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What You Need To Know

Wenzhou, is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Zhejiang province in the People’s Republic of China. Wenzhou is located at the extreme south east of Zhejiang Province with its borders connecting to Lishui on the west, Taizhou on the north, and Fujian to the south. It is surrounded by mountains, the East China Sea, and 436 islands, while its lowlands are almost entirely along its East China Sea coast, which is nearly 355 kilometres (221 miles) long. Most of Wenzhou’s area is mountainous as almost 76 percent of its 11,784-square-kilometre (4,550 sq mi) surface area is classified as mountains and hills. It is said that Wenzhou has 7/10 mountains, 1/10 water, and 2/10 farmland. At the time of the 2010 Chinese census, 3,039,500 people lived in Wenzhou’s city proper; the area under its jurisdiction (which includes two satellite cities and six counties) held a population of 9,122,100 of which 31.16{d4f7e78ca0e788ec542fd20baf9fbe3b8144376374c49cb146f25f60b6741308}} are non-local residents from outside of Wenzhou. Wenzhou, which translates to “a mild and pleasant land”, derives its name from its climate, as it is neither extremely hot in summer nor extremely cold in the winter. Originally known as Yongjia, Yung-chia or Yungkia (Chinese: 永嘉; pinyin: Yǒngjiā), Wenzhou was a prosperous foreign treaty port, which remains well-preserved today. It is situated in a mountainous region and, as a result, has been isolated for most of its history from the rest of the country, making the local culture and language very distinct not only from the rest of China but from neighbouring areas as well. It is also known for its emigrants who leave their native land for Europe and the United States, with a reputation for being entrepreneurs who start restaurants, retail and wholesale businesses in their adopted countries. Wenzhou people make up a large number of ethnic Chinese residents of Italy (where they comprise 90{d4f7e78ca0e788ec542fd20baf9fbe3b8144376374c49cb146f25f60b6741308}of all Chinese residents), France, and Spain.

Area: 11,784 km²

Population: Estimate 3 Million

Currency

  • Shenyang Currency Exchange. Chinese Yuan (also known as Renminbi, rmb for short) is the official and legal currency in circulation. Use of foreign currencies is generally not allowed.

Business culture

Due to both Wenzhou’s cultural and geographical remoteness and its lack of natural resources (land, minerals, etc.), the Chinese central government has left the people of Wenzhou relatively autonomous. Away from the center of the political and economic stage, its people are more independent, self-reliant, and generally more business and family oriented. Numerous books have been published about the business sense of people from Wenzhou. Hence, when China switched from its planned economy to its so-called capitalist economy with Chinese (socialist) characteristics in the late 1980s, its people adjusted well to the new system and took advantage of it. A popular common saying calls Wenzhounese the “Jews of the Orient” (东方的犹太人).  Wenzhounese have been stereotyped by other Chinese as real estate speculators. China Daily notes that investments from Wenzhounese buyers play a disproportionately large role in the increase property prices all over China. The people of Wenzhou are equipped with business sense and a commercial culture more dominant than anywhere else in China. Wenzhou has two economic characteristics: it was the first to launch a market economy, and it has the most active and developed private economy in China.

 

Economy

Wenzhou exports food, tea, wine, jute, timber, paper, Alunite (a non-metallic mineral used to make alum and fertilizer). Alunite is abundant and Wenzhou claims to be the “Alunite Capital of the World”. Its 10 main industries each exceeding 1.5 billion dollars are electrical machinery, leather products, general equipment, power supply, plastic manufacturing, textile and garment, transport equipment, chemical products, metal products and metal processing. From the 1990s, low-voltage electric appliances manufacturing became one of the major industries in Wenzhou, with some of the large private enterprises setting up joint ventures with GE and Schneider. In 1994, exploration for oil and natural gas commenced in the East China Sea 100 km (62 mi) off the coast of Wenzhou. Companies such as Texaco, Chevron, Shell and JAPEX have started to drill for oil but the operations have been largely unsuccessful. Wenzhou is a city full of vibrant business activities. When China began economic reforms in 1978, Wenzhou was the first city in China to set up individual and private enterprises as well as shareholder cooperatives. It has also taken the lead in carrying out financial system reform and structural reform in townships. Being a pioneer in utilizing marketing mechanism to develop urban constructions, Wenzhou has won a number of firsts in China and set many national records. From 1978 through 2009, the GDP of Wenzhou, a third-tier city, has increased from 1.32 billion RMB to 252.8 billion RMB with the gross fiscal revenue increasing from 0.135 billion RMB to 36.1 billion RMB, and the net per capita income for rural residents increasing from 113.5 RMB to 10,100 RMB. The per capita disposable income for urban residents increased from 422.6 RMB in 1981 to 28,021 RMB in 2009, which is the third highest among Chinese cities, after first-tier cities Dongguan and Shenzhen. GDP of the city in 2013 reached 400.386 billion RMB, a YOY growth of 7.7{524c935a922271261ff7209c8fab535850f2b6001f5e4b40374205b8403f8659}. Per capita GDP reached 49,817 RMB, or USD 8,044 as per yearly average exchange rate, a 7.1{524c935a922271261ff7209c8fab535850f2b6001f5e4b40374205b8403f8659} increase over the previous year.

Industrial zones

  • Wenzhou Economic & Technological Development Zone

Wenzhou Economic & Technological Development Zone was established and approved by State Council in 1992. The main traffic system around the zone include No.104 National Highway, Ningbo-Wenzhou Expressway and Wenzhou Bridge. It is located near to Wenzhou International Airport and Wenzhou Port. Industries encouraged in the zone include electrical equipment, electronic information, chemical medicine, building materials, and textiles.

Language

Wenzhou natives speak a language of Wu Chinese, the language family shared by Hangzhou, Ningbo, Suzhou and Shanghai; called Wenzhounese (simplified Chinese: 温州话; traditional Chinese: 溫州話; pinyin: wēnzhōuhuà p Wēnzhōuhuà, lit. “Wenzhou speech”), also known as Oujiang (simplified Chinese: 瓯江话; traditional Chinese: 甌江話; pinyin: ōujiānghuà) or Dong’ou (東甌). Geographic isolation and the immigration of Southern Min speakers from nearby Fujian have caused Wenzhounese to evolve into a very phonologically divergergent hybrid impossible to understand. As a result, even the adjacent Taizhou Wu variety has little mutual intelligibility with Wenzhounese. Due to its high degree of eccentricity, the language is reputed to have been used during the Second Sino-Japanese War during wartime communication and in Sino-Vietnamese War for programming military cipher (code). Due to its unique grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation, the language is basically impossible for any non-local to understand. There is a common “fearing” rhymed saying in China that reflects the extreme comprehension difficulty of Wenzhounese: “Fear not the Heavens, fear not the Earth, but fear the Wenzhou person speaking Wenzhounese.”

Religion

Most of the Wenzhou people practice Chinese folk religion as people in the rest of China, while a part of the population is non-religious. In addition, Buddhism, Taoism and Christianity also have a presence in the city. Prior to 1949 there were 2,000 registered places of worship and 4,500 priests, pastors and monks in the city. But, the state officially designated Wenzhou as an experimental site for an “atheistic zone” (无宗教区) in 1958 and during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), religious buildings were either closed or converted for other uses. Religion revived quickly since the 1980s, and today there are more registered places of worship than before. Specifically, as of 2015 the city has 8,569 registered folk religious temples and 3,961 registered places of worship of the five institutional religions (Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicism and Protestantism). The city was the forefront in the registration and management of folk religious temples which was started in January 2015 and later extended to all Zhejiang.

Tourism

A Qing dynasty scroll painting depicting the ranges of Yandang Mountains. With a history of over 120 million years, Yandang Mountains or Yandangshan Mountains, literally the wild goose pond mountain(s) is known for its natural beauty, arising from its many vertical rock faces and pinnacles, mountain slopes with lush forests and bamboo groves, streams with clear water, waterfalls and caves. Nanxi River located in Yongjia County, Nanxi River was famous for its 36 bends and 72 beaches. The main scenic spots of the Nanxi River area include the Furong Triangle Rock, the Waterfall of Tengxi Pool, the Twelve Peaks, the Taogong Cave, the Warehouse Under The Cliff, the Furong Ancient Hamlet and the Lion Rock. It was named as one of the National Tourist Scenic Spots by the State Council and has been listed in Tentative Lists of UNESCO World Heritage. Covered bridges, Taishun County has more than 900 covered bridges, Wuyanling National Nature Reserve in the west of the county represents significant natural values as well as being a touristic attraction.

Transport

Air

The Wenzhou Longwan Airport serves the Wenzhou area, with scheduled flights to major cities in mainland China as well as Hong Kong and Macau. New direct air route to Taipei and Cheju Island of Korea have been opened in 2012. The Airport is situated on the southeast of Wenzhou city proper, 20 km (12 mi) away from the city center. It’s been graded as nation’s Category B civil airport, serving a population of 20 million spanning areas of Wenzhou, Taizhou and Lishui of Zhejiang and Ningde of the neighbouring Fujian. The correlated GDP of the area reaches 300 billion RMB. The Airport started opening up in 1995 and direct flight to Macau was approved. Air route to Hong Kong was open in 1996. Linking 65 cities in the country with 34 permanently operating air routes, the Airport is among the fastest-growing and profitable among its peers in China. The Airport ranks 1st in terms of passenger transit among cities of same level in China. In 2004, the Airport handled 29,700 landings, a passenger transit of 2.439 million, cargo throughput of 38,500 tons. A new Terminal 2(T2) is being planned, with designed passenger throughput of 13 million per year, while the Terminal 1 will serve as international terminal.

Railway

Because of Wenzhou’s geographic location, it is difficult to build a railway to connect it with other cities. Wenzhou’s first railway, the Jinhua-Wenzhou Line, opened on June 11, 1998. The railway runs northwest to Jinhua and is operated by the Jinwen Railway Company. The railway has a total length of 251 km (156 mi), including 135 bridges of 14 km (8.7 mi) in length 96 tunnels of 35 km (22 mi) in length. The Jinwen Railway was the first in China to be built with local capital, and gave birth to China’s first standardized joint-stock enterprise: Zhejiang Jinwen Rail Way Development Co., Ltd. In September 2009, two high-speed railways opened in Wenzhou. The Hangzhou–Taizhou–Wenzhou Railway runs north to Hangzhou, and the Wenzhou–Xiamen Railway, runs south to Xiamen. Both lines accommodate high-speed CRH (China Railway High-speed) trains running at speeds of up to 200 km/h (120 mph) and have dramatically shortened rail travel time to neighboring cities. The city was the site of China’s only major high-speed rail accident to date.

Weather

Wenzhou derives its present name from its climate, and has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen: Cfa) with short winters and long, hot, humid summers. Summers are similar to the remainder of the province (albeit slightly cooler during the daytime as compared to inland areas), but winter is much milder, partly due to the southerly location and partly due to the sheltering effect of the surrounding mountains. The monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from 8.0 °C (46.4 °F) in January to 28.0 °C (82.4 °F) in July and August, while the annual mean is 18.08 °C (64.5 °F). Heavy rainfalls occur in late spring and early summer due to the plum rains of the East Asian monsoon, while typhoons are commonly a threat in the second half of summer causing considerable damage and destruction. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 26{d4f7e78ca0e788ec542fd20baf9fbe3b8144376374c49cb146f25f60b6741308} in March to 53{d4f7e78ca0e788ec542fd20baf9fbe3b8144376374c49cb146f25f60b6741308} in August, the city receives 1,706 hours of bright sunshine annually.