Introduction to Zibo city

Xiaofu River Wetland Park in Zibo, Shandong province [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Zibo is located in the middle of East China's Shandong province, with Mount Tai to its south. It backs onto the Yellow River to the north, neighbors the spring city of Jinan to the west, and is adjacent to Weifang and Qingdao to the east. As a "larger city" approved by China's State Council, Zibo has local legislative power.

With a total area of 5,965 square kilometers and a permanent resident population of 4.7 million, it governs five districts – Zhangdian, Zichuan, Boshan, Zhoucun and Linzi – and three counties – Huantai, Yiyuan and Gaoqing – and the Zibo National New & Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone, Zibo Economic Development Zone and Wenchang Lake Provincial Tourism Resort.

In the first half of 2023, Zibo city – located in East China's Shandong province – generated GDP of 229.54 billion yuan ($31.42 billion), up 5.3 percent year-on-year. Its general public budget revenue in the period hit 20.53 billion yuan, a rise of 9.2 percent.

Zibo, a cultural city

As the birthplace of Qi culture, Zibo has a history of over 3,000 years and produced many notable historical and cultural figures, such as remarkable statesmen like Guan Zhong, Yan Ying, and Fang Xuanling, as well as outstanding writers such as Pu Songling, Zhao Zhixin, and Wang Yuyang.

It has given birth to the earliest government-run university in China – the Jixia Academy in Warring States Period (475-221 BC), the first Chinese management encyclopedia –Guanzi, the classic book on military strategy –Sun Tzu's Art of War, the first Chinese agricultural encyclopedia –Qimin Yaoshu, the first Chinese Engineering magnum opus –Kaogongji, and the world-famous short story collection –Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio.

Zibo is a fantastic city for tourists. It boasts numerous cultural and historical sites, such as the ruins of the ancient Qi state and the sacrificial horse pit in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770-256 BC), and is known to be the place where soccer first originated. It's also home to the folklore ofthe Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, and Zhoucun, a century-old commercial port town.

Qi culture, namely "openness, tolerance, innovation, mercantilism, and law-abidance", is one of the important sources of Chinese civilization and fits the reform and innovation era. Various model citizens have emerged here, such as Jiao Yulu, the role model for county Party secretaries, and Zhu Yanfu, the "Model of the Times".

Zibo, an industrial city

Located in one of the regions with early industry and mining, the city of Zibo – situated in East China's Shandong province – has a history of nearly 120 years of industrial development.

Some 39 of the 41 major categories of industries in the country have achieved large-scale development in Zibo, while its production and sales of more than 90 products ranks it in the top three in China.

At present, the city has formed a modern industrial system dominated by petrochemicals, fine chemicals, medicine and medical equipment, textiles, building materials, new materials, electronics information, automobiles and electromechanical equipment. In particular, Zibo has a major presence in the chemicals industry and it is a prefecture-level city with the most comprehensive support facilities for the sector in China.

In 2017, it was officially listed in the first group of industrial transformation and upgrading demonstration zones of old industrial cities and resource-based cities in China. Furthermore, Zibo's history in the production of ceramics spans more than 10,000 years. It is one of the five major porcelain cities and is the hometown of colored glaze in China.

In recent years, it has seized the major opportunity to accelerate the transformation of new and old driving forces and construct a green, low-carbon and high-quality development pilot zone in the province.

Moving forwards, it is striving to focus on its industrial transformation and upgrading, attract and build new projects, be innovation driven, to leapfrog the development of district and county economies and grow its private economy.

From January to June, the city's industrial added value above a designated size increased by 7.1 percent year-on-year.

In H1, the industrial added value of Zibo's new materials, intelligent equipment, new medicines and electronics information sectors – known as its top four industries – increased by 3.7 percent year-on-year, accounting for 54 percent of its industrial added value above a designated size.

In 2022, Zibo launched an industrial internet innovation applications promotions center, was selected as a national Gigabit City and was approved as a national service-oriented manufacturing demonstration city.

In the new energy sector, it ranked 26th among Chinese cities in a national evaluation of attracting businesses. To top it off, its resource-based city construction and industrial transformation has been recognized and commended by the State Council, China's Cabinet, four times.

Zibo, a city with unique clusters

Zibo is an important transportation hub in Shandong province, and is crisscrossed by railways and expressways, such as the Qingdao-Jinan Railway and Qingdao-Lanzhou Expressway. The city is the telecommunication and mail processing center for central Shandong. The internet and modern communications have been developing rapidly in the area.

In 2022, its built-up area was 351.2 square kilometers, with an urban population over 3 million. The urbanization ratio is currently 74.88 percent. The city's districts and counties are about 20 km apart, with interlaced urban and rural areas, leaving plenty of space for development.

Zibo is striving to build a modern cluster-type city that is pragmatic, open, vibrant, and ecofriendly. It has accelerated the construction of parks, urban expressways, and the eco-tourism belt of the Xiaofu River.

What's more, the city's environment continues to improve. In 2022, its comprehensive index of ambient air quality improved by 4.1 percent year-on-year, with the number of good air days exceeding 230 and the level of excellent water reaching 100 percent.

It has successively won the titles of National Civilized City, National Double Support Model City, National Forest City, National Excellent Tourism City, National Excellent City for Comprehensive Governance of Social Security and National Sanitary City.

Zibo, an entrepreneurial city

Zibo has rolled out diverse range of innovative policies and measures, including its "50 policies for talent in Zibo", "25 policies for building a colorful and dynamic youth entrepreneurship friendly city" and its "47 policies for improving the quality and vitality of Zibo". It has also become a pilot area for the construction of a national youth development city.

In the first six months, there were 655,000 business entities of all kinds in Zibo, a year-on-year increase of 4.3 percent.

Furthermore, Zibo has prioritized optimizing its commercial environment and government services. It has launched innovative measures – including speeding up project approvals – with its business ecosystem ranked at the forefront of the province for four consecutive years. Moreover, it has kicked off the construction of a national innovative city and has been approved to build a pilot city with strong intellectual property rights.

Moving forwards, plans are for the city to maintain stable economic growth, promote eco-friendly, low-carbon and high-quality development, pay more attention to the coordination of urban and rural areas and to continue to improve people's lives, in a bid to build a modern and powerful city.