Society

Basic facts about Liaoning Province

(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-12-03 13:23

"Liao" is an ancient name for this region, which was adopted by the Liao Dynasty which ruled this area between 907 and 1125. "Ning" means "peacefulness". The modern province was established in 1907 as Fengtian province and the name was changed to Liaoning in 1929. Under the Japanese puppet Manchukuo regime, the province reverted to its 1907 name, but the name Liaoning was restored in 1945.

Liaoning is located in the southern part of China's Northeast. Liaoning borders the Yellow Sea and the Bohai Sea in the south, North Korea in the southeast, Jilin Province to the northeast, Hebei Province to the west, and Inner Mongolia to the northwest.

The Yalu River marks the border between North Korea and the Chinese provinces of Jilin and Liaoning. It empties into the Korea Bay between Dandong (Liaoning) and Sinŭiju (North Korea).

Liaoning has a continental monsoon climate, and rainfall averages to about 440 to 1130 mm annually. Summer is rainy while the other seasons are dry.

Liaoning has the largest economy of North Eastern China. Its nominal GDP for 2009 was 1.51 trillion yuan (ca. US$221 billion) making it the 7th largest in China. Its per capita GDP was 34,193 yuan (US$5,006). Among the three provinces of Northeast China, Liaoning is the largest in terms of GDP.

Leading industries include petrochemicals, metallurgy, electronics telecommunications, and machinery. On a national level, Liaoning is a major producer of pig iron, steel and metal-cutting machine tools, all of whose production rank among the top three in the nation.

Liaoning is one of the most important raw materials production bases in China. Industries such as mining, quarrying, smelting and pressing of ferrous metals, petroleum and natural gas extraction, are all of great significance.

Meanwhile, Liaoning is an important production base of equipment and machinery manufacturing, with Shenyang and Dalian being the industrial centers. Enterprises such as Shenyang Jinbei, Daxian Group, and Shenyang Machine Tool, are leaders in their sectors.

The province’s light industry mainly focuses on textiles and clothing industries which include cotton and wool spinning, chemical fiber production, knitting, silk production, and the manufacturing of both garments and textile machinery.