(i) Geographic Location
Anhui Province (within the east longitude of 114° 54′ - 119° 37′ and the north latitude of 29° 41 ′ - 34° 38 ′ ), with a total area of 139.6 thousand km2, is located in East China and closely adjacent to the Yangtze River Delta.
Yangtze River and Huaihe River traverse the land and divide the province into three natural sections: Huaibei Plain, Jianghuai Hillocks and Jiangnan Mountain Chains. There are 17 Cities including Hefei, Bengbu, Wuhu, Anqing and Huangshan in Anhui province.

(ii) Climate
Located in the transitional belt between the temperate zone and subtropical zone, warm and moist, Anhui has very distinct
seasons, abundant precipitation. The average annual temperature ranges from 14°C to 17°C (57°F to 62°F).The sun shines an
average of 1,800 to 2,500 hours per year.
Anhui has 200 to 250 frost-free days. Theaverage annual precipitation is 800 to 1,800millimeters (31 to 71 inches).

(iii) Population and Nationalities
Anhui has a total population of 65 million, including 23 million in urban areas and 42 million in rural areas. The ethnic groups are mainly Han.

(iv) Infrastructures and Transportations Highways
The total mileage is 72,800 km, including 1,500 km of express highways. The highway system radiates from the capital city Hefei
within 500 km to a number of big cities such as Shanghai, Nanjing, Suzhou, Changzhou, Wuxi, Xuzhou, Lianyungang, Hangzhou, Jiujiang, Nanchang, Wuhan, Zhengzhou and Jinan et c., and all these cities can be reached within 2-5 hours of driving distance.

Railways
Arterial railway lines of Beijing-Shanghai, Beijing-Kowloon, Lianyungang-Wulumuqi, Nanjing-Xi'an travel through the territory of Anhui province, which is of the most dense railway networks and the longest mileage in East China.

Aviation
There are six airports, which are located in Hefei, Huangshan and Fuyang, etc and are directly linked with more than 30 big cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hong Kong.

Waterways
There are three river systems, namely Yangtze River, Huaihe River and Xin’ anjiang River in Anhui Province. There are five first-grade ports along the golden Yangtze Waterway more than 400 km long, among which the Zhujiaqiao Foreign Trade Port can berth 10-thousand-tonnage ships.

Communications and Internet
The modern arterial communications networks , composed of program -controlled telephone network, long-distance digital transmitting network and mobile communications network, have formed. Up to 2005, there are 13.495 million fi xed telephone
users, 10.469 million mobile telephone users and 1.935 million internet users.

Electricity Supply
In 2005, the electricity generating capacity is 12.8 million kilowatt. 65 billion kilowatt hours has been generated.

Ports
In 2005 , there are altogether 9 ports scattering in water, air and railway transportations, including 7 first-grade ports: Hefei and Huangshan airports, Wuhu, Anqing, Tongling, Ma'anshan
and Chizhou water ports; 2 second-grade ports: Bengbu and Fuyang railway ports. And the foreign exchange freight volume has reached 2.37 million tons with US$2 billions of value. There are 40 thousand passengers passing the ports of Hefei and Huangshan airports.

Finance and Insurance
The financial institutions have been in smooth operation. By the end of 2005, there are RMB ¥599.38 billion deposits of diversifi ed categories in fi nancial institutions in the whole province. Among the totalamount, RMB ¥350.87 billion is from the savings accounts of urban residents. The insurance market has been steadily expanding. In 2005 earnings from insurance premium has
reached RMB ¥13.32 billion.


(v) Foreign Relationships
By 2005 , Anhui Province had established 13 pairs of friendship provinces or states and 44 pairs of friendship cities,
which has promoted the political, economic and cultural communications on both sides.

List of Part of the Cities(States, Provinces etc.) of Frieadship between Anhui Province and Other Countries



Exhibitions
The Investment & Trade Expo Anhui China is a large annual comprehensive investment & trade exposition, which was
held in Hefei in 2005 and Hong Kong in 2006. In the Expo2006 (Hong Kong), investment projects totaled US$17.3 billion“www.ahtrader.com”
China Anhui Export Commodities Online is a large website for the global B-TO-B e-market, which provides enterprises with opportunities for exhibition, export and consultation without the limit of time and space.“ www.ahexporter.com”

(vi) Higher Education & Scientifi c Research
The integral quality of science and technology of Anhui Province ranks among the best in China. The capital city Hefei, as one of the key scientifi c and educational bases in China, is the first Science & Technology Innovative Model City in China. At the end of 2005, there were 1.152 million professionals and technicians, 89 thousand of whom were engaged in scientifi c and technological fi elds; there were 932 scientific and technological institutions, 291 of which were affiliated to
large or medium-scale enterprises. There was 1 national lab, 1 key national lab, 24 key provincial labs and 13 labs jointly sponsored by the province and ministries.
Education has been developing in allaround way. By the end of 2005, there were 81 higher educational institutions including
University of Science & Technology of China (USTC), Hefei University of Technology, Anhui University, with 589 thousand registered undergraduates by the end of 2005, among whom 21.505 thousand registered post-graduates. The vocational education had totally registered 633 thousand students by the end of 2005.

(vii) Tourism
Anhui has most abundant tourism resources with many beautiful natural scenic spots and well-preserved ancient cultural relics,
featuring Chinese colored Buddhism, Taoism and Hui Culture. Mt. Huangshan, Yixian Xidi and ancient dwelling houses groups in Hongcun Village are all included in the World Heritage List of Culture by UNESCO. Mt. Huangshan is also included in the World
Heritage List of Nature, and World Geological Park. Currently, there are 10 state-level scenic areas, including Mt. Huangshan, Mt. Jiuhua, Mt. Tianzhu, Mt. Langya, Mt. Qiyun, Rock Caishi, Chaohu Lake, the Huashan Enigmatic Caverns-Jianjiang, Taiji Cave, and Huating Lake; 4 state-level historic and cultural cities,
including Shexian, Shouxian, Bozhou and Anqing; 6 state-level natural protection zones; 28 state-level forest parks; 36 state-level key culture protection relics.‘ Two Mounts and One Lake” (Mt. Huangshan, Mt. Jiuhua and Taiping Lake) are entering into the list of world famous tourist resorts.