Beijing, the Capital city of China, is the political and cultural centre.There is a population of over 10 million in Beijing which means the huge potential market.It plays significant role in the high-level economic, science and technological and cultural exchanges. Beijing has a history of more than 3,000 years, 850 of them as the the country’s capital. With its unique charm, Beijing is gifted with an exciting blend of the old and new. It is a city rich in culture relics and heritage sites: the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, and religious shrines built over hundreds of years. The city is well on its way to becoming a modern metropolis, with its transformation led by the Zhongguancun Science Park (China’s “Silicon Valley”), CBD (Central Business District), the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone,there are more than 160 countries have set up embassies in Beijing so that can provide you the most convenient business liaison with your country. Of course, the city’s Olympic economy, including the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games venues, Olympic Park and Olympic Forest Green.

Beijing is home to the headquarters of the ruling Communist Party of China, the central Chinese Government and the Chinese military. Numerous national corporations, industrial associations and financial organizations are based here. Among all Chinese cities, Beijing is most advanced in science, technology, education and culture. On January 12, 2005, the State Council approved the Beijing Urban Development Plan , positioning Beijing as a “modern metropolis, a capital of culture and a pleasant city in which to live and work” and putting forward the city’s new development strategy of “perfecting two axes, developing two belts and building multiple centres”. Located within the Bohai Sea area, which is the most developed area of China, Beijing has a huge market potential. The city has a complete and improving urban infrastructural network, a highly developed educational and technological system and an increasingly skilled and well-educated labour force. Conditions in Beijing are conducive to the development of enterprises. This explains why hundreds of world famous multinational corporations have invested in Beijing, and why most of them have done quite well.      As the host city for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Beijing has created and is continuing to create innumerable business opportunities for the people of Beijing and the world. You are welcomed to invest in Beijing and to share in the business opportunities after the 2008 Olympics, while enjoying modern Beijing and its significant place in Chinese history and culture. We appreciate your contributions to Beijing’s development, and we are fully aware that your success is your success. 

Geographic location
39.56 degrees N latitude, 116.2 E longitude. Adjacent to Shanxi Province and the Inner Mongolian Plateau in the northwest, the North China Plain on the south and the Bohai Sea on its east.  

Area
16,808 square kilometres

Administrative divisions
16 urban districts and 2 suburban counties 

Population
15.38 million 

Phone Area Code: 010

Postal Code: 100000

Airport: Beijing International airport

Main Train Station: Beijing railway Station & Beijing West railway station

City trees: Scholar tree and Oriental cypress

City flowers: Chinese rose and Chrysanthemum

Ethnic groups
Beijing is home to people of China’s 56 nationalities, with the Han nationality in the majority, and with ethnic Hui, Manchu and Mongolians outnumbering other ethnic minorities.  

Climate
Temperate semi-humid climate with brief springs and autumns and long summers and winters. Average annual temperature: 13.5 C.

Time Zone: GMT plus eight hours; Eastern Standard Time plus 13 hours; Pacific Standard Time plus 16 hours

An international city    
Beijing is making itself an international city and is striving to improve its status and functional place within the world urban system. It is taking full advantage of its economic management capabilities, its scientific and technical innovations and its information and transportation networks. The capital’s economy is undergoing an unprecedented positive development and all of its comprehensive urban functions, its expanding regional, national and world influence are being strengthened as it plays its leading role in the life of the country.  
 
A cultural city    
Beijing is a historic multicultural city. This cultural legacy is highly treasured and is reflected in the protective measures being taken to protect and preserve it, especially its World Heritage List sites. Traditional and modern cultures stand side-by-side, mutually enhancing each others’ beauty. 
 
A livable city     
Beijing’s goal is to build a livable city with abundant business and employment opportunities, with fresh air, a beautiful environment and a sound ecology. As Beijing pursues these goals, the needs of the people are a prime consideration. “Putting people first” is expected to result in a stable society, more harmonious development and a more prosperous economy.

Rapidly Developing Economy     
According to preliminary estimates, Beijing’s 2005 gross domestic product (GDP) rose to 681.45 billion yuan (US$85.18 billion), an 11.1 percent increase year-on-year, generating an average per capita GDP of US$5,547, 1.9 times more than in 2000. This compares to 2004?s GDP of 606.03 billion yuan (US$75.79 billion) and its per capital GDP of US$4,970.  During the Tenth Five-year Plan, the city’s GDP increased by an average of 11.9 percent annually, 2.9 percentage points more than targeted in the Tenth Five-year Plan and 1.6 percentage points higher than the average increase rate of the Ninth Five-year Plan. 

Large Market Potential     
In 2004, the total demand of the investment, consumption and industrial markets reflected a huge increase in various trade activities in Beijing. Social fixed-asset investments totalled 252.83 billion yuan (US$31.6 billion), a year-on-year increase of 17.2 percent. Retail sales were valued at 219.18 billion yuan (US$27.4 billion), up 14.4 percent. Insurance premiums rose to 27.89 billion yuan (US$3.49 billion) and 1,851.29 billion yuan (US$231.41 billion) in stock transactions were reported during the year. Investments in real estate continued a rise to about 147.33 billion yuan (US$18.42 billion) and the value of imports and exports totalled 28.07 billion (US$3.51 billion). Chain-store sales turnover tallied to 63.52 billion yuan (US$7.94 billion), accounting for 29 percent of consumer products sales. Business opportunities brought by the 2008 Olympic Games will add to market potential in the coming years.

Significant Increase in Foreign Trade     
Beijing has already formed an open, comprehensive, multi-level, broad-based business environment. Many famous multinationals, including Toshiba, Panasonic, Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and Boeing have chosen Beijing for their regional headquarters. By the end of 2005, in Beijing, there were 16 regional headquarters, 146 investment companies and 239 research institutions of multinational companies whose operations had been approved by the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China. In 2005, there were 2,136 foreign capital agreements in force, involving effective foreign capital of US$3.53 billion and contracted foreign capital valued totalling US$6.52 billion. In 2001-05, 7,821 foreign capital agreements were signed citywide, including contracted foreign capital valued at US$219.6 billion and effective foreign capital of US$123.2 billion representing increases of 90.8 percent, 80.3 percent and 24.6 percent over rates found in the Ninth Five-year Plan.

High-tech Industries and Modern Manufacturing     
In the near future, Beijing will promote the development of advanced manufacturing industries and new and high-tech industries in accord with the basic idea of enlarging the services sector, strengthening manufacturing industries and optimising agriculture. This means the city will take a lead in fostering the development of international modern manufacturing industries.     New and high-tech industries lead the capital’s economic development. In 2004, Beijing’s high-tech industry realized a total industrial value of 197.8 billion yuan (US$24.73 billion) and achieved an added value of 44.3 billion yuan (US$5.54 billion), accounting for 29.9 percent of added value of the city’s above-scale industry (State-owned enterprises or companies valued at 500 million yuan or more), including the 28.9 billion yuan (US$3.61 billion) achieved in the electronic information industry which accounted for 65.2 percent of high-tech industrial added value. In 2005, the high-tech industry realized a total value of 51.75 billion yuan (US$6.47 billion), an increase of 20 percent over 2004, with the increases in electronics and information, biomedicines, new materials and in the optical-mechanical-electronic integration industry of 22 percent, 10.1 percent, 13.2 percent and 18.4 percent, accounting for 70.4 percent, 6.8 percent, 8.7 percent and 10.7 percent in the high-tech industry’s added value. In the Tenth Five-year Plan, Beijing’s modern manufacturing industry grew rapidly; the average annual increase in the industrial added value was 12.4 percent, 2.5 percentage points more than that of the Ninth Five-year Plan. In 2004, above-scale industries achieved an added value of 148.32 billion yuan (US$18.54 billion). Manufacturers of equipment, transport and communications equipment, medicines, petroleum and nuclear fuel processing industries speeded their development, growing by 20 percent. In 2005, Beijing expanded its manufacturing of electronic, automobile and petrochemical equipment, medicine and modern manufacturing industries and will establish six major bases as part of this effort. The added value of the above-scale industry rose to 170.54 billion yuan (US$21.32 billion), an increse of 13.1 percent over 2004.

Tourism, Conference and Exhibition Industry
Under its Tenth Five-year Plan, Beijing entertained 14.6 million overseas tourists, generating a foreign-tourism income of US$14.8 billion. These totals were 21.3 percent and 21.4 percent higher than that in the Ninth Five-year Plan. Beijing also greeted about 560 million domestic tourists, earning a tourism-derived income of 496.9 billion yuan (US$62.1 billion). These figures were 26.3 percent and 1.3 percent more than that under the Ninth Five-year Plan. By the end of 2005, the city had 626 star-rated hotels with a leasing rate of at least 65 percent. The conference and exhibition industries are stars in Beijing’s economic development strategy. By the end of 2005, there were 13 venues for conferences and exhibitions in Beijing, with a total exhibition space of 241,000 square metres, including 16,000 square metres of conference rooms. Some of the better known exhibition spaces are the China International Exhibition Centre, China International Trade Centre, Beijing International Convention Centre and Beijing Exhibition Centre, but there are many more. 

Financial Street
Close to the western part of the second ring road, north of Changan Auenue, is being developed into a financial centre, and more than 300 institutions, including major banks, have headquarters of offices in the area. Starwood Hotels & Resorts announced it was building a 500-room Westin hotel here in July 2004, and Ritz-Carlton is also setting up a hotel in the area. Both are due to open in 2006. Foreign financial institutions have a large presence in Beijing . Several banks, including Mitsubishi bank, deutsche bank, HSBC, Standard Chartered and Citibank, have set up full branches.

Financial institutions

Beijing is also home to the offices of more than 100 foreign insurance and other financial institutions. Two Sino-British life insurance ventures have opened in the city: Citic Prudential Beijing and Aviva-Cofco Life Insurance. The latter is a 50-5- partnership between Aviva Plc, the UK's largest insurer, and China National Cereals, Oils & Foodstuffs Import and Export Corp. The venture, which opened its Beijing branch in Sepetmber 2004, has opened additional branches in Guangzhou and Chendu as a step towards its goal of operating 10 China offices by 2010. Italian insurance group Generali set up a branch of its Generali China Life partnership with the china national petroleum corporation in February 2004.

In May 2004 Manulife (International), the world's fifth largest insurance company, established a Beijing branch of its 51 per cent-owned Manulife-Sinochem Life Insurance venture with the China Foreign Economic and Trade Trust and Investment Co. it plans further branches in Suzhou and Ningbo to five. AIG and ING are also selling life insurance products in the city.

Beijing Economic and Technological Development Area (BDA) is located in Daxing County , just outside the fifty ring road and near the Tianjin-Beijing expressway. One of the original ideas behind BDA was to allow state-owned enterprises to relocate from cramped city center sites to the outskirts of the city, but its main target now is multinationals it has enjoyed rapid growth since it was established in 1991 and includes residential, medical and educational facilities. Bureaucracy here is described as reasonably efficient and business amenities include a local customs office.

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