Name: Weishan

Population: 609,900 (permanent population)

Area: 1,780 square kilometers

Administrative divisions

Weishan county governs 15 towns (subdistricts), a provincial economic development zone and 285 administrative villages.

Transportation

Weishan county is located at the junction of nine counties and districts and three cities of Jiangsu and Shandong provinces. It is connected to the two developed regions of the Yangtze River Delta region and the Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan region. It is covered by the Lunan economic circle and the Huaihai economic circle.

Its water system is connected with the Yangtze River and the Yellow River. The Beijing-Shanghai High-speed Railway, Beijing-Fuzhou Expressway and National Highway 104 pass through the county, while the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal runs from north to south. It takes one to two hours by car to travel to Xuzhou airport, Qufu airport and Jinan airport from Weishan county. The cross-Weishanhu expressway started operations on Aug 10, 2020 and has improved traffic conditions in the county.

Natural resources

Weishan has rich natural resources. There are 12.7 billion tons of coal reserves, accounting for a quarter of Shandong's coal reserves. It has rare earth reserves of 12.75 million tons, ranking second in China and freshwater reserves of 3.6 billion cubic meters, accounting for 45 percent of Shandong's freshwater reserves.

There are 87 species of birds, 78 species of fish and 103 species of aquatic plants in the lake area. The fish and aquatic products from Weishan Lake are exported to 13 countries and regions including the United States, Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia.

Tourism

Weishan county, known as the south gate of East China's Shandong province, was founded in 1953 and is famous for Weishan Lake.

Weishan Lake covers 1,266 sq km, accounting for two-thirds of the county's total area and is the largest freshwater lake in North China.

Economy

In 2023, the Gross Regional Product of Weishan County was 44.9 billion yuan ($6.21 billion), marking a year-on-year increase of 5.9 percent. In the first half of 2024, Weishan County's GDP reached 24.27 billion yuan, an increase of 1.581 billion yuan compared to the same period in 2023.

Birds take wing over Weishan Lake in summer. [Photo/Official WeChat account of the information office of the Jining municipal government]