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A Survey About The City
¡¡¡¡Zhangjiajie is situated in the northwest of Hunan
province, in the juncture of the Yunan-Guizhou Plateau and the subsidence of Donating Lake, stretching
over the area from between 109'40 to 110'20 E to between 28'52 to
29'48 N. It is bounded by Shimen county and Taoyuan county on the
east, Yuanling county on the south, and Hefeng, Xuan'en of Hubei
province on the north. The city stretches 167 km from east to west,
and 96 km from north to south at best. Zhangjiajie city covers an
area of 9,653 square kilometers, which accounts for 4.5 percent of
Hunan province. ¡¡¡¡The landform is complex in Zhangjiajie,
including mountains, lava, hills, plains, etc. Mountainous area
takes up 76 percent of the total. The most characteristic feature is
the quartzes sandstone landform, which is rare in the world. The
city is higher on the northwest, and tilts along Li River to the
south. Wuling mountains, divided from Yunwu Mountain in Guizhou
province, are again divided into some branches across the city .
There are mountains over mountains in the city and many abrupt peaks
and low lands. The highest point is 1890.4 meters above the sea
level, and the lowest 75 meters. Zhangjiajie is a city under the
direct administration of provincial government, and has jurisdiction
over Yongding, Wuling districts, and Cili, Sangzhi counties. Up to
the end of 1999, it has a population of 1.55 million, of which 1.13
million are minorities which accounts for 73.1 percent of the total
population.
¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡Climate
¡¡¡¡¡¡Zhangjiajie
is located in the middle latitude in the north hemisphere, and falls
into the category of subtropical humid monsoon climate. It has enough
sunshine, rich rainwater, long frost-free period, short cold period
and quite different four seasons. The annual average sunshine hours,
temperature, the amount of rainfall is 1440 hours, 16 degree C and
1400 mm respectively. The average frost-free period over the past
years is about 216 to 269 days a year. The climate of this kind
benefits the total development of agriculture, forestry, husbandry,
subsidiary and fishery. However, influenced by the special landforms
and groundfeature, the climate is complex and changeable in the
city. Droughts, floods, storms, hails and other disasters
occasionally happen.
¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡Natural Ecological
Environment
¡¡¡¡Zhangjiajie is known for its unique tourist
resources. Wulingyuan Scenic Area, made up of the First National Forest Park--Zhangjiajie and two nature
reserves-Suoxi Gully and Emperor Mountain, possesses 369 square
kilometers. The main land feature is quartzes sandstone that is rare
in the world. It is a perfect combination of the beauty of Guilin,
the queerness of Huang Mountain, the peril of Hua Mountain and the
magnificence of Tai Mountain. Pavilions, bridges, caves, lakes and
waterfalls are everywhere. Consequently, it enjoys the name of "an
enlarged potted landscape", "a miniature fairyland". Zhangjiajie
is a treasure house for natural resources. There are woody plants of
106 families, 320 genera and 850 species, backboned animals of 146
species. Among them 56 species of plants and 40 species of animals
are under national protection. Precious plants include gingko,
Chinese dovetrees, Chinese yew, cherry and so on. Valuable medicinal
herbs include glossy ganoderma, the tuber of elevated gastrodia, the
tuber of multiflower knotweed, the bark of eucommia and so on; while
rare animals, the giant salamander, unicorn, Sumen antelope, south
China tiger, leopard, macaque, zibet and so on. ¡¡¡¡Zhangjiajie
enjoys its rich forest resources. It has 1012 acres for forest,
which covers 64.61 percent of the entire city and ranks NO.1 in
Hunan province. The project of "Beautifying, Purifying and
Illuminating" is being carried out. There are 1.55 square meters
green land per person. Undoubtedly, it is an ideal ecological
tourist zone and an international holiday
village.
¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡Economy
¡¡¡¡Before
reform and opening up, the main economy in Zhangjiajie is
traditional agriculture and the only industry is limited to the
self-sufficient "five small industries". After the year 1978 when
the 11th Commission of the Communist Party of China was held,
opening-up policy promotes the development of tourism, which in turn
boosts the regional economy and people's living standard. Over a
decade since the foundation of the city, the municipal government
has attached great importance to the tourism as a pillar industry to
promote the development of the economy and have made great
achievements. Zhangjiajie is becoming world-famous step by
step.
¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡Culture
¡¡¡¡Zhangjiajie
raises excellent people and contains various resources. The long
history of many nations, original customs together with modern
culture contribute to a colorful painting. Zhangjiajie is a
habitation for minority nationalities. During the long history, Han
people, Tujia people, Miao people, Bai people together with the people of other
nationalities co-create a unique culture. Zhangjiajie, a
fairyland gathering essence of the heaven, has brought up thousands
of elites in the hundreds of years. Among them, there are He
Long-the great Chinese proletarian revolutionary leader, one of the
founders of PLA, one of the ten marshals in China; Xiang Dakun, the
leader of a great peasant uprising; He Pengfei, an assistant
commandant in the navy of PLA; Liu Mingdeng, a chief of Taiwan
soldiers in Qing Dynasty; and Chen Nengkuan, the receiver of "Two
Missiles & One Satellite Medals". Due to the reform and
opening-up for more than two decades, special culture, campus
culture, community culture, traveling culture, and other modern
cultures constitute the lively and colorful culture world of
Zhangjiajie; while inheriting traditional advantages and creating
some new features as well. Now the number of cultural entertainment
places, including cinemas, singing-dancing halls, cultural clubs,
parks reaches more than 1000. The city also enjoys 3 public
libraries with 105,000 books, 5 regional TV stations and 5
broadcasting stations, which cover all the urban and rural areas.
There are 1599 schools of all levels with 251,100 students in
all. ¡¡¡¡¡¡Zhangjiajie is named after the Zhangjiajie Scenic Area.
In 1979 Zhangjiajiese found this rare forest in the world. In 1982,
after the permission of the State Council, the State Planning
Committee approved Zhangjiajie to be the first national forest park in
China. In 1988, Dayong city where Zhangjiajie is located, jointly
combined with Sangzhi where the Emperor Mountain lies and Cili where
Suoxi Gully sits, became a city under the direct administration of
provincial government. In 1992, Wulingyuan nature reserve,
consisting of Zhangjiajie national forest park, the Emperor Mountain
reserve and Suoxi Gully reserve, has been listed in the "World
Natural Heritage" by UNESCO. In 1994, Dayong city was renamed as
Zhangjiajie city under the permission of the State Council. Now,
Zhangjiajie has basically become a large-scale, high-rank tourist
resort where mountains, lakes, caves and historical culture and
special customs are well blended in the area of 500 square
kilometers. It has Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, Emperor
Mountain reserve and Suoxi Gully reserve as its core, and Maoyan
River, Nine-Heaven cave, Five-Thunder Mountain, and the Universal
Light Temple as its satellite tourist resorts. So far, more than 20
scenic spots have been explored, and more than 30 tourist routes
have been formed. The total traveling lane adds up to more than 500
km.¡¡
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