- Tongling
Tongling (zh-stpw|s=铜陵|t=銅陵|p=Tónglíng|w=T'ung-ling; former names: Tunglinghsien, Tungkwanshan; literally "Copper Hillock") is a
prefecture-level city in southernAnhui province,People's Republic of China . Ariver port along theYangtze River , Tongling bordersChaohu to the north,Wuhu to the east,Chizhou to the southwest andAnqing to the west.The asteroid
12418 Tongling was named after the city.Administration
The
prefecture-level city of Yantai administers 4 county-level divisions, including 3 districts and 1 county.*
Tongguanshan District (铜官山区)
*Shizishan District (狮子山区)
*Jiao District (郊区)
*Tongling County (铜陵县)History
Tongling has been famous as a beautiful mountain city since its origins in the
Han dynasty over 1500 years ago. Owing to its copper and tin deposits, it was an important center in the past for bronze production. The scale of industrial activity gradually increased through the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, the Japanese occupation of 1938-45, and especially under the Communist government since 1949.Economy
Today the city's industrial base still revolves around the several nearby copper mines and copper processing operations. The local mineral resources also include : iron, coal, gold, silver,tin, Iron sulfide, plus more than twenty other rare minerals associated with them such as nickel, cadmium, gallium, molybdenum, germanium and selenium. Other important industries include chemical works, textiles, building materials, electronics, machinery and food processing. Long a hub of water transportation, in 1995 Tongling became the site of Anhui Province's first highway bridge spanning the
Yangtze River .Although Tongling City is mostly mountainous, the surrounding flatlands are rich agricultural regions producing rice, wheat, cotton, beans, garlic , herbal medicines and ginger. Large amounts of fish are also harvested in the region.
Tongling is the center for conservation efforts to preserve the last remaining Yangtze freshwater dolphins. Two semi-natural reserves have been established in the Tongling area, in the Tongling and Shishou oxbow lakes, but as yet no dolphins have been successfully captured and moved from the river into the lakes.
Tongling has developed at a rapid speed in the past 5 years,ie 2003 to 2007.The average GDP per capital has reached RMB33000 which is the second in Anhui province. And the increasing rate is 17%,far more than the average increasing rate of the whole province which is 12.8%.And it aims to achieve $10000 GDP per capital in 2012
Culture
The famous poet of Tang Dynasty,
Li Bai (c.700–762, also known as Li Po) praised the beauty and richness of Tongling.Relationships
Tongling-City has established relations to several cities throughout the world. E.g. a contract of town-twinning with the city of
Marbach am Neckar inGermany was signed in2005 after 15 years of friendly contacts. One lady citizen of Marbach am Neckar has been awarded honorary citizenship of Tongling City in 2005, rewarding restless efforts for keeping up the town-twinning.Twin towns
*
*External links
* [http://www.tl.gov.cn Government website of Tongling] (in Simplified Chinese)
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