By GAO YAN & LIU HUANZHI

IN Feicheng City, central Shandong Province, can be found the world's largest peach orchard, recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records as covering 6,667 hectares. In spring, the city is permeated with the fragrance of peach blossom.

Home of the "Buddha Peach"

Sketch map of Feicheng

Peach growing in Feicheng has a history of 1,100 years. The Feicheng peach is distinctive for its size, juiciness, and sweet taste. In the Ming and Qing dynasties this fruit was given as tribute to the imperial court, hence its name -- "Buddha Peach." In this city of 1,277 square kilometers, 6,667 hectares are set aside for peach cultivation.

In general, the weight of a peach is 200 grams, but in Feicheng, it is 350 grams, and the biggest at 900 grams is known as the "king of peaches." This may be attributed to the city's unique climate and fertile soil. Feicheng produces peaches four seasons of the year, with a total annual output of 50,000 tons. It currently produces several varieties under the brand name "Xianle", including the "Buddha peach," nectarine, and honey peach. Products processed from peaches include peach juice, fruit wine and candied peach. Feicheng peaches and related products are currently exported to more than 20 countries and regions, such as Japan, the Republic of Korea and Southeast Asia.

In 1994, Feicheng peaches won a gold medal at the First National Exposition of Famous, Excellent, Special and Rare Forestry Products. In 1995, Feicheng was named by the state "home of the Buddha Peach," and in 1996, Feicheng peaches were the designated fruit for the 11th Asian Games. In 1999, Feicheng peaches were named a "famous-brand product" at the China International Agricultural Exposition, and won top prize in the category of melons, fruits and vegetables at the Kunming World Horticulture Exposition.

The Feicheng Chemical Fertilizer Plant, one of China's top 500 enterprises.

Beautiful peach blossoms are a characteristic of Feicheng tourism. Its sea of flowers forms a natural, revitalizing "oxygen bar." In the spring of 2002, Feicheng held its first Peach Blossom Tourism Festival, following the principle of "using flowers as a matchmaker, attracting outside investment, developing tourism, expanding influence, and stimulating the local economy." The peach blossoms in the 100,000-mu peach orchard drew numerous tourists and merchants.

As an agricultural city, nearly 80 percent of Feicheng residents are farmers. In the process of industrializing its agriculture, Feicheng has developed its own characteristics. It is a leading pollution-free producer in Shandong and nationwide. Organic farming production bases in Feicheng have increased to a level of 10,000 hectares, and eight products have obtained certification as national-level green food and provincial-level pollution-free food.

Feicheng currently has five pillar industries -- grain, fruits, vegetables, sericulture, and animal husbandry. Of its 32 registered farm and by-product trademarks, 11 have been designated famous brand names by the state and province. The 500-hectare organic vegetables certified by the Organic Crops Improvement Association (OCIA), the 600-hectare green ginger certified by the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture, and the 400-hectare pollution-free melons, fruits and vegetables certified by the provincial agriculture department are new economic growth points within the rural economy. They have injected new vitality into Feicheng's agricultural development.

Economic Returns

A corner of the urban district.

In the past, Feicheng peaches were famous only in China, but now Feicheng is opening to the rest of the world. The peach orchard was formerly reserved, but now the Feicheng people are eager to let the world know of their desire for development, and to share their resources with people of the world.

In order to attract outside investment, the Feicheng residents grasp every opportunity to make themselves known to the rest of the world, and take advantage of their world-famous name card: Feicheng peaches.

Liu Weidong, mayor of Feicheng City, told reporters, "At this time, we have developed an innovative ideology and taken reform measures. In our government work, we emphasize five key points -- attracting investment, industrial development, the non-public owned economy, agricultural industrialization, and carrier construction. We exert ever greater efforts to attract investment and try to make breakthroughs in overall reform."

In recent years, Feicheng's favorable investment environment has been acknowledged in other parts of China and the world. Feicheng has made attracting outside investment a top priority. In 2001, Feicheng introduced 595 joint-venture and cooperative projects, involving foreign investment of US $9.08 million. Liu Weidong said, "The Beijing Mingtian Group invested 100 million yuan in Feicheng's Acid Chemicals Co., Ltd., and the Shandong Longda Group established the Lulong Foodstuff Company in Feicheng, because they are optimistic about our investment environment and preferential policies. A group of enterprises that experienced difficulties improved their situation by introducing outside investment, and some large state-owned enterprises and local enterprises have formed a regional community. For instance, the Shiheng Special Steel Company invested 1.1 billion yuan in a million-ton steel and million-ton rolled steel project, and the Feikuang Group invested 1.2 billion yuan in the electrolytic aluminum project. In a city of less than 1 million people, this is without doubt a great boost to its economy.

"Development is of overriding importance. It is only by accelerating development that we can make our country prosper. Compared with developed regions in the country, we know that we are still rather conservative in our attitude. There are also quite a few factors restricting our development. We therefore take development as the yardstick with which to measure our work. We have placed our hopes on attracting outside investment. During 2002, Feicheng's goal has been to draw in 1,200 yuan of outside investment per capita, and to break US $10 million in utilized foreign investment."

A school computer class in Feicheng.

Over the past two years, Feicheng has made great achievements as regards inviting investment, which has resulted in enlivenment of the local economy.

In 2001, Feicheng's income from sales of industrial products increased by 30 percent. Its chemicals, textiles, electronics, machine processing and agricultural products processing developed rapidly. More than 40 foreign-funded enterprises have been established in Feicheng, including the largest formic acid production project in Asia, and the largest universal coupling and automobile water pump factories in China. Feicheng's non-public owned enterprises are also developing rapidly, and a group of key enterprises and industrial parks are emerging. Last year, six projects invested by non-public owned enterprises exceeded 10 million yuan.

Getting to Know the World

The Feicheng people are determined to get to know the world and for the world to know about Feicheng. They work in a down-to-earth style, and regard opening to the outside world as the means through which to develop their city.

In the past, Feicheng was regarded as an out-of-the-way place, but these days its transportation facilities develop with each passing day. The Beijing-Fuzhou Expressway and four provincial-level highways traverse the city, and it is less than an hour's bus journey to Jinan, and stations on the Beijing-Shanghai and Beijing-Kowloon Railways. Not far from it are three expressways (Jinan-Qingdao, Jinan-Zhengzhou and Beijing-Shanghai) and National Highway 104. The Tai'an-Feicheng Class-One Highway is currently under construction, and will link up to the Beijing-Shanghai Expressway to the east and the Jinan-Zhengzhou Expressway to the west. Within its boundaries is a Beijing-Shanghai Railway feeder railway traversing the city from east to west, and three provincial trunk highways.

Since 1980 Feicheng has been a new city with a modern industrial system of considerable scale. Each of its towns has international direct dial facilities, and each village has access to asphalt roads and a program-controlled telephone service. In urban districts, households have gas pipelines, central heating, and cable TV, arousing envy in tourists from large cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. Following improvements to the city's infrastructure facilities, Feicheng's tourism has paved the way towards attracting outside investment.

Feicheng's education and science level is improving steadily, and it is a demonstration city for popularizing the scientific-technological achievements of Shandong Province. The city's high-tech development zone covers 10.7 square kilometers, and basic construction has been completed over an area of 1.1 square kilometers. It is a provincial-level development zone with a concentration of "Spark Program" projects.

Feicheng has established cooperative ties with 50 countries and regions, including the United States, Britain, Germany, Japan, Russia, the Republic of Korea, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Within the country, it has built close ties with 270 schools of higher learning, scientific research institutes and large and medium-sized enterprises. It has also established friendly ties with seven domestic counties and cities, and Japan's Ichinomiya Cho in Yamaguchi Prefecture.