The youthful Bayinhui troupe performing local Jincheng opera.	Jincheng municipal Party Secretary Li Yanhong (front left) and Mayor Xia Zhengui (back right) welcome China Today reporters.	Mayor Xia Zhengui with China Today reporters.

Shanxi province, at the center of the Loess plateau, is the acknowledged cradle of the Chinese nation. Jincheng city in southeast Shanxi, on the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River, has an even greater claim to glory; it is where humanity was saved from perishing in a mighty deluge -- according to Chinese mythology that is.

Legend tells of a fierce battle between the gods of fire and water in what is now Jincheng. Mount Buzhou, which supported the sky, collapsed when struck by the head of the vanquished water god. The heavens tilted northwest, the earth shifted southeast, and the world’s oceans were displaced, wreaking havoc on humanity. The goddess Nüwa took pity on this mortal plight and mended the sky in five different shades of stone, thus saving humankind from watery extinction.

Jingcheng’s 5,000-year-long history renders it a veritable cache of fascinating folkways and cultural treasures. It is where Shen Nong the Divine Farmer helped Chinese ancestors make the transition from a pastoral-nomad way of life to farming. It is also backdrop to the story Yugong Yi Shan - the Foolish Old Man that Moved the Mountain - whose moral, where there’s a will there’s a way, made it a particular favorite of Mao Zedong.

Shanxi’s Leading Light in Industry, Sci-tech and Agricultural Processing

For all its historical eminence, Jincheng, comprising six counties, covering an area of 9,494 sq km and with a population of 2.2m, is actually a new city. It was upgraded from county status in 1985.

As might be expected of any location in Shanxi Province, Jincheng is rich in coal as well as history. A full half of its territory contains anthracite reserves that constitute one quarter of the national total. It was smokeless Jincheng anthracite that kept the British royal family warm during WW2, before the advent of central heating.

Jincheng is also abundant in iron, steel, zinc, gold and copper and is a main producer of HEP, new building materials, precision castings and ipods. It is a key national coal chemical and IT industry base and center of tourism. Its 300,000 kw power plant supplies electricity to both Shanghai municipality and Jiangsu province.

Jincheng also has a flourishing farm and agricultural produce processing industry, based on vegetables, grains, nuts and Chinese medicinal ingredients. It has abundant fishery and animal husbandry resources and is a main producer of silk and hemp.

The many laurels that have been heaped on Jincheng include: Shanxi’s National civilized city, Sci-tech garden city; National Garden City; National Excellent City in Comprehensive Administration and Public Order; National Advanced City in Science and Technology Progress; Model city of Environment Protection in Shanxi Province; Excellent Tourism City; and Most Appealing Medium and Small City 2007 (as regards international investment in China), which took it into the “2006 Top 100 Cities for Investment in China.”

Vibrant Economy

Jincheng has always been at the forefront of Opening and Reform.

The imperative nature of rural development weighs heavily on its municipal government, under the leadership of Mayor Xia Zhengui. Emphasis on economy during the early 1980s inflicted hardship on farmers, who constitute 70 percent of Jincheng’s population. The closing down of many small industries created employment problems that compounded those of financial access to education and availability of medical services and potable water. At a meeting held in 1996 to address these problems, it was agreed that RMB 7.9 billion originally earmarked for industry be used instead to support agriculture. Jincheng now has 626 cu m per capita water, and rural schoolchildren have been exempted from school fees since 2005. In the past year alone there have been 9 projects aimed at improving rural living standards.

Industrial development has also boomed in Jincheng in recent years. In 2006 Jincheng achieved a total industrial output of RMB 3,644 billion and financial revenue of RMB 7.9 billion.

Just one example of local enterprises that have benefited from Jincheng’s global vision are the Jincheng Tianze Chemical Company, which achieved a national high in profits from its manufacture of nitrogenous fertilizer, using Jincheng coal as raw material. Another is the Shengujinggong (Shanxi) Co Ltd, whose products have entered the international market.

Jincheng’s industrial dynamism and excellent invisible investment environment have secured the city 300 overseas investment projects. Implementation of a series of preferential policies has simplified formerly complex procedures and created a soft investment environment that nurtures enterprises and enhances commerce. Jincheng is now number one in the province in its successful attraction of overseas talents; it has signed 60 such undertakings. This has earned it the deserved epithet of a “mini Hong Kong.”

A further measure, bearing in mind the principle of harmonious scientific development, is the relocation project, which involves urbanization of villages and training farmers in new chemical industry skills. So far 2,288 administrative villages have been built out of a projected 6,000.

Economic and Technological Development Zone

The Jincheng Economic and Technological Development Zone, just 2 km east of Jincheng city, was built in August 1992. Factories line its broad roads and there are several universities and colleges nearby. Since its completion, the area has attracted investors in all fields, most notably photoelectric manufacturing, machine casting, and biopharmaceuticals. Taiwan billionaire Guo Taiming, for one, invested US$ 500 million in the Jincheng Foxconn Technology Industrial Park. The area is expected to create 30,000 new jobs, and the city governors have taken great pains to provide guaranteed preferential policies. Bureaus for tax, inspection of commodities, industry and commerce and public security have all been set up inside the development area for the convenience of investors. It also has a service center that handles formalities such as enterprise registration, project approval, purchase of land and hiring of labor.

Touristic Dividends

The benefits of Jincheng’s industrial strategy are manifold, but the most impressive new string to Jincheng’s economic bow is that of tourism. Its benefits are manifest in the city’s impressive per capita income. Residents of the recently built Huangcheng (Imperial City) Village earn an annual RMB 30,000 - equal to that in Beijing, Shanghai and other main Chinese cities. This impressive achievement is attributable to tourism, via well-advised social investment.

Zhang Chunguang, her husband and daughter are one family out of 2,000 villagers that were relocated to Huangcheng’s 640 units, from the former Prime Minister’s Palace nearby.

Each home in the village is composed of 3 floors -- a cellar for storage, a main living area on the 2nd floor, and a third floor that is rented out to tourists. The apartments are clean, spacious and equipped with everything the tourist, whether domestic or international, could possibly need for a short stay. This social investment of RMB 100 million by these relocated villagers, who also built their new homes, has paid gratifying dividends.

Visitors to the Jincheng are spoilt for choice as to what to see and do. They can bask in the natural beauty of the protected Manghe Nature Zone -- home to the Macaque monkey, and the Qizi Mountain Zone -- habitat of the giant salamander, as well as the Wangmangling Scenic spot, which is famous for its colorful yew trees. Jincheng is also site of the biggest cluster of limestone caves in North China.

Jincheng’s Museum of Ancient Architecture includes examples dating back to the year 1100. The city is also site of Buddhist temples built in 6AD containing Buddhist sculptures of similar antiquity. The Ming (1368-11644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasty official’s residences and Liu family dwelling are also open to the public.

Blue Sky Project

Jincheng’s predominant coal industry is belied by the city’s conspicuous greenness; it has 33.6 percent forest coverage, a 45.3 percent green ratio and 15.5 sq m per capita green land. Urban green coverage is 35 percent -- 45 percent at the city center -- an extent that puts the national average of 18 percent to shame.

The city has Mayor Xia Zhengui to thank for its abundance of green areas. A native of Jincheng born into a farming family, Mayor Xia was among the first group of Chinese Communist Party members to study overseas after passing the 1979 college entrance examination. While a student in Singapore he became convinced of the benefits of planting trees and flowers, rather than just grass.

Mayor Xia Zhengui has implemented measures that keep Jincheng from being besmirched by its main industry. Jincheng taxis run on gas rather than oil, which considerably reduces emissions, and the city’s industrial supplies of gas and coal preclude the use of wood as fuel. Coal waste, such as coal water that is used for irrigation, is recycled, making it a renewable resource, and coal methane beds are used to heat water. All these measures cut down on consumption of natural resources.

Its low investment threshold notwithstanding, industrial projects in Jincheng must be environmentally friendly and meet official standards. These stringent measures have brought positive results. In 2006 Jincheng proudly reported 293 days of grade 2 quality air, as compared to the 2001 figure of just 28 days.

Personages and Performances

Jincheng has more than its fair share of venerable sons, from Jing Hao, the renowned traditional landscape painter from the Five Dynasties Period (386-589) to modern writer Zhao Shuli (1906-1970) to whom a museum in the outskirts of the city is dedicated.

Around 80 percent of Jincheng residents are descended from the same generation as Chen Tingjing, who was prime minister to Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) during his 61-year reign.

Chen Tingjing wrote poetry from the age of nine and was a scholar at the Institute of Literature. During his 53 years as a government official in 28 official posts he was also one of the chief editors of the renowned Kangxi Dictionary. His palace, relatively humble for a man of his status, is surrounded by smaller abodes in which the common populace lived.

The Prime Minister’s Palace, as it is known, has been the backdrop to the TV dramas Emperor Kangxi and Qidan Queen. It is the scene of a grand daily dramatization, performed by a cast of hundreds in full period costume, of the meeting between Emperor Kangxi and Prime Minister Chen Tingjing to discuss their work on the Kangxi Dictionary. At the backyard of the palace, there is musical performance of local Jincheng opera, known as Shangdang bayinhui when the young Bayinhui troupe of musicians play airs and arias on eight local instruments originating in the Shangdang. Their presentation is an audiovisual feast that, given adequate exposure, merits a world tour by these vital young exponents of Jincheng opera.