Geographical location
Tianjin is located from 38o34’ to 40o15’ north latitude, from 116o43’ to 118o04’ east longitude, in the lower reach of Haihe River. It lies in the northeastern part of Huabei Plain with Bohai Sea to its east, Yanshan Mountain to its north. Tianjin is in the east 8th time zone. It is only 137 kilometers from Tianjin to Beijing, capital of China.

Area
The whole city covers an area of 1,190,000 square kilometers. It is 189 kilometers from north to south and 117 kilometers from east to west. Ctiy administrated area is 7417.86 square kilometers while 4501.84 square kilometers are under attached country administration. The land area in Tianjin is 8772.30 square kilometers while water covers about 3147.40 square kilometers. The circumference of the frontier is about 900 kilometers with 152.8 kilometers of coastal line and 700 kilometers of landline.
Tianjin is in the semi-humid warm and temperate continental monsoon climatic region with very distinctive differences in temperature in four seasons. The annual precipitation is some 600mm while annual temperature average stays at 12.3℃.The frost-free days in Tianjin amounts 200 days. 75% of precipitation is focused in June, July and August. The duration of sunshine in Tianjin is quite long with very strong sun radiation.

Natural Resources
As far as natural resources are concerned, Tianjin has very rich reserves of petroleum and natural gas in Bohai and Dagang. Annual output of crude oil can reach 10 million ton while that of gas is 900 million cubic meters. It is also verified that the reserve coal is over 300 million tons. Other minerals include Manganese, gold, copper, Tungsten, etc, most of which are of extraction value. The 150 kilometer of coasts line enables us to produce 2.38 million tons of crude salt, about 1/10 of the overall production in China. Subterranean heat resources are also very rich in Tianjin. The temperature of water ranges from 30℃ to 90℃.Besides, there are over 200 square kilometers of waste land with good transportation and low development cost, which will fuel up the development of the city in the future.

Administrative divisions
There are 15 districts and 3 counties in Tianjin. The districts include Heping, Hedong, Hexi, Nankai, Hebei, Hongqiao, Tanggu, Hangu, Dagang, Dongli, Xiqing, Jinnan, Beichen, Wuqing, and Baodi. The three counties are Ninghe, Jinghai and Jixian.

Population and Ethnic groups
There are 51 minorities in Tianjin. By the end of 2004, the population of Tianjin is 1.024 million.

Survey of economy in Tianjin
Tianjin is the cradle of modem machinery and weaving industry in China. Dozens of industrial zones and areas were set up since the founding of PRC, which topped Tianjin among most other Chinese cities. Famous products like Beijing brand TV, Flying Pigeon brand Bike and Seagull brand Watch can fully represent the glory of Tianjin industry in the past. Since the reform and opening up, the traditional industrial base began to take a new look. Electronic information, biological technology, modem medicine and new power and other new and high technology began to develop in this city. In 1980, Tianjin was appointed as an opening up city. By the end of 2004, over 118 countries and regions have made investment in Tianjin setting up 16 thousand of enterprises. 106 of the top 500 businesses have set branches in Tianjin. The harbor of Tianjin is the biggest artificial depth harbor of China and the biggest harbor in the north of China. There are the biggest wharf cluster of container and the biggest wharf using appropriate for the bulk food and coke wharf in China. The new coastal area, consisting Tianjin Port, Tianjin Economic and Technology Development Area and Tianjin Bonded area, has attracted a lot of world-famous businesses like Motorola from USA, Toyota from Japan,Samsung from South Korea, and Novordisk from Danmark. The new coastal area has become the landmark of opening up .In the past decade, GDP in Tianjin has been growing constantly by 12.5 percent and Tianjin is becoming a fast growing economic zone.

Education of Technology
Tianjin is the birth place of the first university in China. In 1895, Tianjin Beiyang School, predecessor of Tianjin University was founded by Sheng Xuanhuai, a Mandarin official of Qing Dynasty. Nankai university, is the mother school of Zhou Enlai, former Chinese premier. There are currently 33 universities and colleges in Tianjin with 150,000 college students. Tianjin is among those areas which first enforced nine-year-compulsory education, so the quality of labor in Tianjin is very good. There are about 1,000 research centers and technology development organizations with over 600,000 professionals. The comprehensive scientific power is among the top in China.

Arts and culture
Tianjin is a famous cultural and historical city, and it is also the origin of arts and culture in north China, therefore, it is always regarded as the “cradle of drama”, “hometown to arts”. Professional art organizations include Peking opera, Pingju opera, Hebei bangzi (Chinese local opera), modem drama, dance symphony etc. Museums in Tianjin have housed over 6,000 valuable relics. Folk arts in Tianjin is also very impressive, such as new year pictures, clay Zhang figures, kites Wei and “sculpture Liu” brick sculpture. Tianjin is at the same time a very modem city. The 415.2-meter high TV tower, first rate stadium, largest book store can fully represent the development of Tianjin.

Historical resorts
There are 37 state-level and city-level carefully reserved historical resorts. Dule Monastery, a wood-structure temple built 1000 years ago, still lies in Jixin county. The Huangya Pass Great Wall in Panshan Mountain of Jixian County, meanders along mountains over 41 kilometers. Panshan mountain is considered the most beautiful mountain in east of Beijing. Other relics include Tianhou Temple, Confucius Temple, Dabeiyuan Monastery, Guangdong Guild Hall, etc. Tianjin is also “Expo of world architecture”, for in Tianjin you can find buildings of various styles telling many bygone stories.

Foreign Relations
Tianjin is sister city to 22 cities in 18 countries. Tianjin Port has trade relation with over 160 countries and regions in the world. Foreign relations in Tianjin involve many aspects in economy, trade, science and technology, sports and hygiene.

City flower and city tree
The city flower of Tianjin is rose, symbol of peace and friendship.
The city tree is Fraxinus Chinensis, a salt and alkali resistant tree suitable to Tianjin.

Development Goal
In the first decade of the new century, the development goal of the city can be called “Three-step” Strategy and “Five strategic Measures”.
“Three-step” Strategy
Step 1, to increase the per capita GDP to US $3,000 by the end of 2002 and accomplish major indexes of well-off society.
Step 2, to double GNP and Per capita disposable income of 2003 or 4 years ahead of our original schedule, bringing overall economy and people’s income to higher level.
Step 3, by 2010, increase the per capita GDP to $6,000, making Tianjin a modernized international port and major financial center in north China and realize modernization earlier.
“Five strategic Measures”
1. Devote major efforts to development of Haihe economy
2. Devote major efforts to development of ocean economy
3. Devote major efforts to development of advantageous industry.
4. Devote major efforts to development of economy in the counties and rural districts
5. Devote major efforts to development of medium and small-sized enterprises and private business.