Business environment

Natural Resources

Minerals

It has 158 types of mineral resources and tops the country in proven oil shale reserves, with 17.4 billion tons, or 54 percent of the national total, and reserves of wollastonite. Grasslands Jilin is one of China's 8 largest pastoral areas and a major animal husbandry base. Its western part has vast, lush meadows with high quality grass, and Chinese wild rye.

Plants

The province has a diversity of species, with 3,890 wild plants identified and 16 on China's earliest protection list. The flora of Changbai Mountain makes Jilin a major Chinese herbal medicine producing area and the home of the "Three Treasures of Northeast China" -- ginseng, mink and velvet deer antlers.

Water

It has plenty of mineral water resources, with the best coming from the Changbai Mountain area, where the water quality has been confirmed by international authorities. It is one of the world's three largest mineral water-rich areas, along with the Alps in Europe and Russia's Caucasus.

Its Songliao Plain is the home of black earth and one of three of the largest such areas with 5.53 million hectares of arable land, or 29.5 percent of the provincial total. Its per capita arable land is 0.3 hectares, or twice the national average and almost equal to the world's average. Forests This is an important forestry base with 9.3 million hectares of forested land, covering 43.9 percent of the province. Its Changbai Mountain area is known as "a sea of forests" and is one of China's six largest forested regions.

Location

Jilin province is in China's and Asia's Northeast, along with Mongolia, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Republic of Korea, Japan, and the Russian Far East, which has a population of 680 million and a fifth of the world's economic output, so, it clearly has a favorable location and great development potential.

Equipment manufacturing

Jilin has a complete industrial system dominated by transportation equipment manufacturing and focuses on three bases---automobiles, agricultural product processing, and science, education and culture, and is actively expanding 10 of its industries, including automobiles and parts, food, optoelectronics information, biology and medicines.

Tourism

After years of development, Jilin has formed a tourism network consisting of Changbai Mountain, the Changchun Jingyuetan National Forest Park, Changchun Jingyuetan Ski Resort, Changbaishan Plateau Snow Sports Training Base, Songhua Lake Ski Resort, Changchun Lianhuashan Ski Resort, and Tongyu County Xianghai National Nature Reserve. It has 218 star-rated hotels, five of them 5-star.

Technology

Jilin's advantages and competitiveness in technological research are found in optics, applied chemistry, solid state physics, electronics, information technology, biotechnology, new materials, advanced manufacturing, modern agriculture, modern TCM, environmental protection, and clean vehicles, with some on the cutting edge.

Human resources

The province has 24 members of the China Sciences Academy and China Engineering Academy, 12 national key labs, three labs run with the Ministry of Science and Technology, 59 provincial labs, and 118 S&T innovation (engineering research) centers.

Transportation

Jilin has 16 border areas with Russia and DPRK, including an official channel for DPRK, two airports, two inland railway ports and one river shipping port. The capital, Changchun, is less than 500 kilometers from the cities of Harbin, Shenyang, and Yanji, no more than 1,000 km from Dalian, Beijing, Seoul, South Korea, and Vladivostok and Khabarovsk in Russia, and less 2,000 km from Shanghai and Japanese cities.

Its Hunchun Railway links it with Russian railways and its Changchun-Manchuria-Germany international cargo train link passes through the fewest countries and has the shortest running time, and lowest costs in China.