Zunyi is a city making rapid progress. Its development over the past six decades, especially the thirty years since the reform and opening up program, is a microcosm of the changes wrought across the whole country.

Zunyi's GDP reached 65.573 billion yuan in 2008 and its per capita GDP was 9,570 yuan. When new China was founded in 1949, Zunyi had a GDP of just 142 million yuan and 40 yuan per capita.

Behind this fast growth has been a deep change in Zunyi's economic structure. In 1949, agriculture represented 77.46 percent of its economy, while in 2008 it only accounted for 17.9 percent of the whole. Zunyi has shifted from being a traditional agricultural economy into one with a sound industrial base.

Economic progress

In 1949, immediately following the liberation, there were only 27 small factories within Zunyi. Sixty years later, Zunyi has developed a large industrial system and become an important industrial base in the Guizhou province. It now focuses on tobacco and wine, the energy industry, chemical engineering, electro-mechanics, new materials, pharmaceuticals and food processing.

In 2007, the total industrial output value of Zunyi reached 22.25 billion yuan, contributing more than 80 percent of its fiscal revenue.

The city intends to further enhance the sustainability of its industrial sector with the implementation of several key projects, including the development of the Goupitan Hydropower Station, the Tongzi Coal Chemical Plant, and the Xishui Erlang Thermal Power Plant.

Meanwhile, the private sector has developed equally rapidly, now accounting for some 40 percent of the city's economic turnover.

Considerable external investment has also been attracted into Zunyi. In the catering and entertainment businesses, the city's three branches of the Champs Elysees Avenue Caf are said to be doing well. These were originally backed by two Taiwanese investors - Li Guofu and his wife, Li Zimeng.

In addition to fast developments in its industrial and service sector, Zunyi has not lost its agricultural heritage. As the 'breadbasket' of northern Guizhou, its agricultural output is between a quarter and a third of the province's total output.

The city has also built several special agricultural bases, producing tea, bamboo, chili and traditional Chinese medicine. Its marsh gas production has also been widely promoted in rural areas.

The local government has now implemented several special policies to promote rural redevelopment, echoing the central government's strategy of building a new socialist countryside. By 2008, some 620,000 rural families, including about 2.55 million farmers, have benefited from this policy.