As the capital city of Hebei Province, Shijiazhuang is the political, economic, sci-tech, financial, cultural and information center of the whole province.It is the National Civilized City, the National Sanitation City, the National Forest City, the Outstanding Tourism City of China, and the permanent host city of the China International Digital Economy Exposition. It has eight urban districts, eleven counties, two county-level cities, one state-level high-tech industrial development zone, one state-level economic and technological development zone, one state-level pilot free trade zone and one state-level comprehensive free trade zone. The city covers a total area of 15,800 square kilometers with its total residential population of 11,223,500 at the end of 2022.
Shijiazhuang boasts six counties recognized as"thousand-year-old county" by the UN. Fuxi, the ancestor of the Chinese, led his people to live in Xinle County.The glorious culture of the ancient Zhongshan kingdom attracts much attention of the world.The world human cultural heritage,Zhaozhou Bridge, is the earliest spandrel-arch stone bridge in the world.Zhengding, a national historical and cultural city,has the reputation of "Museum of Ancient Chinese Architecture". Shijiazhuang is the first city liberated in the country. Xibaipo , the revolutionary base during the Liberation War, is known as the birthplace of the "Two musts" . It is also the place of departure for the CPC to “take the examination in Beijing" and the place where the new China has come from.
Lying between a longitude of 113°30′and115°20′east and a latitude of 37°27′and 38°47′north, Shijiazhuang is bordered to the east by the Bohai Sea, to the west by the Taihang Mountain, to the north by Beijing and Tianjin, and to the south by the Central Plains. Known as the “North-south Junction and Throat of Ancient Yan and Jin Kindom”, the city covers the North China Plain and Taihang Mountain.Six railways including Beijing-Guangzhou, Shijiazhuang-Taiyuan,Shijiazhuang-Dezhou,Shijiazhuang-Taiyuan passenger railway, Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed railway, and Shijiazhuang-Jinan high-speed railway cross in the city. Zhengding International Airport runs 128 international and domestic airlines, making the city available to 83 cities by air and contributing to the “One-hour” Traffic Circle which links Shijiazhuang to many important cities including Beijing, Tianjin,Zhengzhou, Taiyuan and Jinan.
As a national key industrial city in the “First Five-Year Plan”period with its complete range of industries and perfect supporting systems, the city is striving to promote the breakthrough of new-generation electronic information and bio-medicine development and cultivate modern food, modern trade logistics and advanced equipment manufacturing industries. By continuous efforts on policies, fund-raising and land-using, a modern industrial system with five leading industries guiding high-quality development has taken the shape. Shijiazhuang has five Top 100 bio-medicine enterprises including North China Pharmaceutical Company, CSPC, Yiling Pharmaceutical Company,Shijiazhuang No.4 Pharmaceutical Company and Shineway Pharmaceutical Company. It also has a number of manufacturing enterprises such as Jingye Company, Chengxin Chemical Company,CRRC and SEG Shijiazhuang Branch.
Strives for the goal to accelerate the construction of a modern, international and beautiful provincial capital city, Shijiazhuang has vigorously implemented the strategy of “Development Along the Hutuo River”. The city insists to reduce the number of out-dated and redundant industries within the second-ring road and nurturing promising industries outside the second-ring road. Based on the principle of “making up for what is lacking”, the city has continuously carried out a special rectification program on temporary buildings, illegal buildings and vacant land. It focuses on accelerating the "6+2+2" key urban renewal project and constantly improving its public service facilities including culture and sports, education and medical care, leisure and elderly care, and greening of parks. The city is also making significant progress in returning more space to the city, returning green land to the citizens, and returning public supporting services to the society. Shijiazhuang is developing toward a modern city with improvements on its urban carrier functions, remarkable enhancements of city quality and upgrading of city landscape.
Shijiazhuang was awarded the Best Talent City in China and listed as Business Environment Innovation City in 2022. In recent years, it has taken the lead in initiating the legislation of “Optimizing the Business Environment Regulations”. Aligning with the World Bank's new evaluation system for the business environment, the city has implemented 209 innovative practices. The mayor meets and discusses with the citizens and entrepreneurs on a regular basis. The “12345” hotline is regularly answered by leaders. Due to the overall implementation of “Internet-access, Time-saving and Convenient” policy, 100% of the administrative approval items can be handled online.The total commitment of time limit for 711 approval items has been successfully reduced from the original 15,454 days in law to 2,455 days. The city also explores the implementation of "double-blind" evaluation of tendering and bidding and the reform of sharing the results of regional evaluation.The city is striving to create a market-oriented, law-based and internationalized first-class business environment and build a charming city which makes its locals proud and outsiders longing for.
