Gansu is located on the upper reaches of the Yellow River, in a region where the Loess Plateau, Inner Mongolia Plateau, and Qinghai-Tibet Plateau meet. It is one of the birthplaces of Chinese nationality and its culture. The province covers an area of 425,800 square kilometers and has a population of 26.0334 million. Gansu province has under its jurisdiction 12 municipalities, 2 autonomous prefectures and 86 counties. Its plane figure shows a dumbbell-like shape, with 1655 kilometers from east to west and 530 kilometers from north to south. Gansu can be divided into six different parts according to its terrain and geomorphologic structure, namely, Longnan (south Gansu) mountainous area, Longzhong (central Gansu) Loess Plateau, Gannan Plateau, Hexi Corridor, Qilian mountainous area and the areas to the north of Hexi Corridor. Mountains, plateaus, plains, valleys, desert and Gobi desert criss-cross here. Its land resources consist mainly of 30 per cent of mountains, 30 per cent of grasslands, 20 per cent of sands, 10 per cent of forests and 10 per cent of fields. Gansu extends across the valleys of the Yangtze River, the Yellow River, and inland rivers with a total annual volume of flow of 60.3 billion cubic meters. Its average annual precipitation is 300 millimeters and annual evaporation 2800 millimeters. There are 45 ethnic minorities in Gansu, among which Yugu, Dongxiang and Bao'an nationalities are exclusive to the province. The province has Gannan Tibet Autonomous Prefecture and Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture as well as 7 autonomous counties.

The comparative advantages and favorable conditions of the province are as follows:

1. Locational advantages:
Gansu is the regional center of five provinces and autonomous regions in northwest China. It is situated in the central area of the economic belt along Longhai and Lanxing railway lines with new Eurasian Continental Bridge traversing the whole territory. The capital city of Lanzhou is the center of the flow of manpower, goods, and information. It is also the hub of transportation and communications in northwest china.4 railway lines including Longhai, Lanxing, Baolan, Lanqing and 4 trunk optical cables including Xining-Lanzhou-Urumqi, Beijing-Huhehot-Yinchuan-Lanzhou, Lanzhou-Xining-Lhasa, Lanzhou-Chengdu join here. State highway 312, 212 and 109 converge in the province. Gansu can be considered as an important strategic place for developing western market, it is the only province with the locational advantages of connecting west and east as well as linking north and south in northwest China. Gansu radiates the markets of 8 provinces in west China and further extends to central and western Asia, the Commonwealth of Independent States and Mongolia. It is an ideal place for business people to invest, develop and share the western market.

2. Advantages in agricultural recourses:
Gansu province has a vast land, with 2.16 mu (0.36 acres) arable land per capita, ranking 6th in china. The total output of grains in the province amounts to 7.893 million ton, and per mu yields 210.5 kilogram in 2003. As one of the five major pasturelands in China, Gansu covers an area of 249 million mu (41 million acres), accounting for 31.7 per cent of the total area. The vast lands, different climates, rich species, abundant sunshine, great difference in temperature between day and night make it a good place for developing agriculture with local characteristics. Gansu is one of the strongest provinces in terms of animal husbandry throughout China producing meat, animal skin and hair, milk, cashmere, etc. Being one of the major producers of medicinal herbs it has some 950 kinds of traditional Chinese medicinal herbs, among which wild medicinal herbs rank the first place in China.

3. Abundant mineral and energy resources:
81 kinds of minerals have been proved up in Gansu, of which 29 kinds rank among top five in China, 53 kinds rank among top ten and the reserves of nickel, cobalt, selenium, platinum, clay for casting mould, and serpentine for decoration use rank the first in china. The province also has certain advantages in coal, petroleum, water energy, nuclear energy, and solar and wind energy.

4. Rich tourism resources:
Gansu has a long history, splendid culture, colorful minority customs and beautiful natural scenery. There are 43 cultural relics under state protection and 526 cultural relics under provincial protection. It has places of interest such as Mogao Grottoes, "the world's art treasure house"; Maijishan Grottoes, "the museum of oriental sculptures"; Jiayuguan Pass, "the most strategic pass under heaven"; and Mount Kongtong, known as "the first famous Taoist mountain". In addition, Gansu has places like Qin'an Dadiwan ruins in Tianshui city which is much earlier than Banpo ruins; Fuxi Temple, the birthplace of Fuxi, who was the first ancestor of human studies that created characters and calendar; the White Pagoda Temple in Wuwei city, the witness place of Tibet's inclusion in China's territory; the bronze galloping horse unearthed in Leitai, Wuwei city, which is the symbol of Chinese tourism industry. The province has a collection of 420,000 pieces of cultural relics kept in museums, among which are 3300 pieces of first class cultural relics, 30 pieces of national treasures. Gansu province also has 8 state-grade natural reservations, 11 forest parks, and 3 scenic spots.

Social and economic development in recent years:

1 The comprehensive economic strength has been enhanced obviously and the people's living standard has seen steadily progress.
In 2003, the province's GDP has totaled over 129.3 billion Yuan with an annual growth rate of 10.1%. The local revenue amounted to 8.67 billion Yuan with the growth rate of 15.7%. The fiscal revenue rose from 14.697 billion Yuan to 17.56 billion Yuan with the growth rate of 18.2%. And the financial expenditure reached to 30.01 billion Yuan. The urban and rural per capita disposable income increased to 6650 Yuan and 1670 Yuan, with an increase rate of 8.1% and 5% respectively than that of the last year. Works on assistance to the poor and well-off society construction have been smoothly advanced. 940,000 rural people have solved the difficulty on drinking water, 400,000 rural people of absolute poverty have assured the basic need last year. What is more, 600,000 people of low income have assured the necessary need stably. The added value of industrial enterprises above scale has totaled 38.8 billion Yuan with a growth rate of 13%, which made 2003 the most rapid increase year. It is the first time for industrial enterprises above scale to obtain profits above 3 billion Yuan, and with a growth rate of 43.5%.

2 The economic structure has been further optimized and quality of economic growth has been continuously improved.
The proportion of the first, second and tertiary industry adjusted from 24.29:43.95:31.76 in 1997 to 18.43:45.65:35.92 in 2002. The overall agricultural quality has been improved and the pattern of taking grain as major products has been broken through. The plantation structure tends to be optimized. Industry with local characteristics and agricultural products have found their advantages, furthermore, the agricultural industrialization takes shape initiatively. In 1999, only 3 kinds of agricultural products ranked second and third respectively for their plantation area and output in the country. By 2002, that of 12 kinds ranked first. The industry is developing with reforms and its structure is optimized in development. An economic pattern has been basically formed with state-owned large and medium-sized enterprises and groups as its backbone and coexisted with the non-public ownership and mixed ownership economies. The advantages of the key industries like petrochemical, non-ferrous metal, metallurgy, electricity, machinery, electronics, building materials, textile, food and tobaccos have been strengthened. The new and high-tech industries with Gansu's characteristics have come into being initially in the fields of electronic information, bio-pharmacy, optical electromechanical integration, energy-saving and environmental protection. In 2003, the town and township enterprises have realized added value of 27.86 billion Yuan with an increase rate of 18.1%. The total volume of retail sales of consumer goods increased to 47.4 billion Yuan by the rate of 9.5%.

3 The infrastructure facilities and the ecological environment have been improved.
The investment of the total fixed assets reached 65 billion Yuan with a growth rate of 13% in 2003. There were 14 expressways that finished construction or were under construction with a total mileage of 1016 kilometers last year. The total mileage of repaired and newly built roads at grade was 2500 kilometers. The transport capacities of railway and civil aviation have been reinforced and the transportation conditions have been improved. There is breakthrough in the construction of telecommunication infrastructure facilities and the telecommunication networks have almost covered the whole province. The urban public facilities and rural infrastructure facilities have been further improved. With the strategy of the western region development, a group of ecologic construction projects with the key of restoring cultivated land to forestry, protection of the natural forestry has been carried out step by step. The afforestation area has reached 8.965 million mu (1.48 million acres), among which 8 billion mu (1.32 million acres) cultivated land restored to forestry, and the survival rate was above 85% in 2003. The area of enclosed pasture and grassland was 12.05 million mu (1.98 million acres) in 2002. The afforestation engineering projects on the South and North Mountains in Lanzhou and the treatment projects in 40 ecological counties have been inspected and accepted successfully. The recovery and conservation of natural grassland has been undergoing smoothly. And the pilot project of restoring pasture to grassland has begun. In last three years, about 9,674.6 square kilometers land of soil erosion and 3,609 square kilometers desert land have been treated. The comprehensive treatment project on Heihe River has initiated in an all-round way. Great efforts have been made to protect the environment. Many polluted resources have been controlled effectively and the treatment of air pollution in Lanzhou has made remarkable progress.

4 The tertiary industry has developed rapidly.
In 2002, the tertiary industry of Gansu province has finished the added value of 4.17 million Yuan, accounting for 35.9% of the province's GDP, and 3.3343 million people have been employed. Lanzhou has become the business center in northwest China with the establishment of over 1800 markets with various commodities. Compared with the figures in 1993, market turnover value raised from 3.91 billion Yuan to 18.83 billion Yuan, 3.8 times that of 1993. The total value of the retailed commodity rose from 6.25 billion Yuan to 19.05 billion Yuan, twice of that than before. The added value of the tertiary industry rose from 3.61 billion Yuan to 16.77 billion Yuan, 3.6 times than before. The proportion of the tertiary industry among the three industries rose from 28.25% to 43.3%. The market system is increasingly improved and the function of circulation services is strengthened. The exchanges of talents, goods, capitals and information are comparatively active. The pattern of large trade, large circulation and large market has come into being, which extends the area of 4 million square km in western eight provinces with a population of 300 million.

5 A fine situation of reform and opening up has been initially established.
Gansu has already established trade relations with 105 countries and regions all over the world. About 1600 foreign-funded enterprises and 120 foreign-invested institutions have been approved and set up in Gansu. At present, the province's development has been marching in a pattern of multi-level, wide-range and all-round way. In 2003, the total amount of export and import reached 1.22 billion US dollar, 39 percent increase compared to last year, and the total amount of export was 0.81 billion US dollar with a growth rate of 48%.
                                                 
6 Science, education and other social affairs have been developed entirely.
72.9% of the total population in 59 counties (including county level city and district) in the province has reached the level of "two bases" (basically popularized the nine-year compulsory education and basically wipe out illiterate at young and adult age). There are 25 colleges and universities with an enrollment number of 76 thousand in 2003, 99 technical secondary schools and 80 secondary occupational and technical schools, 7 key laboratories and engineering and technology research institutions at state level, 15 at provincial and ministerial level in the province. There are 937 scientific research institutions with 71.1 thousand professionals and 440 thousand technicians with different kinds of specialties. There are 75 art performing troupes, 83 cultural palaces and 67 museums. The comprehensive population coverage rate of broadcasting and television are 88.9% and 89.37% respectively. There are 11021 public health units at various levels in the whole province. In 2003, the population-accreting rate is 6.1‰. Gansu is the first province to reach low-birth-rate level in northwest poor area of China. 100 thousand job opportunities were created and 80 thousand lay-off workers found their new job last year. And the urban registered unemployment rate was 4%. What is more, 580 thousand urban people have enjoyed national subsidy for low-income families, increased 111 thousand people compared to the number of the last year, the people demanding the insurance have enjoyed it fundamentally.

The developing goal of Gansu in late 20 years:
The Provincial Party Committee and Provincial People's Government have laid down the target for the next twenty years. That is to make a solid foundation in former ten years and accelerate the development in later ten years. The goal of the former ten years is: on the basis of optimizing structure and increasing economic returns, try to make the economic growth rate higher than the national average level, namely to reach the annual growth rate of above 9%. Doubling the 2000 GDP by 2008, and people will live in a well-off society on the whole. The urban and rural per capita disposable income will be 10,500 Yuan and 2560 Yuan respectively. The proportion of the first, second and tertiary industry will be adjusted to 13:48:39, the urbanization rate will increase one percent each year and to 34% above in the end. The transition from beginning period to middle period of industrialization will be finished, and the social businesses will be developed in an all-round way.

The goal of the later ten years is: basically build up a well-off society in an all-round way; residents in regions with favorable conditions will live in well-off society first; the social production force and comprehensive economic strength will be built up entirely. The economic growth rate will be about 10%, in the year of 2016, the GDP will be doubled than in 2000, GDP per capita will reach 21,200 Yuan. The per capita disposable income of households in cities and towns will reach 20,700 Yuan, and the per capita net income of peasant households will reach 5,050 Yuan. The structure of the three industries will be optimized to a reasonable one. 45% of the regional countryside in the province will be urbanized. At that time, new industrial pattern will come to shape and the sustainability will be strengthened, furthermore, material civilization, political civilization and spiritual civilization will develop in a harmonious manner.