Wenzhou City is located to the southeastern part of Zhejiang, middle of the country’s coastal line. It faces the East China Sea to the east, with 355 kilometers of coastal line, and neighbors 3 counties of Fujian to the south namely Fuding, Zherong and Shouning. In th ewest and north west, it links with Qingtian, Jinyun and the Jingning autonomous county of She nationality of Lishui Region. In the north and northeast, it neighbors with 4 counties of Taizhou City namely Xaiju, Huangyan, Wenling and Yuhuan. The terrain tilts from southwest to northeast. The main mountains are Donggong, Kuocang and Yangdang. The Baiyunjian Peak, with 1611.1 meters of altitude, is the highest. The main rivers are Oujiang River, Feiyunjiang River, Aojiang River, flowing from the west to the East China Sea. The lower reaches are sea alluvial plains.
In the 3rd year of Yonghe era of emperor Hangshun ( 138 ), Yongning County was established in Dongouxiang of Xizhangan County, it was the beginning of the establishment of Wenzhou County. In the 1st year of Taining of emperor Ming of East Jin Dynasty ( 323 ), 4 counties in Fenlinhai namely Yongning, Angu, Hengyang and Songyang formed Yongjia County, the urban area was set up in the south wing of the lower reach of Oujiang River ( Lucheng District of Wenzhou City of today ), it was the beginning of the establishment of Wenzhou city. In the 2nd year of Shangyuan era of emperor Tanggaozong ( 675 ), two counties of Xikuo city namely Yongjia and Angu merged to be one city. For the reason of being located to the west of Wenqiao Mountain and warm in winter, the name was given as Wenzhou. Wenzhou was liberated in May, 1949. In August of the same year, Wenzhou became the 5th special zone of Zhejiang, directly subordinated to the provincial Government. After the foundation of new China, the 5th special zone was changed to Wenzhou special zone, with jurisdiction over 8 counties namely Ruian, Yongjia, Yueqing, Pingyang, Wencheng, Taishun, Qingtian and Yuhuan. From 1952 to 1955, the number of counties and districts under Wenzhou was increased to 19. In July, 1958, Wenzhou City began to be under jurisdiction of Wenzhou special zone. In April, 1980, it resumed to be a city directly subordinated to the provincial Government. In September of the same year, the Wenzhou region was merged with Wenzhou city, and was called Wenzhou city. The system of county under city jurisdiction was implemented. In the end of 1995, Wenzhou city’s jurisdiction includes 3 districts namely Lucheng, Ouhai and Longwan, and 6 counties namely Ruian, 2 cities ( county level ) of Yueqing and Dongtou, Yongjia, Pingyang, Changnan, Wencheng and Taishun, with 17 residential districts, 146 towns and 168 villages. The total land area is 11784 square kilometers, the total sea area is 11000 square kilometers, the area of arable land is 170.13 thousand hectares, the total population is 7.04 million, the density of population is 592 persons per square kilometer, the area of arable land per capita is 0.36 Mu. There are 39 ethnic minorities within the border, and 250 thousand overseas Chinese in more than 60 countries and regions.
Wenzhou is much populated with less farmland, few state investment and poor infrastructure, and was backward in the past. Since the 3rd plenary session of the 11th Party congress, the Wenzhou people combined the Party’s policy of reform and opening up with the local realities, and took the lead to carry out market oriented reform, creating a economic development path with Wenzhou regional characteristics. In the 20 years since the reform and opening up, the development of Wenzhou experienced three stages: the first stage is the beginning of reform and opening up, starting from family industry, giving freedom to the development of diversified economic ownership, solving the problem of overall economic volume, forming the structure of small commodities but big market; the second stage is the middle and late period of the 80’s, taking capital, talents and technology as ties to lead the family industry to merging, devoting major efforts to develop share cooperative economy, giving full play of the effect of small capital but big radiation; the third stage is after 1992, inspired by the talks of Deng Xiaoping during the tour to the south and the 14th Party congress, Wenzhou carried out the 2nd pioneering work with enhancement of economic quality as the core, the reform and construction of the city entered a new stage, creating a structure of small area but big development.
From 1978 to 1997, the GDP of the city rose from 1.331 billion yuan to 60.5 billion yuan, the industrial output rose from 1.112 billion yuan to 124.6 billion yuan; the financial revenue rose from 135 million yuan to 3.87 billion yuan; the income per capite of rural residents increased from 113.5 yuan to 3700 yuan. 3 counties of national poverty level namely Yongjia, Taishun and Wencheng have been liberated from poverty.
During 20 years of research, reform and development, great changes have taken place in the economy and society of Wenzhou, forming obvious regional characteristics and becoming an economic, cultural and traffic center of southern Zhejiang, one of the first 14 open coastal cities of China, one of the first 13 pilot areas of rural reform of the country and one of the pilot cities of urban comprehensive coordinated reform of China
