I . Survey

(i) Geography

The urban area of Beijing, located at 39°N and 116°E , is bound by the mountains to the west, north and north-east and opens to the North China Plain, which falls away to the Bohai Sea in the east. The altitude of the plain Beijing lies on ranges
from 20m to 60m, while the mountains average from 1,000m to 1,500m in hight. Mount Dongling, on the border with Heibei
Province, is the municipality 's highest point, with an altitude of 2,303 m. The major rivers flowing through the municipality are the Chaobai River and Beiyun River in the east and Yongding River and Juma River in the west. The urban areas of the city are divided into Dongcheng, Xicheng, Chongwen, Xuanwu, Chaoyang, Haidian, Fengtai and Shijingshan districts, and the rural areas are comprised of Mentougou, Fangshan, Tongzhou, Shunyi, Changping, Daxing , Pinggu and Huairou district s and Miyun and Yangqing counties. The municipality covers an area of 16,410.54 km2 with an urban area of 1,368.32 km2 and a rural area of 15,042.22 km2.

(iv) Transportation and Infrastructure

Transportation

Beijing is a significant transportation hub in China .

The streets of Beijing are laid out like a chessboard. The Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth ring roads, connecting with many other main routes, constitute a complete urban roads system. There are 12 National Highways and nine expressways radiating from Beijing in all directions. In 2005, the subway line in Beijing reached 114km. Construction of the No.5, No.10 first stage (including the Olympic link) and the No.4 subway lines and an express rail link to the airport is well under w a y . Total road length in the municipality is 4,696 km, with 548 km of expressways. By 2005, on 14,713 km of roads in Beijing , 300.5 million tons of cargo and 519.25 million passengers are transported accounting for 92.4% and 85.3% of the total respectively.

Beijing is a railway hub of the People's Republic of China . There are several major railways radiating out from Beijing , including those to Guangzhou , Hong Kong , Shanghai , Baotou (in Inner Mongolia ) and Qinhuangdao (in Hebei ). China 's rail network covers 30 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions as well as Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. By 2005, Beijing's railway transportation lines were 964.4 km long with a cargo transportation capacity of 197.62 tons, accounting for 6.1% of the total and passenger transportation capacity of 57.78 million, constituting 9.5% of the total.

Aeroplane Shed of the New Port of Beijing Capital International Airport

Beijing Capital International Airport is the busiest of China 's international airports. Its network covers all China 's provinces, municipalities, autonomous regions, Hong Kong and Macau , as well as 54 cities in 39 countries around the world. In 2005, the total amount of air cargo into and out of Beijing Capital International Airport reached 769,000 tons. Air passenger transportation amounted to 31.36 million passengers, constituting 5.2% of the total.

Main Financial and Insurance Organizations in Beijing

The major cities maintaining partnerships with Beijing are as follows:

Exhibition

Beijing 's exhibition industry is ofgreat importance for the whole country. Themajor exhibition centers include: BeijingInternational Convention Center, ChinaInternational Science and Technology Convention Center , China International Exhibition Center , China NationalAgricultural Exhibition Center , BeijingExhibition center, China International Trade Exhibition Center . In 2005, the areaof hotel rooms and boardrooms of thesevenues in Beijing reached 621,000 m2 andthe exhibition halls, 204,000 m2. Nearly7,000 international conferences were heldwith a total revenue of 320 million yuan. Inaddition, 322 international exhibitions wereheld in Beijing in 2005.

(Vi) Scientific Research and Education

Scientific Research Beijing is the largest base for scientific and technological research in China , with the Chinese Academy of Science and other scientific research institution and Zhongguancun Scientific Park , which is known as China 's Silicon Valley , of which achievements awarded by the central authorities account for one-third of the total every year. By 2005, there were 7,400 organizations and institutions involved in scientific activities with 340,000 professionals, with a total of 38 billion yuan allocated for research and experiments in Beijing .

Education Beijing is home to a large number of higher education institutions and welleducated people. There is a total of 79 higher education institutions in Beijing , including Peking University , Tsinghua University , Renmin University of China and Beijing Normal University . In the year 2005, there were 117,000 graduates, 156,000 new students, 537,000 in-school students, 113,000 faculties and other personnel and a floor space of 25.985 million m2. Higher education institutions qualified to recruit graduate students totaled 51 with 31,000 graduates, 52,000 new students and 142 thousand in-school students. There are 24 libraries in Beijing , including the largest one in Asia and there are also over a hundred museums in Beijing .

(vii)Tourism and Special Local Products

Beijing boasts abundant tourismresources with more than 200 tourismsites open to the public, includingTiananmen Square, Beijing AncientObservatory, the Workers' CulturalPalace, the Imperial Palaces of the Ming andQing Dynasties (the Forbidden City), theLama Temple, Zhongshan Park, Shichahai,Beihai Park, Miaoying Temple, PrinceGong Mansion, Jingshan Park, TaorantingPark, the Temple of Heaven, the FragrantHills, the Summer Palace, the Ruins of theOld Summer Palace, Zizhuyuan Park, theTemple of the Sun, Lugou Bridge (MarcoPolo Bridge), Mount Ling, Mount Miaofeng,Tanzhe Temple, the Imperial Tombs of theMing Dynasty, Badachu Park, BadalingGreat Wall, Shidu and the Peking Man Siteat Zhoukoudian.