Introduce your hometown of Yiyang, Hunan in English

Yiyang City lies at the north central Hunan Province of China, situated at 112 degrees east longitude and 28 degrees north latitude. It has a sub-tropical continental monsoon humid climate. The terrain slopes down from south to north . The southern mountainous area belongs to the remaining range of Xuefeng Mountain; and the northern lake district is scattered on the alluvial plain of Dongting Lake. Therefore, there are unique and distinct mountainous, hilly and laky areas in Yiyang City. The beautiful scenery with mountains and waters make the city a sparkling jewel lying at the south of Yangtze River and Dongting Lake of China. Therefore, it is reputed as Silver City. It has an area of ??12000 square kilometers including a 55-square-kilometer urban area, and a population of 4.7 million with 550,000 people living in the urban area. There are 8 districts and counties under administration.

Yiyang has an advantageous location and convenient transportation. It is 55 kilometers from the central urban area to Changsha City, Hunan Province's capital. And it takes only one hour to drive to Changsha Huanghua International Airport by highway. Moreover, three railways, two national highways and seven provincial highways pass through the city. Container trucks can arrive in Hongkong within one day via national highway. Water transport is also highly-developed with Dongting Lake as a hub for waterways and the thousand-mile-long Zijiang River flowing through the ci

ty.

Yiyang has a long history. It has been more than 2000 years since its foundation as a county in Qin Dynasty. Tao Shu and Hu Linyi, important officials of the late Qing Dynasty, “three Zhous and one Ye" (Zhou Libo, Zhou Yang, Zhou Gucheng and Ye Zi), famous contemporary intellectuals, Zhang Guoji, an overseas Chinese leader, Fengshan Ho, Righteous among the Nations, and the world champion of badminton women's singles Gong Zhichao in the 27th Olympic Games, “Queen of Badminton” Tang Jiuhong, world champions of badminton Gong Ruina and Huangsui all come from Yiyang. Yiyang is reputed as the “Hometown of Badminton”. It is also the badminton training base for Chinese national team.

Yiyang is rich in resources. It is an important production base for such agricultural products such as grain, cotton, oil, tea, pig, ramie, bamboo, and poplar. It is acknowledged as “Land of Fish and Rice in China”, “Capital of Freshwater Fish in China”, “Land of Ramie in China”, “Land of Bamboo”, etc. The annul output of ramie exceeds 50000 tons, accounting for over one third of the national production. The bamboo forest covers an area of ??2 million mu, with over 100 species and 0.36 billion individual plants. The bamboo stock volume ranks the third in China and first in Hunan Province. The annual output of rice is 2.3 million tons, freshwater fish 0.3 million tons, reeds 0.5 million tons, pigs 6 millions. And the poplar forest covers an area of ??3 million mu. Yiyang is also known as “La

nd of Non-ferrous Metal”. There are more than 50 kinds of mineral resources proven to be worth of exploitation, with antimony, tungsten, vanadium, stone coal reserves ranking the top three in Hunan Province. Besides, with 4 hydraulic power stations, 1 heat power station, 1 wind power station and 2 biomass energy power stations under construction, Yiyang has a great potential to be a city of energy and power in China.

Yiyang has an excellent environment and beautiful scenery. The city's forest coverage rate reaches 52%; and environmental index of air in urban area also lives up to national primary standard. The concept of “Green Development” has been deeply rooted in Yiyang people’s minds. Yiyang has been evaluated as “the Most Livable City” and “Special and Charming City in China” by professional media at home and abroad. Famous scenic spots are Olympic Park, Zishan Lake International Golf Course, Taohuajiang Flowing Bamboo Sea, South Dongting Lake Wetland International Natural Reserve, Anhua Ancient Tea-horse Road, No.1 Village of Great Changes in Mountain Areas, and Xuefeng Lake Geological Park. A lot of tourists come to visit for sightseeing or on vacation.

Yiyang's economy maintains a good momentum of development. The city's economy is developing fast and dynamically and displaying huge potential. Now, many of the Fortune 500 and top 500 domestic enterprises have established branch companies in Yiyang, for example, China National Chemical Group, China Power I

nvestment Corporation, China Metallurgical Group Corporation, China Minmetals, COFCO Group. An industrial system with equipment manufacturing, food processing, bio-medicine, electronics, wood processing, electricity, chemical, textile, paper-making as dominating industries has been preliminarily formed. Thus Yiyang is a major industrial base for manufacturing (especially shipbuilding and auto parts manufacturing) and high-tech industry in Hunan Province.

In recent years, the strategy of “Opening up the City” has brought about rapid economic and social development as well as tremendous changes to urban and rural areas with each passing day. Infrastructure has been perfected; electricity, water supply, telecommunications, health care, education, and business services have been completed; the cultural taste of the city has has been upgraded; investment environment has been optimized; and comprehensive competitive power has been intensified. Advantageous location, excellent investment environment, and preferential policies have attracted more and more friends at home and abroad to come to invest and build partnership with Yiyang.