29.8% from the 2003 figure.

Continued Effects of Market Reform

Imports & exports

The annual value of imports and exports totaled US$6.79 billion, 10.5% up from the year before.

Economic and technological cooperation

A total of 16,000 laborers were sent abroad during the year.

Foreign investment

The foreign direct investment which was materialized during the year stood at US$570 million, up by 12.6%.

Urban Construction and Management

Road transport

By the end of 2004, a total of 47,255 km of highways had opened to traffic, 7.4% up from the previous year-end. The expressways totaled 8,226 km and rural highways linking villages totaled 34,210 km.

Social Undertakings

Science and technology

A total of 553 scientific achievements above the provincial and ministerial level were made during the year. The number of technological contracts signed reached 3,609, worth some 1.1 billion yuan, 7.8% up from the year before.

Education

The number of students enrolled in postgraduate schools and institutions of higher learning during the year stood at 12,000 and 111,200 respectively.

Culture

By the end of 2004, the province had a total of 65 arts performance organizations, 75 cultural and arts centers, 62 public libraries, and 22 museums.

Public health

The construction of all 51 centers for diseases control and prevention was accomplished, with total investments of 235.49 million yuan. There were 561 community health and medical service centers across the province at the end of the year.

Sports

During the year a new health and fitness center at the municipal level and 20 at the county level were built, and indoor and outdoor body building facilities were installed in 48 towns and townships.

Welfare and aid

Various welfare units across the province were equipped with 47,000 beds and put up 34,000 homeless and vagrant people during the year. There were 3,000 urban community centers at the end of the year. The welfare lottery reaped sales of 495 million yuan in 2004. Public donations totaled 70 million yuan.

Population, Employment, Social Security and Living Standards

Population

The year 2004 saw births of 200,000, or a birth rate of 7.39‰, and deaths of 152,000, or a mortality rate of 5.63‰. The natural growth rate of the population stood at 1.76‰. At the end of the year, the total population stood at 27.085 million.

Employment

The employed population stood at 12.22 million, up by 1.6% from the previous year. A total of 502,000 new jobs were created during the year.

Registered unemployment rate

The number of registered unemployed population at the end of the year was 282,000, the registered urban unemployment rate being 4.2%.

Social security

In 2004, insurance plans for endowments, unemployment and medical treatment covered a population of 4.39 million, 2.82 million and 2.7 million respectively. These figures are up by 120,200, down by 106,000, and up by 391,800 respectively from the previous year. About 1.37 million urban residents received minimum living allowance from the government.

Residents' income

The disposable income of urban residents was 7,841 yuan per capita, up by 11.9% from 2003. Rural residents' per capita net income was 3,000 yuan, up 18.6%.

Geography and Natural Conditions

Elevation extremes

The eastern part of the province is the mountainous area of the Changbai Mountains with an elevation of over 1,000 meters and the Jidong hilly land of 500 meters above sea level or lower. The western part of the province is the Songliao Plain, whose low and level western section is the grain base of the province.

Climate

Jilin is located in the middle latitudes of the northern hemisphere, east of the Euro-Asian continent, the northernmost section of the temperate zone in China, nearing the sub-frigid zone. The eastern part of the province is close to the Yellow Sea and the Sea of Japan, where the atmosphere is moist often accompanied with much rain. The climate of its western part, which is far from the sea and approaches to the arid Mongolian Plateau, is dry. As a whole, the province has a distinct temperate continental monsoon climate with a clear-cut change of four seasons. The yearly average temperature of most part of the province is 3-5 °C. The annual time of sunshine is 2,200-3,000 hours. The annual average accumulated temperature in activity is 2,700-3,600°C. The precipitation of the province in a year is 550-910 mm and the frost-free period lasts 120-160 days. With hot and rainy days in the same season, it is good for farming. The frost period begins in the last 10 days of September and lasts until the end of April or early May.

Natural resources

The province is one of China's six major forestry areas. The Changbai Mountains stretching about 500 km is known as the "Changbai Sea of Forest." The province's land used for forestry covers 9.72 million ha, accounting for 51.37% of the province's total and ranking the 12th in the country. Forests cover 7.98 million ha, accounting for 82.04% of the total land used for forestry, ranking the eighth in the country. The province's storage of live limber is 840 million cubic meters, ranking the sixth in the country. The province's forest coverage is 42.4%. The highest summit of the province, the White Cloud Peak of the Changbai Mountains, is 2,691 meters above sea level.

The prairie in western Jilin is situated in the center of the Songjiang-Nenjiang Prairie, one of the famous grasslands in China. The prairie is known for its rich forage grasses for sheep, most of which are perennial rootstock and bushy grasses. It is also one of the breeding bases of commercial cattle and fine-wool sheep in northern China. There are 4.379 million ha of grassland are available in the province, mainly in its western and eastern parts.

Its western part is the easternmost point of the Euro-Asian grassland, where the source of water is rich and the quality of grass is good. A part of the Horqin Grassland, it is Jilin's animal husbandry base.

The province is abundant in minerals with a total of 136 varieties of ores discovered. The number of surveyed mineral deposits is 93, 75 of which have been explored. The province's reserves of 22 minerals rank the top five in the country. Its main minerals include: coal with a reserve of nearly 2.1 billion tons; petroleum with a remaining potential reserve of 113.99 million tons; iron ores with a reserve of 460 million tons; gold with a reserve ranking the 13th in the nation; the reserves of 10 other minerals such as oil shale, diatomite and wollastonite rank the first in the country; veneer gabbro and carbon dioxide gas rank the second in the country; that of molybdenum and germanium rank the third; the remaining potential reserve of petroleum ranks the sixth in the country. Jilin is favored with nonmetallic mineral products and most of its export products are crude nonmetallic minerals and their products. The reserves of wollastonite, diatomite, bentonite, and refractory clay are rich enough for mining. The reserves of petroleum, natural gas and coal are also affluent.

There is a rich resource of wildlife in Jilin Province, particularly in the Changbai Mountains area. Jilin is the original producer of the worldwide famous Three Northeast China Treasures – ginseng, fur of marten and pilose antler. Its other products, such as glossy ganoderma, the tuber of elevated gastrodia, astragali, and pine mushroom, hedgehogt fungus, frog fat are all well-known at home and abroad.

here are about 2,300 species of plant in the Changbai Mountains, of which 900-odd are of high economic value. There are 870 varieties of medicinal herbs and more than 200 varieties of edible plants. Trees of quality timber for industrial use include Korean pine, Changbai pine, yeddo spruce, northeast China ash, yellow pineapple, Manchurian walnut catalpa, and linden. Chinese grapes, the fruit of Chinese magnoliavine, cowberry and haw are materials for brewing wine. There are 300 varieties of wild plants that provide a rich source for honey-making. Among its 437 species of wild animals, there are precious fur animals and feather fowls such as sables, otters, lynx, Manchurian tigers, leopards, and flowery-tail pheasants. Precious animals that can be used as medicinal materials include red deer, musk deer, brown bears, badgers, frogs, and wood frogs. Animals of high economic value include wild boars, roe deer, and grouses.

Agriculture and crops:
The province's soil is fertile, suitable for growing grains, beans, oil crops, beetroot, tobacco, jute, potato, ginseng, traditional Chinese medicinal herbs, and fruits. The province's sown area is 3.96 million ha.

Its per capita consumption of grain, the commodity rate of grain, the volume of grains shipped to other provinces, and the export of corn are leading the country continuously for many years.

The province is China's largest base of commercial grain. It produces corn, soybean and rice.

The Song-Liao Plain in Jilin is an important grain base of the country and a world-known corn-growing zone.

Tourism resources

The province boasts rich tourism resources. In the provincial capital Changchun, there are the former government office of the Manchurian State established by the Japanese invaders during World War II, the Jingyuetan Forest Park, the Monument to the Martyrs of the Soviet Red Army, the Automobile Town, and the Changchun Film Studio. There are also the Jilin University, the Changchun Institute of Optical and Mechanical Engineering, and the Changchun University. Among its five-star hotels are Mingmen Hotel and the Shangri-la Hotel.

In Jilin City, there are the mountain city of Gaojuli on Mount Longtans; Beishan Park; the Songhua Lake in Fengman; the Baohai Ancient Tombs in Mount Liuding of Dunhua; the Chengzishan mountain city in Yanji; the Changbaishan Nature Reserve that covers a vast area in the three counties of Changbei, Antu and Fusong and boasts scenic spots such as the Heavenly Pond, waterfalls, and groups of hot springs and grand canyons.

In Tonghua, there is the Tomb of General Yang Jingyu. In Ji'an, there are the Wandu mountain city; Donggou Ancient Tombs; the General Mausoleum known as the "oriental pyramid" and the stone tablet of King Haotai. Furthermore, there is the Liao Pagoda in Nong'an and the group of volcanoes at Yitong.