A view of Taixing city. [Photo provided to etaizhou.gov.cn]
Taixing city, a county-level city – administered by Taizhou, the prefecture-level city in East China's Jiangsu province – has a long and esteemed history. It is known for having a strong education sector and for its architecture, its ginkgo trees and for being a well-developed producer of the violin, among others.
The city currently has a registered population of 1.16 million, a total area of 1,172 square kilometers, 14 townships and three sub-districts, two provincial-level economic development zones, one provincial-level high-tech zone (under preparation) and three municipal-level industrial parks.
Ranked 21st among China's top 100 counties and county-level cities in terms of basic economic competitiveness, it was recognized as an advanced county (county-level city, district) for three consecutive years – in 2019, 2020 and 2021 – for promoting high-quality development in Jiangsu province.
Taixing has a history of over a thousand years, with rich historical sites including Huangqiao ancient town and Qingyun Temple. Taixing has nurtured many outstanding celebrities, including the father of Chinese geology Ding Wenjiang, famous playwright and physicist Ding Xilin, educator Wu Yifang, literary scholar and critic Zhu Dongrun and "people's scientist" Ye Peijian.
The city is also an old revolutionary area. The first Party organization in Yangzhou and Taizhou area was born there.
Taixing is located in the middle of Jiangsu, on the north banks of the Yangtze River, at the intersection of cross-river links and is one of the important cities in the Yangtze River city group and in the Yangtze River Delta region.
It has a well-developed transportation network, with three expressways running through the city – linking up five entrances and exits – which can easily reach many cities in the Yangtze River Delta region. There are four airports within an hour's drive from downtown Taixing.
The city also has a national first-class open port and 19 deep-water terminals, with an annual cargo throughput of more than 50 million metric tons.
Taixing is a also great place to live and start up a business. The city has set up a guidance fund for the development of a "child-friendly city" and has deepened the optimization of its business ecosystem.
The living environment of Taixing is excellent. It has won awards for being a national ecological city, a national sanitary city and national model city of going green.
Taixing has distinctive and strong industries. Its annual gross domestic product (GDP) has stepped up to 100 billion yuan ($14.33 billion) currently and main economic indicators – including general public budget income, industrial invoiced sales and actual utilization of foreign investment – are leading the middle Jiangsu region.
Taixing has even formed industrial clusters led by the chemical, electromechanical and medical industries. In recent years, it has carried out the industrial "123" project and has continued to optimize its industrial structure.
Indeed, the Taixing Economic Development Zone has ranked as one of the top 10 chemical parks in the country for many years and the Taixing High-tech Zone has been selected as a pilot area for the national Ecology-Oriented Development (EOD) model. Moreover, the modern agricultural industrial park of Taixing is regarded as being at the national level.
In 2021, Taixing achieved GDP of 127.3 billion yuan, an increase of 9.9 percent year-on-year, while the general public budget revenue totaled 9.312 billion yuan, an increase of 9 percent. Its actual use of foreign investment reached $435 million.