Location and climate
The southern most of the three Dongbei (northeast) provinces, Liaoning has become Chinas most highly industrialised province. To the north, Liaoning borders Jilin, to the east, Inner Mongolia and, in the south, Hebei. To the east Liaoning partly borders North Korea. The Liaodong Peninsula separates the Gulf of Bohai from the Yellow Sea. The climate is continental monsoon.
Principal cities
Shenyang (pop: 5.4m), the provincial capital and an important economic and cultural centre, is a major communications link between the northeast and the far north of China. Shenyang has over 5,000 industrial enterprises specialising in electrical transmission and transformer equipment (about half China's out-put), machine tools, mining equipment and metallurgical products and equipment. The output of iron and steel accounts for one-fifth of China's total output and employs over 800,000 in over 1,000 enterprises (from the mining of coal and ore through to the delivery of the finished product). Shenyang has been the major centre in China for metallurgy and machine-building since the 1930s. In 1990 Shenyang exported approximately US$40m of high grade steel(2-300,000 tonnes).
It is said to be the second largest industrial area in China after Shanghai, but in 1990 industrial output grew by only 2.5 per cent. It is China's largest medicines exporter earning US$30m, one quarter of China's total foreign exchange earnings from medicine exports. Total exports exceeded US$200m, an increase of 17.5 per cent on the 1988 performance. The city has 120 joint ventures which had an output of 300m RMB in 1989. The Qing Tombs nearby, are a major tourist attraction.
Dalian is an important shipbuilding centre and the largest seaport in north-east China. China's largest shipyard has been built in Dalian. Completed in 1990, it is the only yard in China capable of constructing ships of over 100,000 dwt.
The city's airport is being re-built and its port facilities extended containerisation is being introduced) and to increase its cargo and passenger handling capacity an experimental free port to the north of the Dagushan Peninsula is developed in the Dalian Economic/Technical Development Zone (DEDZ) where about a third of all the foreign-funded enter-prises are located. The DEDZ is bigger than Tianjin's.
When the first phase of the new facilities at Dayao harbour are completed in 1992, Dalian Port will have a cargo handling capacity of 80m tonnes. The port handles over 50m tonnes each year (70 per cent of which is for export). The main exports through Dalian are oil (50 per cent by volume), raw materials, including agricultural products, and minerals, metals and fertilizers. Exports in 1990 were US$669m.
The municipal government has set up a special office to handle the demand for materials from foreign funded enter-prises and has set up offices in the provinces of northeastern China to provide inland towns with trade services. The authorities are also considering the development of light industry.
There are 921 foreign-funded enter-prises which have been set up in Dalian. It is the preferred location for Japanese investment and it is estimated that since 1979 Japanese companies have invested more than US$3bn there.
Dandong on the Yalu River, in south-eastern Liaoning is a small port handling vessels of 3-5000 tons. The new port facilities under construction at Dadonggou will provide another ice-free port in the province. The city produces garments, silk and other textile products, canned food and glassware. The beautiful surrounding countryside and the many sites of interest offers the potential for tourist development.
Yingkou, the home of the Northeast Musical Instrument Factory, produces violins and pianos which are exported to western Europe and southeast Asia. The city is to offer the same preferential terms to foreign investors as the 14 "o en coastal cities".
Jinzhou is a new port completed in 1989 which will help to serve the industrial cities of Shenyang, Anshan and Dalian. Jinzhou is also an industrial centre in its own right, with two oil refineries (capacity 6.5m tonnes per year), a fertilizer plant (capacity 240,000 tonnes) and granite quarries.
Anshan has China's largest iron and steel complex.
Fuxin (pop: 1.7m) is an important coal producer and power generating centre with modernised agricultural, textiles and engineering industries.
Benxi is the most polluted city in China. 400 industrial and mining enter-prises within a 43 sq km area discharge 95bn cu m of waste gas, 150,000 tonnes of industrial dust, 90,000 tonnes of smoke dust and 100,000 tonnes of sulphur dioxide every year. The central authorities are to contribute 380m RMB towards environmental improvements to the city.
Chaoyang is the home of the Long March Tyre Plant.
Natural resources
Liaoning has large iron ore reserves and there are many other metal and mineral deposits including the world's largest reserves of magnesite and the largest reserves of oil shales, petroleum and natural gas in the Liaohe River valley (where reserves are the third largest in China accounting for 15 per cent of the country's oil resources and 10 per cent of the gas resources) and around Shenyang where five oil wells have been dug with a capacity of 3m tonnes of crude oil and 300 cu m of natural gas. Oil and gas has also been found offshore, 55km from Jinxi City, between the Qinguangdao and Liaohe oilfields.
The Wafangdian diamond mine near Dalian, has a reserve accounting for 54 per cent of China's total diamond reserves.
Industry
Liaoning is the heavy industry base of China with the highest concentration of large and medium sized state enter-prises in the country. The main industries are: metallurgical products, Liaoning is the leading producer in China (at Anshan, Dalian and Fushun); machine tools; chemicals, third in China; construction materials ? especially cement. Other important industries are: electricity generation, light industry, textiles, plastics and electronics.
In 1984, when China opened up 14 coastal cities to overseas trade and in-vestment, Dalian was the only one in the northeast of China but in 1988 the whole of Liaodong Peninsula was declared an economic development zone. The peninsula covers a total area of 54,000 sq km and 21.6m people (36.8 per cent and 57 per cent respectively of the province's total). It is a particularly important industrial area producing 10 per cent of the country's iron and steel and 30 per cent of China's petroleum output.
Communications
Communications in Liaoning are good with the most dense network of railway lines in China. There are numerous ports, with Dalian (which is ice-free all year round), Dandong, Yingkou and Jinghoiu being the major ones. There are sea routes to Japan, Hong Kong and Macao. All townships and 80 per cent of villages are served by public buses. A new 357km highway linking Shenyang and Dalian was completed in the seventh five year plan period (1986-1990) cutting the journey time from 8 to 4 hours. An 85km motorway ring road around Shenyang together with motorway links to Benxi and to Harbin (Heilongjiang province) will be built during the period of the eighth five year plan. Air communications have developed rapidly since 1964 and Liaoning now has two large airports (at Shenyang and Dalian).
Trade
Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang and the eastern part of Inner Mongolia form the recently created northeast China economic zone which will concentrate on the iron and steel industry, heavy machinery, motor vehicles and the aircraft industry.
Liaoning's foreign trade is closely linked to Japan. Trade with North Korea via Liaoning amounted to 11.7m RMB in 1990.
Projects
Plans for a 22.35km elevated light railway across the centre of Shenyang has been approved. Construction is planned to commence in 1994 and completion is scheduled for 1998. Total foreign exchange costs for the project are estimated to be US$80-90m.
165m RMB is to be invested in the improvement of agriculture in the Liaohe River Delta. The intention is to increase agricultural output by 600,000 tons by 1995. The project will be open to foreign investment. Benxi Iron and Steel Plant plans to install a sheet steel cold-rolling mill with a capacity of lm tonnes of steel plate a year, including 200,000 tonnes of galvanised sheets.
A large scale petrochemicals project, due to be completed by 1995, in the Liaoning peninsula involves the construction of two plants. It will be the largest JV in China. Foreign investors from the US, Japan, Italy and Canada have shown an interest in the project. SINOPEC has plans for two ethylene production plants, one at the Liaoning General Petrochemicals Plant (450,0 tonnes per annum) and another at the Fushun General Petrochemicals Plant (115,000 tonnes per annum). Liaoning plans to build a petrochemicals city at the junction of Liaodong and Bohai bays. The Haiwang Islands, nine islands covering 6.9 sq km, are to be made into a tourist resort.
For the future, the province plans to develop three special areas:
* Dalian will become an economic and technological development area which will include an ambitious new free port on the Daguhsan Peninsula, with the emphasis on
exports, foreign investment and high technology projects.
* the Boyuquan industrial area in Yingkou will become a processing zone for imported materials and
* the Tiexi industrial area in Shenyang will become an experimental site for the modernisation of some 1000 existing older enterprises.
Another economic zone which is planned will be located along the Dalian-Shenyang motorway, opened in October 1990. *
