l          Profile

Chongming island lies in the estuary of the Yangtze River and western coast of the Pacific Ocean, it resides at the mid-point of China's north-south coastal line. It is the world's largest alluvial island and is China's third largest island after Taiwan and Hainan in size. Surrounded by the Yangtze River on the west, the east China Sea on the east, the Pudong New Area and Baoshan District on the south and Jiangshu province on the north, Chongming enjoys a comfortably warm and humid climate, sufficient rainfall and sunshine and distinct changes of seasons. Temperature averages 15.2 Celsius. The island covers an area of 1225 square meters, and it is 80 km long from the east to west and 13-18km wide from the south to the north. With fresh air and excellent eco-environment, lifespan on the island averages 76.7 years old.

Chongming county has 13 towns and 3 villages including two islands of Changxin and Hensha which formerly belong to Baoshan District. Chenqiao town is the seat of the county government and also the political, economic and cultural center. There are 4 state-owned farms and 2 military-owned farms on the island. Shanghai Shiye Industrials Group established a modern agricultural park here. The registered residents in 2004 were 635,000 with the decrease of 3000, a decrease of 0.4 %. By the end of 2004, the island has 70,2000 residents.

l          Economic situation

In 2004 the industry structure further optimized and the prime industry, secondary and tertiary industries developed in a coordinated manner and the economy of Chongming developed in a rapid and healthy manner. The value-added reached 79 hundred million yuan, showing an increase of 12.7 % over that of the previous year among which 15.1 hundred million yuan was for prime industry, an increase of 2.1 %, accounting for 19.2 % of the whole value-added, a decrease of 1.8%; 34.5 hundred million yuan was for secondary industry, an increase of 21.6 %, accounting for 43.7 % of the whole value-added, an increase of 3.2%; 29.4 hundred million yuan was for tertiary sector, an increase of 9.8 %, accounting for 37.1 % of the whole value-added, a decrease of 1.4% over the previous year.

The income of town residents and farmers grew steadily. The average salary in the county in 2004 was 17,320 yuan, an increase of 6.4 % over the previous year. Farmers averaged 5781 yuan yearly in income, an increase of 12.9 % over the previous year.

The county government attached great importance to the development of industrial parks. There are Chongming Industrial Park, Shanghai Fushen Economic & Development Park, Chongming Modern Agriculture Park, Chongming Forest Tourism Park and other economic parks on the island.　

l          Future plan

In the master plan of Shanghai, Chongming will be the strategic area for sustainable development of Shanghai. According to the requirements of making a master plan for Chongming, speeding up the construction of the grand passage linking Chongming and Shanghai and making preparation for the overall development by Shanghai municipal government, Chongming island will be built into garden island, vocation and recreational island, eco-island and scientific and technological research and development island becoming world class, domestically leading model eco-island, national sustainably strategic island and a hub along the eastern coastal line and the Yangtze Delta Region

l          Functions

--- forest and garden island featuring in forest, complete water system, wet land and rural landscape

Implement the construction of eco-forest of the island with the tree coverage up to 600 square kilometers.

Well preserve the Dongtan and Beitan wetland, preserve the rural landscape of the island, adhere to moderate urbanization construction, to form the towns with the style which is different from the cities.

--- Form preliminary island with eco-function including eco-environment maintenance, eco-industry upgrading, eco-cultural nurturing.

Keep the diverse species and complete ecosphere, build high standard Dongtan international wetland park and model migratory bird protection area.

Promote the transform of the traditional agriculture to sustainable organic eco-agriculture, clean industry and energy recycle industry, develop rural clean energy industry, development waster water and solid wastes treatment facilities.

Overpass the traditional farming and lifestyle to environmentally-friendly, efficient one, making the island or part of the island to be one of the global best 500 regions ranked by the UN.

--- build vocational and recreational island, outdoor sports island, rehabilitation center, conference and exhibition center

Make use of excellent environment and rich land resource to attract world class theme parks to be the key projects.

Implement forest holiday inn, rehabilitation center, conference center, hotels and golf course and horse riding and villas to become the garden on the sea in the west Pacific Ocean.

--- trans-national headquarters, scientific and technological R&D center, well –known educational agencies and forums.

l          Investment environment

Transportation: with the investment increased continuously, transporting capacity improved. 28.9 million yuan was invested in 2004 adding 660 passenger seats and 35 places for vehicles. 13 water routes provided services between Shanghai and Chongming, Chongming and Jiangshu province handling 8.598 million passengers a year showing an increase of 6.9 % over the previous year, 1.803 million vehicles a year showing an increase of 17.3 %. In 2004, 60 million yuan was invested to complete the construction of 197 km long rural road. 37 bus routes with 4190 km long connected to all rural roads handling 22.5 million passengers in 2004.

Infrastructure: Public service system improved. 4 water plants with 105 km long pipe supplied 17.38 million ton of water. Power capacity reached 1198.68 million KW showing an increase of 12.6 %. The whole island consumed 1098.01 million kw/hour among which 138.91 million kw/hour were consumed by the households, an increase of 19.9 %.

Post & telecommunications: Post and telecommunication facilities improved continuously and the pace of IT industrialization speeded up. In 2004 the income in post industry hit 1.8 hundred million yuan. The telephone exchange capacity was 23.8 channels. 207000 households had telephones, an increase of 2000 households. Every 100 households had 71.3 telephones.