Geography
Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou Province, is located in the central part of Guizhou at a point between 106 degrees and 107 degrees east longitude, and between 26 degrees and 27 degrees north latitude. The city lies in a basin at 1,071 meters (3,514 feet) on the Nanming River and is surrounded by mountains.
With a total area of 8,034 sq km, the city administers,Yunyan, Nanming, Huaxi, Wudang and Baiyun districts, Qingzhen City and Xiuwen, Xifeng and Kaiyang counties with a total population of 3.06 million. Guiyang City has a population of nearly 1 million, with Han people accounting for 87 percent and ethnic minorities, 13 percent. It has 38 ethnic groups including Han, Miao, Bouyei, Hui and Dong. Guiyang has a complex landforms with the highest altitude reaching 1,702 meters above sea level and the lowest only 506 meters.
It belongs to humid and mild sub-tropical climate with an annual temperature averaging 15 degrees centigrade, an annual precipitation of 1,200 millimeters, and having 270 frost-free days a year.

Natural Resources
Guiyang is rich in minerals, energy and tourism resources. It has 109,500 hectares of farmland, 145,200 hectares of grassy
hills and mountain slopes, and 112,600 hectares of forests with a tree coverage of over 20%.  It has more than 2,400 wild plant species, 800 cultivated plant species and 170 herbal plant species.  It also has more than 200 wild animals including 13 rare ones.
Guiyang has verified 30 minerals, of which the reserves of bauxite are estimated at 280 million tons, phosphate rock at 405 million tons, and coal at 895 million tons. Guiyang has a total generating capacity of 2.47 million kilowatts, and its potential waterpower amounts to one million kilowatts. Its beautiful scenery and colorful ethnic minority customs and habits have helped the city to offer a unique tour from the Dragon Palace to Huangguoshu Waterfall, the revolutionary and historic city of Zunyi, the Fanjing Mountain Nature Reserve, the Shijin Cave and the Baili Dujuanlin.

Economic Development
Guiyang is a central open city of the hinterland of Guizhou.  In 1995, its gross domestic product (GDP) reached 14.911 billion yuan averaging 4,879 yuan per capita.  The added value of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries was 1.732 billion yuan, 8.061 billion yuan and 5.117 billion yuan, respectively.  The city's industry has 14 sectors in 65 categories ranging from machinery, chemicals, metallurgy, food processing and electronics to the light industry and textiles.

Industry
Guiyang is now a key aluminum industrial production center, an export-oriented abrasive and grinding apparatus production center, a drilling steel research and an export-oriented production center, and a precision optical instrument and meters production center in China.
The Guiyang Cigarette Factory, Guizhou Aluminum Plant and Guizhou Tire Plant have joined the rank of the top 500 enterprises in the country in terms of economic strength.  Guiyang is Guizhou's largest commodity market and goods  distribution center.  Its market is flourishing. Its export-oriented economy and foreign trade grow steadily, and tourism expands rapidly.  Progress has been made in banking and insurance business, and the local financial sector has been strengthened.
Locally-mined coal and hydroelectricity form the basis of Guiyang's power industry. Its aluminum plant mines, smelts and processes local bauxite. Chemicals, fertilizers and plastics are also produced. Local cotton and synthetic yarn is woven and
there is a growing garment trade. Paper is made from timber cut in the province. Various machinery is being produced with iron and steel; large corporations are manufacturing diggers, trucks, tractors and small buses. Automobiles will become very important in the future. Processing of food and liquors including Maotai, cement and building materials, the recent hi-tech industries such as electronic precision instruments and optics are all contributing to the industrial development of this expanding city.
The Guiyang High-tech Industrial Development Zone, the
provincial Guiyang Economic and Technology Development Zone and the Baiyun Economic Development Zone have taken shape.  The establishment of a number of high-tech national defense military industrial enterprises and foreign-funded businesses has greatly enhanced Guiyang's overall economic strength and its development potential.
Adhering to the principle of "relying on the city, bringing prosperity to rural areas, and urban and rural areas joining hands in developing together," Guiyang has strengthened farmland capital construction while carrying out "basket
project", "greening project", and the harvest plan to boost farm, forestry, animal husbandry, sideline production and fishery and rural industry.

 

Infrastructure Construction
In recent years, Guiyang has widened and transformed 14 trunk roads and 80 streets and lanes.  It has built a number of high-grade highways including the eastern exit road, southwest round-the-city road, Huaxi Road and Guiyang-Huangguoshu and Guiyang-Zunyi highways.  Guiyang is a key transport hub in southwest China, where the Hunan-Guizhou, Sichuan-Guizhou, Yunnan-Guizhou and Guangxi-Guizhou electrified railways meet.
Its southern railway station is the largest railway marshaling yard in the southwest region. With a marshaling capacity of 8,000, it handles 1.5 million tons of cargo a year, and has built an international container storage yard.
Guiyang has more than 20 air routes linking the city to other cities in the country and to Hong Kong.  It will soon open international air routes to Tokyo and Bangkok. The Guiyang Airport is situated at Huaxi, a two hours' drive from the city proper. 
The city has 263,800-line urban program control telephone switching system, and its paging and mobile telephone services have more than 100,000 customers.
The city's electricity production rose at an annual rate of 10% during the 1991-95 period, its urban supply of tap water was 530,000 tons a day, averaging 190 liters per capita.  Now 96% of urban households have access to tap water, and 60% of families to cooking gas.  The green coverage rate is 34.19% averaging 13.01 square meters of public green space per capita.  Major roads, parks, playgrounds and the city are surrounded by trees and lawns.

Promising Prospects
With the deepening of the reform and opening wider to the outside world, Guiyang built three development zones between the late 1980s and the early 1990s.  At present, these zones have taken the lead in the city's economic growth and piloting.
Since the State Council approved Guiyang as a hinterland open city that enjoys the same policy granted to the coastal cities, Guiyang has met the requirements of the State Council and the Guizhou provincial government, and exercised the given power to pursued the concrete preferential policy governing taxation, customs, the use of land, enterprise self-management, the market of products and capital, and the management of foreign exchanges and exit and entrance.  It also offers a package service for overseas business people.

Specialty
Guizhou is a treasure house of handicrafts. It has a wide
variety of products at the hotel shops in Guiyang, the Cultural Relics Store, the Nationalities Department Store and the overseas Chinese Friendship Store.
Batik: the Miao and Bouyei are very skilled in the craft of batik. Local artists, inspired by traditional ethnic designs, have produced an interesting range of modern batik wall hangings.

Yuping flute: made in east Guizhou, is known throughout China for its quality and has won international awards.
Traditional Miao and Bouyei Embroidery and Jewelry: Outstanding examples of embroidery and full costumes are available in Guiyang. Copies of traditional silver jewelry in base metal make interesting gifts and souvenirs.