Jiangxi Province

Jiangxi Province in southeast China covers an area of 166,900 square kilometers and has a population of 36.95 million. Nanchang is the provincial capital.
With a sub-tropical humid climate and four distinctively separated seasons, the city of Nanchang boasts plentiful sunshine. There are numerous streams and lakes in Jiangxi, and Poyang Lake is the largest freshwater lake in China.

Jiangxi has long been known for its galaxy of talents. Of the eight great men of letters of the Tang and Song Dynasties, three were born in Jiangxi. They were Wang Anshi, Zeng Gong, and Ouyang Xiu. In addition, Jiangxi was the birthplace of Zhu Xi, a famous scholar of the Middle Ages; Tang Xianzu, known as "Shakespeare of the East;" and Song Yingxing, the most accomplished scientist of the 17th century. These celebrities made outstanding contributions to ancient Chinese civilization.

Jiangxi boasts a unique landscape. The picturesque Lushan Mountain the north is an ideal summer resort. The Jinggang Mountain in the south, known as the cradle of China's Communist Revolution, represents a delicate combination of relics of China's revolution and beautiful landscape. The Sanqing Mountain and the Longhu Mountain in the northeast are known for the Taoist shrines. The beautiful Sanqing Mountain, the precipitous Huashan Mountain, the waterfalls of the Lushan Mountain, and the cloud-enveloped Hengshan Mountain--all having unique peaks and well-preserved vegetations--are world-famous tourist attractions. The Longhu Mountain is known as "China's miniature Guilin." The largest flock of white cranes in the world lives on Poyang Lake. Every year, several thousand white cranes come to live through the winter on the lake. The lake has become a "natural reserve of the world's rare birds." The Tengwang Pavilion, one of the three most famous buildings in Jiangxi Province, has been renovated recently.

Jiangxi has rich agricultural resources. It is one of China's major grain producers. Major crops include rice, wheat, soybeans, and potatoes. As a major producer of lumber and bamboo, the province has vast stretches of forests and bamboo. Major tree species include China fir, masson pine, camphor tree, and nanzhu. Jiangxi also boasts many specialties. The most famous include Nanfeng's orange, Nanchang's zhulan tea extract, Taihe's black-boned chicken and Guangchang's lotus roots. The province's traditional handicrafts include Yichun's bodiless lacquerware, Yujiang's wood carvings and Nanchang's porcelain engravings.

Jiangxi now has a well-established comprehensive industrial system. The porcelain industry, represented by the city of Jingdezhen, which is known as "capital of porcelain" in China, has enjoyed a high reputation both at home and abroad. With a long porcelain-making history to its credit, Jingdezhen is known for its flawless craftsmanship and trend-setting style in porcelain making. Its porcelain is "as white as jade, as bright as a mirror, as thin as paper, and with the sound of a bell when struck." The city's porcelain enjoys a brisk market in more than 100 countries and regions the world over. The most famous varieties include blue and white porcelain, colored glazed porcelain, exquisitely designed blue and white porcelain, and famille rose porcelain. These products have won many international awards. Jiangxi now has nearly 20,000 industrial enterprises and many of its large enterprises assume an important position in China's economy. For example, the Jiangxi Tractor Factory's "harvest-180" tractors have been well-received in dozens of countries and regions around the world. The Jiangxi Guixi Smeltery, the largest copper producer in China, is the first of its kind in China equipped with the advanced computer-controlled flash-smelting technology imported from abroad.

Jiangxi has rich mineral resources. Of the more than 150 kinds of minerals so far discovered in the world, 126 kinds have been found in Jiangxi. Minerals with the largest deposits in China include copper, tantalum, cesium, thallium, scandium, gold, silver, uranium, thorium, associated sulfur, and flux dolomite. Minerals whose deposits rank second in China include tungsten, selenium, tellurium, rubidium, and lithium. There are also rich deposits of porcelain clay, silty quartz, granite, marble, peralite, and other non-metal minerals.

Advantageously located, Jiangxi boasts convenient transport. From the Jiujiang Harbor, one can go downstream to the East China Sea. The province also has rail and air links with most of the big cities in China. Nanchang will be a major stop on the Beijing to Hong Kong railway line scheduled to open in 1997.

Since the late 1980s, the provincial authorities have adopted a sears of measures and policies to improve its investment environment. To this end, a group of organizations, including lawyers' offices, accountants' offices, foreign investment service companies, and provincial-level import/export companies have been set up.

Jiangxi is a treasure land waiting for development. Friends all over the world are welcome in Jiangxi for sightseeing; investment; or scientific, technical, cultural, and economic exchanges and cooperation.

Interesting facts not included in the brochure:
. During the Cultural Revolution, when Deng Xiaoping was out of favor with Chairman Mao Zedong, he was imprisoned (more like "house arrest") in Nanchang.

. Nanchang is the home of the Nanchang Airplane Manufacturing Plant, which makes military aircraft and the Silkworm Missile.

. The Communists first victory was taking over Nanchang on August 1, 1927; they lost control over Nanchang a few days later. Many places in Nanchang are given the name Ba Yi, which means August 1 (literally, eight one). . The public square in Nanchang--People's Square--is the second largest in China, after Beijing's Tiananmen Square. The monument there honors the August 1, 1927, Communist takeover of Nanchang.

. The main building at People's Square is an exhibition hall. Originally, Chairman Mao Zedong's face adorned it, but it was "removed for cleaning" and replaced by a red star in the mid-1980s. In the early 1990s, the star was replaced by neon advertising. Those changes seem to reflect changes in China.

. The Tengwang Pavilion of today was rebuilt in the 1980s, and opened in 1989; a pavilion has been on that site off and on since the Tang Dynasty. The original Tang Dynasty Tangweng pavilion is featured in a famous Tang Dynasty literary work (that work is what gives the current Tangwang Pavilion its "claim to fame"). . Lushan Mountain was a retreat for Western missionaries during the first half of the twentieth century.

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