Located in the middle of Shandong Peninsula, Weifang governs 4 districts, 6 cities, 2 counties, and 3 national level development zones, namely High-tech Industrial Development Zone, Binhai Economic and Technological Development Area and Comprehensive Bonded Zone. Weifang has a land area of 16,100km2, a sea area of 1,421km2 and a population of permanent residents of 9.363 million. Built area of the central urban area reaches 149km2 with a population of 2.14 million. Weifang is honored as the National Civilized City, National Food Safety Demonstration City, National Model City for Environmental Protection, National Sanitary City, National Forest City, and Chinese Outstanding Tourism City. In 2017, its GDP reached RMB 585.86 billion; the total volume of retail sales of social consumer goods reached RMB 273.79 billion; the total volume of foreign trade reached RMB 146.4 billion, and the general public budget revenues reached RMB 53.91 billion. Weifang City is accelerating the major project of transition to new from old economic drivers, emphasizing on building a strong industrial city, famous cultural city, energetic city and high quality city.

Regional transportation

Weifang City, as an important regional central city of Shandong Peninsula and a major coastal city of Circum-Bohai-Sea belt, is the transport junction of Shandong Peninsula, with developed sea, land and air transport systems. Within the territory, there are 5 expressways and 8 railways, and Jinan- Qingdao High-speed Railway will open to the public in 2018, which makes it possible to arrive in Beijing in 2 hours and Shanghai in 3.5 hours. The projects such as Weifang-Laiyang High-speed Railway, Weifang-Rizhao Expressway, and Jinan-Qingdao Expressway Expansion will be accelerated and the city-coast rapid railway has been approved and commenced. In the long-term plan of national railway network, there will be five 350km/h high-speed railways across Weifang, and Beijing-Shanghai High-speed Railway will pass by Weifang. Thus, Weifang has been determined to be one of 100 national regional high-speed railway hub cities and one of 36 high-speed railway logistics hub cities. Weifang Harbor is the First Class Open Port and has started with the international container business. With the support of 35,000 dwt channel, the annual throughput has reached more than 42 million tons. The Belt and Road Weifang International Intermodal Transport Channel has been open to business. Weifang Airport has 14 domestic and international air routes, with annual passenger transport capacity of 600,000. Weifang Airport will soon be relocated.

Developed Industries

Weifang is the pioneer of the national modern agriculture industry, important equipment manufacturing base in the country and the provincial advanced city in the development of service industry.

Modern agriculture: Weifang City is an important national manufacturing, collecting and distributing and export base of agricultural product and food, as well as the national modern agricultural demonstration area and the national modern vegetable seed industry entrepreneurial innovation base; the biggest producing area and distributing center of high quality flowers, landscape greening plants in the area north of Yangtze River; China food valley and the National Demonstration City of Standardization of Rural and Commercial Internet. Weifang is establishing the national comprehensive experimental area for agricultural open development. The annual output of grain has reached 5 million tons, vegetable 12 million tons, meat 1.4 million tons, aquatic products 0.6 million tons, among which the export of poultry and vegetable accounts for 1/8 and 1/18 of the whole country. It has established 912 modern agricultural demonstration areas, and its 6 counties and cities have been chosen as national agricultural product quality safety demonstration areas.

Advanced manufacturing industry: Weifang has advanced manufacturing industry, and solid foundation of traditional industries such as equipment manufacturing, automobile manufacturing, petrochemical and salt chemical industry, clothes manufacturing, food processing, paper packaging. Meanwhile, the emerging industry such as electronic information, biological medicine, bio-based new materials, intelligent equipment, energy saving and environmental protection industry, new energy automobile, develops rapidly. Weifang is the high-end equipment manufacturing industry base of the Circum-Bohai-Sea belt in the national plan, with 3843 industrial enterprises above designated size in the city, of which the main business income reaches RMB 1.3 trillion; 40 stocks of 36 companies have listed abroad. A batch of major projects such as national high-end chemical industry base and national virtual reality industry base, are being implemented rapidly. The city is vigorously promoting the transformation and upgrading of traditional industry, cultivating 3 hundred-trillion level industries of electronic information, bio-pharmacy, bio-based new materials and 30 billion level industries of emerging industry clusters; creating "Made in China 2025" demonstration city and establishing national intelligent manufacturing industry base. The income of Weichai Group has surpassed RMB 200 billion and won the Gold Medal for China Trademark.

High-tech industry: 542 high-tech companies, with total value of out-put of RMB 416.5 billion. Various national characteristic industry bases such as semiconductor lighting, power machinery, electroacoustic device, magnetoelectricity equipment, biological medicine, auto parts, ocean chemical engineering, new waterproof material, have been established. Weifang City is striving to establish the national virtual reality industry base, and develop marine economy to build marine science and technology industry cluster demonstration area; promote the rapid development of military-civilian integration industry and striving to create the national demonstration area of military-civilian integration development; implement technology innovation plan, encourage the development of new R&D institutions, promote the industrial park construction for Foton Internet Automobile, Goertek Virtual Reality, bio-based new materials, general aviation, surveying geographic information, etc. VR, industrial robot, new energy automobile and digital economy are becoming the new supports of industrial development.

Energy saving and environmental protection industry: The industrial system, with the energy-saving and environmental protection equipment (e.g., high efficiency and energy-saving motor, low emission gas engine and remanufacturing gasoline engine, LED lighting products and pollution abatement equipment) as the leading, ecological utilization of urban and rural household garbage as the guide, and comprehensive utilization of resources and energy conservation and environmental protection services as the support, has been formed. The city is striving to develop green low carbon building material, energy saving equipment, resource recycling technology and wind power, solar power, geothermal energy technologies and equipment.

Modern service industry: With complete modern service system, the city has been chosen as the information consumption pilot city and national e-commerce demonstration city, as well as the comprehensive test area for cross-border e-commerce of Shandong Province. Weifang City is striving to develop emerging service industries, such as headquarter economy, modern logistics, modern finance, e-commerce, internet of things, healthy aging life, leisure tourism; building regional headquarter base, creative design center, financial center, tourist distributing center, information consumption center, big data center and key important logistics hub in Northeast Asia.

Water: In the territory of Weifang City, there are more than 110 rivers, including Weihe River, Mihe River, Bailanghe River, etc., which provide abundant water resource for the economic and social development of Weifang.

Power supply: “Extra-high Voltage Power into Weifang” Project provides sufficient power guarantee for the economic and social development of Weifang City.

Living environment

Faithful Weifang and Quality Weifang have become the honorable name cards of the City. The clean and neat environment, convenient traffic, abundant education resource, thorough medical service and colorful cultural life, with its four distinctive seasons, pleasant climate, and its open and harmonious atmosphere have made Weifang City a modern dynamic city, suitable to live and doing business. The population urbanization rate of the city is 60%. The 35.5% forest-cover rate makes it the national forest city. The water quality is 100% conformed to the standard of water sources in urban area, and the 100% harmless treatment rate of household waste can be realized. The number of “blue sky and shining star” days reaches more than 270. The 60% proportion of new energy bus makes it one of national transit-oriented cities. Smart city cloud platform of "Weifang V" has been established.

Medical treatment: Weifang City now has 7,229 medical and health institutions of all levels and types, including 189 hospitals, 177 township health centers, 176 community healthcare centers (stations), 133 professional public health organization, as well as 6,554 clinics and village medical rooms; 64,517 health workers, 56,227 hospital beds. Weifang City has been determined to be one of the first batch national pilot cities for public hospital reform, social medical (national) pilot cities, pioneer area in national demonstration province for combination of medical treatment and endowment, TCM comprehensive reform demonstration area; rated as "National Advanced Unit of Traditional Chinese Medicine at the Basic Level", and awarded "National Sanitary City" for three consecutive times.

Education: Weifang City has 19 higher learning institutions of various types, including 5 undergraduate colleges and universities, and 14 vocational colleges at the specialized level. There are 178,000 full-time students and 136,00 faculty members.

Finance: By the end of Jun. 2018, Weifang has 49 banking financial institutions, 71 municipal insurance institutes, 197 local financial organizations, 36 domestic and foreign listed companies, 50 "NEEQ" (National Equities Exchange and Quotations) listed companies, all of which are among the top in Shandong Province. 2543 companies have completed standardized corporate system reform, and 720 companies have listed in regional equity market, ranking top 1 of Shandong Province. The city balance of various deposit and loan is RMB 799.87 billion and RMB 574.54 billion, respectively, which rates top 3 of Shandong Province. Weifang City has been awarded as China Financial Ecology Demonstration City, National Industrial and Financial Cooperation Pilot City, National Innovative City, National Patent Pledge Financing Demonstration City, One of the First Batch of National Social Credit System Construction Model Cities and is striding to build the influential financial innovative center and regional capital center.

Cultural tourism

As a renowned cultural city, Weifang City has a long history and a galaxy of talents. Shun Emperor of "Three Emperors and Five Sovereigns" in ancient China, Cang Jie (the inventor of Chinese characters), Zheng Xuan (Master of Confucian classics), Jia Sixie (saint in agriculture), Zhang Zeduan (painter of North Song Dynasty), Liu Yong (grand secretary of Qing Dynasty), Mo Yan (the first Nobel Prize winner in China) are all celebrities of Weifang. Scenic spots and historical sites such as Shihu Garden established in Ming Dynasty, Shanwang Fossil of 18 million years ago, the world's largest scale of dinosaur fossil, stone Buddha statue of Sui and Tang Dynasty, ancient volcanic cluster, and Weifang kite, Yangjiabu wood board new year picture, gold and silver inlaid lacquer, Gaomi flutter gray new year picture, paper cuttings, and clay figurines all have abundant cultural and historic features and have been rated as the intangible cultural heritages at the national level. There are 97 A-Class tourist attractions and 50 star grade hotels in the city. In 2017, the total tourist consumption was RMB 78 billion. Weifang City is accelerating the building of "Famous Cultural City", promoting the establishment of brands, such as national historical and cultural city, the hometown of arts and crafts and folk arts to be rated by the United Nations, famous Chinese calligraphy city, as well as building cultural industry park and characteristic cultural town, and setting about the construction of museum groups and gallery groups, so as to promote the development of cultural tourism, rural tourism, industrial tourism and eco-tourism, and create all-for-one tourism brands.

Foreign cooperation: Weifang vigorously implemented its internationalization strategy and has established economic and trade cooperation with more than 210 countries and regions. It has also established friendly and cooperative relations with 36 cities in 15 countries, including Japan, South Korea, Germany and the United States. Companies from more than 80 countries and regions have invested in Weifang, and nearly 100 of them are companies in the list of Fortune 500. More than 50 companies of Weifang have invested abroad. Weifang strives to develop festival economy, each year, it hosts a series of festivals such as International Kite Festival, Lutai Economic and Trade Fair, China-Japan-Korea Industrial Expo, International Vegetable Science and Technology Expo, International Gem Expo, Chinese Painting Festival, Chinese Culture Exhibition and Flower Fair to attract domestic and foreign businessmen come to Weifang for economic and cultural exchanges.

Innovation and entrepreneurship

It vigorously implements the pilot innovation industry team introduction and cultivation plan, further promotes mass entrepreneurship and innovation, builds innovative cities and model cities for entrepreneurship, and promotes the establishment of the national intellectual property city and the construction of the intellectual property protection center. It is implementing the recruitment program of global experts and the domestic high-level talent gathering project, introducing the national “The Recruitment Program of Global Experts" and Taishan industry leading innovative talents. It strives to implement the plan for attracting investment to build colleges or attracting colleges to build branches in Weifang, and builds science and education innovation parks. Weifang people who work outside are also encouraged to return for entrepreneurship.

Key parks

Weifang has more than 150 development zones at the national and provincial levels and key industrial parks with complete infrastructure and preferential policies. These zones and parks are an important carrier for foreign cooperation.

High-tech Industrial Development Zone: Covering an area of 110 square kilometers, it is the national independent innovation demonstration area of Shandong Peninsula, national innovative science and technology park, national intellectual property demonstration park, national experimental area for sustainable development, national high-tech zone innovation driven development demonstration project, entrepreneurship China (Weifang) demonstration project, national strategic emerging industry cluster of intellectual property pilot, regional pilot of national science and technology service industry and development experimental area of national patent technology services navigation industry, its comprehensive competitiveness ranked 22nd in the National High-tech Zones. It mainly introduces and promotes power equipment, acousto-optic electronics, life health, software information, new materials, surveying and mapping geographic information and other industries.

Binhai Economic and Technological Development Area: Covering a land area of 677 square kilometers and a sea area of 510 square kilometers, it is the national science and technology innovation base, national eco-industry demonstration park, national vocational education innovation development pilot area, and national demonstration zone for rejuvenating marine industry by science and technology. It mainly introduces projects in fields of marine equipment, marine transportation, port logistics, biological medicine, marine chemical industry, marine energy, marine fishery, and tourism development.

Xiashan Eco-economic Development Zone: Covering an area of 491 square kilometers, it is the national experimental zone of sustainable development, national demonstration zone of organic product certification, national quality and safety demonstration zone of food and agricultural products for export, national demonstration zone of eco-origin product protection, national water conservancy scenic spot, and national wetland park. The development zone has the largest Xiashan Reservoir in Shandong province, covering an area of 144 square kilometers and a total storage capacity of 1.405 billion m3. It has formed an ecological industrial system dominated by organic agriculture, high-quality education, cultural creativity, financial services, headquarters economy, etc.

Comprehensive Bonded Zone: Covering an area of 35 square kilometers, it has five functions of bonded processing, bonded logistics, trade in goods, service trade and virtual port. It is the designated port for importing meat and chilled aquatic products and the imported Australian live cattle port. It focuses on building seven billion-level industrial chains, including electronic information, cross-border electricity, cold chain logistics, cotton processing, new energy and new material, commodity inspection and certification, and import corn processing.

Economic and Technological Development Area: Covering an area of 106 square kilometers, it is a national eco-industrial demonstration park, focusing on the headquarter economy, urban industry, food processing, leisure tourism and business services.