A Brief Introduction to Guizhou Province

Guizhou province is called "Qian" or "Gui" for its short forms. Located on the eastern slope of Yunnan--Guizhou Plateau, Guizhou borders provinces (region and municipality) of Hunan, Guangxi, Yunnan, Sichuan and Chongqing to the east, south, west, and north respectively. The province becomes an important access to the sea and a transportation hub for Southwest China.

The province covers an area of 176,100 square kilometers, accounting for 1.8% of the national area. The altitude is 1,100 meters on average. Mountains and hills make up 92.5% of the total provincial area, of which 61.9% is dominated by karst landform. Guizhou is one of the most developed karst landform regions in the world.

The province has a subtropical monsoon climate and the weather is normally mild, neither frigid in winter nor scorching in summer. The rainfall is plentiful and the average temperatures are 5.2 oC in January and 24.3 oC in July.

Guizhou is one of the important birthplaces of the Chinese ancients and there were human activities 500,000 or 600,000 years ago. In 1382 (the 15th year of Hongwu Emperor in the Ming Dynasty), a first military organization was set up. Guizhou officially became a province-level administration in 1413 (the 11th year of Yongle Emperor of the Ming Dynasty).

There are many ethnic groups in the province with a population of 39,310,000. 49 ethnic groups are living in Guizhou, 17 of whom are ethnic minorities and have lived here for generations. Ten ethnic groups of Han, Miao, Bouyei, Dong, Tujia, Yi, Gelao, Shui, Hui and Bai have a population of over 100,000 respectively. The population of ethnic minorities account for 36.77% of the provincial total, ranking third in China.

Administratively, Guizhou consists of four prefecture-level cities--Guiyang, Liupanshui, Zunyi and Anshun, three minority autonomous prefectures--Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Qiannan Miao and Bouyei Autonomous Prefecture and Qianxinan Bouyei and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, and two prefectures--Bijie and Tongren. Under the prefecture level, there are nine county-level cities of Kaili, Duyun, Xingyi, Tongren, Bijie, Chishui, Qingzhen, Renhuai and Fuquan and 79 counties (districts and special districts). Guiyang is the capital of the province.

Guizhou is one of the provinces with abundant mineral deposits. 123 minerals have been found and 76 have been ascertained. 28 are on the top five and 41 the top ten in China. Coal, manganese, bauxite, antimony, gold, pyrite, phosphorus and barite are competitive. The province is best known for its coal reserves, which is the 5th largest in the country, south of the Yangtze River. Bauxite resource is China’s third largest. Phosphorus reserves ranks second in China, accounting for 32.6% of the national total. The province is the biggest supplier of barite with its huge reserve. The exploitation and utilization of advantageous mineral resources has made Guizhou a significant base of energy, aluminum and phosphorus-chemistry and manganese-related ferry alloy production, and the biggest barium carbonate production base in Asia as well. With its large-scale exploration of gold mines in Southwest Guizhou, the province is expected to become an emerging gold base.

Guizhou is also a province rich in tourism resource. More than 1000 natural places with commercial value and over 1000 villages for development of rural tourism scatter all over the province. At present, there are 12 national-level scenic areas like the Huangguoshu Waterfall and the Dragon Palace, and 57 provincial-level scenic spots such as Huaxi and Baihua Lake. 7 national nature reserves include Mount Fanjing and Caohai and 15 provincial nature reserves such as Kuankuoshui and Mount Leigongshan. Cultural relics at national level are 19, for instance, the original site of Zunyi Meeting and Qinglong Cave. 285 are cultural relics at provincial level, for instance, pictographs on the Red Rock and the Longevity Palace in Shiqian County. There are 11 national forest parks in the province, the Bamboo Sea in Chishui City and the Azalea Forest, to mention a few. The number of national geo-parks is four including Guanling biota and Shuanghe Cave in Shuiyang County. Guiyang, Duyun and Kaili have been selected as the nice Chinese cities for tourism. 491 scenic spots have already been open and on the list of tourism plan, of which 79 belong to Class A, 191 Class B and 221 Class C or below, according to the practical international classifications and assessment standards. Six comprehensive tourism areas in Guiyang, Anshun, Kaili--Zhenyuan, Liping--Congjiang--Rongjiang, Libo, Xingyi--Anlong and six specialty tourism areas of Mount Fanjing, Zunyi, Chishui--Xishui--Renhuai, Zhijin--Qianxi, Weining--Liupanshui, Wujiang Gorges have been formed. Such typical cultural brands as plateau karst ecology, tree fern ecology, Miao and Dong culture ecology, ethnic culture, ancient military castle culture, Long March culture, state liquor culture, Yangming culture, cave culture and Yelang culture have been promoted. The rural tourism characterized by local custom experience is put into the scheme and under its development.