General Economy

Gross domestic product (GDP)

GDP for 2004 was 304.24 billion yuan, up 14.1% from the previous year.

GDP ratio (primary, secondary and tertiary industries)

The primary industry yielded a value added of 25.34 billion yuan, up 4.5% from the previous year; the secondary industry, 181.01 billion yuan, a growth of 16.8%; the tertiary industry, 97.89 billion yuan, a growth of 12.7%.

Revenue and expenditure

Provincial revenue was 53.35 billion yuan, an increase of 41.2% over the previous year. Provincial expenditure was 51.53 billion yuan, a growth of 24%.

Consumer price index (CPI)

CPI was up 4.1% from the previous year.

Investment in fixed assets

Fixed asset investment was valued at 145.85 billion yuan, up 30.6% from the previous year.

Major Industries

Agriculture

The total grain output was 10.62 billion kg, up 10.8% from the previous year.

Industry

The industrial added value totaled 156.85 billion yuan, an increase of 17.0%.

High-tech

The output value of high-tech industries accounted for 10% of the province's total industrial output value.

Construction

Its added value was 13.65 billion yuan, up 43.5%.

Transportation

The annual volume of goods handled by various modes of transportation was 1.13 billion tons, up 8.2%, while annual passenger flow reached 393.76 million, up 5.5%.

Postal services

The annual turnover of postal operations totaled 1.42 billion yuan, 16.9% up from the previous year.

Telecommunications

The annual turnover of telecom services was 20.32 billion yuan.

Retail

The annual turnover from retail sales reached 88.48 billion yuan, an increase of 21.3% from the previous year.

Tourism

Foreign exchange earnings from tourism reached US$81.233 million, up 123.9% from the 2003 figure. Revenue from domestic tourists stood at 15.4 billion yuan, up 56.3%.

Continued Effects of Market Reform

Imports & exports

The annual value of imports and exports totaled US$5.38 billion, an increase of 74.2% from the previous year.

Economic and technological cooperation

Overseas project and labor contracts signed during the year were valued at US$148.34 million, 7.1 times the 2003 figure. Business turnover for the year totaled US$301.34 million, 6.3 times the 2003 figure.

Foreign investment

The foreign direct investment realized in monetary terms was US$90.21 million.

Urban Construction and Management

Road transport

By the end of 2004, 2,512 km of railways and 65,813 km of highways, including 1,347 km of express highways, had been open to traffic.

Social Undertakings

Science and technology

In 2004, the patent offices across the province accepted 1,949 applications and granted 1,189 patents, up 11.8% and 1.2% respectively from the previous year. A total of 439 technological contracts were signed, they were valued at 599 million yuan.

Education

There were 72 institutions of higher learning at the end of 2004. The number of students enrolled in postgraduate schools and institutions of higher learning during the year stood at 4,146 and 107,500 respectively.

Culture

Shanxi had a total of 155 professional performing organizations, 119 cultural centers, 122 public libraries, 85 museums, 131 archives, 10 radio stations, and 12 TV stations.

Public health

There were a total of 9,390 medical and healthcare institutions equipped with 104,000 beds and staffed with some 144,000 medical professionals and technicians at the year-end.

Sports

The sports lottery reaped sales of 148 million yuan

Welfare and aid

3,041 welfare units across the province were equipped with 16,101 beds and put up 10,277 vagrant and homeless people during the year. The public welfare funds raised during the year totaled 131 million and public donations totaled 14.985 million. About 848,000 urban residents received minimum living allowances which totaled 646.399 million from the government.

Poverty relief

About 1 million rural residents began to have an easier access to drinking water, and about 400,000 people living in poverty began to have enough to eat and wear.

Population, Employment, Social Security and Living Standards

Population

The year 2004 saw births of 410,900, or a birth rate of 12.36‰, and deaths of 203,100 or a mortality rate of 6.11‰. The natural growth rate of the population stood at 6.25‰. The total population stood at 33.35 million at the year-end.

Employment

The employed population stood at 14.662 million at the end of 2004. About 417,000 new jobs were created, and 156,000 laid-off workers got re-employed during the year.

Registered unemployment rate

The registered urban unemployment rate was 3.2%.

Social security

In 2004, insurance plans for unemployment, endowments and medical treatment covered a population of 2.86 million, 3.46 million and 2.9 million respectively.

Residents' income

The disposable income of urban residents was 7,903 yuan per capita, up 12.8% from 2003, while rural residents' per capita net income was 2,590 yuan, a growth of 12.6% from the previous year.

Residents' consumption

Urban residents' per capita expenditure was 5,654 yuan, up 10.8% from the previous year, while rural residents' per capita expenditure was 1,637 yuan, up 14.4%.

Geography and Natural Conditions

Topography

Shanxi covers an area of 156,000 sq km, with forests constituting 20%, or about 3.44 million ha.

Natural resources

Mineral resources:
Shanxi abounds in mineral resources. Of more than 120 kinds of underground minerals so far discovered in the province, 53 have verified reserves. Of them, reserves of coal, bauxite, pearlite, gallium and zeolite rank first in the nation. The province is especially noted as the "kingdom of coal," with verified reserves amounting to 261.2 billion tons, accounting for one-third of the nation's total.

Flora resources:
Shanxi has about 1,700 species of known seed plants in 134 families, including more than 480 kinds of woody plants. In terms of flora resource distribution, the southern and southeastern parts of the province are richest in diversity of vegetation types and plant species. They include broadleaved deciduous forests, estival (summer) broadleaved forests composed chiefly of secondary deciduous shrubs, and mixed coniferous and broadleaved forests. The central part has vast expanses of forests, mainly composed of coniferous forests, mesophytic deciduous scrub forests and estival broadleaved forests. The northern and northwestern parts are rich in temperate bushes and semiarid grassland, but have fewer forests. Dominant plants there include Chinese silver grass, xeric wormwood, caragana microphylla and sea-buckthorn. Relatively speaking, Shanxi lacks forest resources, being .one of China's most deficient provinces.

However, it abounds in wild plants. Of the more than 1,000 species so far discovered, there are over 90 species of wild medicinal plants widely distributed in hilly areas. Famous ones include Codonopsis pilosola, Astragalus membranaceus, liquorice and weeping golden bell. Major wild fiber plants include nilghiri nettle, splendid achnatherum, Chinese small iris, kudzu vines, chaste trees and Chinese alpine rush.

Fauna resources:
There are more than 400 species of terrestrial wild animals in Shanxi, including some 70 species of rare animals under state protection. The 14 species under first-class protection include white stork, black stork, golden eagle, sea eagle, vulture, brown pheasant, red-crowned crane, great bustard, leopard, tiger and sika deer. The 56 species under second-class protection comprise 40 kinds of birds, two kinds amphibians and 14 kinds of beasts. In addition, there are more than 20 species of fur-bearing animals, including otter, Marten foina, raccoon-dog, leopard cat, yellow weasel, badger and fox. Table animals include hare, wild boar, ring-necked pheasant, rock partridge and partridge. There are also more than 70 species of medicinal-supplying animals.

Water resources:
Water resources total 15.24 billion cubic meters.

The province is deficient in surface water, but the available resources are evenly distributed. There are eight rivers, each with a length of over 150 km. The total volume of river water runoff stands at 11.4 billion cubic meters, a figure, slightly more than that in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, ranking last but one nationally.

Generally originating from eastern and western mountainous areas, all rivers in Shanxi are outflow ones, belonging to either the Yellow or Haihe river systems. Generally speaking, rivers running west and south belong to the Yellow River system, while those flowing east belong to the Haihe River system. The Yellow River drainage area totals 97,503 sq km, accounting for 62.2% of Shanxi's total land area. The Haihe River drainage area covers 59,320 sq km, constituting 37.8% of the total land area. Shanxi has 1,214.6 billion cubic meters of underground water resources, but only 45% of them are recoverable. They are mainly distributed on the fringe of basins and in provincial border areas.

Tourism resources

Shanxi abounds in tourism resources. Famous spots include the Yungang Caves at Datong City in the north, Wutai Mountain, a sacred place of Buddhism in the central part, and the falls at Hukou in the south, the only waterfall on the Yellow River.

The province also encompasses the country's largest temple of martial valor – the Guan Yu Shrine at Xiezhou – and one of the four large whispering buildings in China, the Yingying Pagoda of Pujiu Temple in Yongji County.

Statistics show that Shanxi now preserves a total of 31,401 unmovable cultural relics of different kinds. They comprise 2,639 ruins of ancient monuments, 1,666 ancient graves, 18,118 old buildings and memorial structures of historic interest, 300 grottoes and temples, 360 sites bearing ancient vertebrate fossils, 6,852 sites with stone inscriptions and 1,466 old revolutionary sites and memorial buildings.

There are 12,345 painted sculptures in these old buildings and memorial structures of historic interest and 26,751 square meters of murals in old temples. Therefore, the province has broad prospects for developing tourism based on its rich cultural relics to make it a pillar sector of the economy.