4 anhuispecial WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2011 CHINA DAILY Reviving a unique merchant culture Characterized by teamwork, moral integrity, honesty, and loyalty to the country

By ZHAO SHIJUN legends by reviving those mil- lennium-old traditions, again, Over a thousand-year peri- for greater economic growth. od, the merchants of Anhui One way to do this is through province, collectively known the International Huishang as the Huishang, became a leg- Conference, which is held end for their hard work, enter- annually held in , Anhui’s prise, and honesty and made a capital. unique contribution to China’s This is the seventh year of development. the event, which is sponsored They began as vendors of by the provincial government, small articles in the countryside and is being held at the Binhu and cities of this ancient land International Convention and dominated by self-reliant agri- Exhibition Center in Hefei, culture, on China’s east coast. November 8-11. Gradually they turned to big- Its official name is the China ger operations with a sales net- Anhui Investment and Trade work that covered the country. Expo and it has become the Their success was unparalleled, province’s most important fair except by the merchants of trade and investment fair. Shanxi, who were also famous The organizing committee for their business acumen. reported that more than 3,000 The name Huishang was first representatives of Chinese used during the and foreign businesses will (265-420) and, for the next participate in both the con- thousand years, Anhui’s mer- ference and the China Hefei chants flourished, with a long High-tech Fair, previously an period of prosperity during the independent event but now a Ming (1368-1644) and Qing part of the conference, as of (1644-1911) dynasties. this year. The River Bridge is a transport pivot linking the south and north of Anhui. Then, the sun began to set on According to Yang Benqing, the Huisheng lifestyle, during deputy chief of the organizing growth history, and business Last year, provincial GDP the late Qing Dynasty because committee, 81 of the Fortune opportunities. was 1.23 trillion yuan, com- of the intense competition 500 companies will attend the pared to 1.02 trillion yuan in from businesspeople in China event, compared with just 50 Rebirth 2009, allowing it to enter the and abroad who were skilled last year. Anhui’s economy rose nation’s “trillion-yuan club”. in modern commerce. Local enterprises will be sharply after China’s reforms By the end of last year, there Nonetheless, that unique promoting key investment and opening-up were insti- were 51 Fortune 500 compa- culture that grew out of the projects, worth a total of $1 tuted three decades, and its nies operating in the province. Anhui merchants — team- billion, to attract foreign and GDP has grown faster than the And it is now develop- work, moral integrity, honesty, domestic investors. In fact, national average, thanks in part ing the Industrial Transfer sympathy for the poor, and major parts of this year’s event to its proximity to the Yangtze Demonstration Zone, a part loyalty to the country — is still will be the investment promo- River Delta. of the Anhui Yangtze River remembered by the province’s tions and trade talks, in addi- In 2008, Anhui, which lies City Belt. This east-west zone people and is even recognized tion to the normal product inland on a 139,600-sq-km offers a new area for compa- in the rest of the country. exhibits. area and has a population of nies in areas lying to the east The authorities also want to 68 million, began to grasp the or form overseas who want to Huishang conference use the venue to describe the opportunities that relocating relocate. Now, Anhui’ leaders are province’s history and show its coastal industries and those It also has tourist attractions looking to create some new tourist attractions, economic from abroad presented. that include , a mountainous natural heritage site, the Jiuhua Mountains, home to Buddhist temples, and some ancient residential compounds scattered across southern Anhui, which are remnants of the prosperous merchant past. Maanshan Steel and Iron Corp is one of the leading steelmakers in the country. Province has plenty to offer

flood control and irrigation. lion technicians. lines are under con- By ZHUAN TI • Animals and plants: struction. It takes only three Forests cover a total of 3.6 Infrastructure hours from Hefei to . Anhui provincial authori- million hectares in the prov- • Highways: • Airlines: ties hope to use the upcom- ince and it has more than 300 Anhui has 2,810 km of Anhui has six airports in ing China Anhui Investment types of woody plants and expressways reaching 17 cit- Hefei, Huangshan, Fuyang, and and Trade Expo 2011 as a place more than 2,100 types of herbs. ies. It takes three hours to drive elsewhere which pro vide direct to exhibit their resources and It is also home to more than from the western to the east- flights to more than 30 large or recent infrastructure develop- 500 animal species, including ern part of the province and medium-sized cit ies in China. ments to give investors and 91 nationally protected animals six hours, from north to south. Hefei’s Xinqiao International traders a better understand- such as the Chinese alligator • Railways: Airport is under construction ing of the province’s business- and white fin globefish. The Beijing-, Bei- and is scheduled to go opera- friendly environ ment. Here • Minerals: jing-Kowloon, Lianyun gang- tional in the fourth quarter of are the things to look for: The province has more than , and -Xi’an 2012. Another new airport will 135 types of minerals, 105 of lines pass through Anhui and it be built near the tourist resort at Resources them with proven reserves. has one of the densest, longest Jiuhua Mountain. • Land: Of its minerals, 38 rank rail systems in central China. • Water transportation: Anhui has plenty of arable among China’s top 10 and 18, Several high-speed railways Three major river systems flow ground, suitable for various among the top five. Coal, iron, connect it with the major cities through Anhui — the Yang Still well preserved today, sprawling ancient residential compounds in south Anhui are a symbol crops, notably grain, which is copper, sulfur and alum are its of neighboring areas, so travel tze, Huaihe and Xin’an — and of the Huangshang’s former prosperity. grown on 5.73 million hect- most important. from Hefei to Nanjing takes have great potential for further ares. It is an agricultural pro- • Science and education: only an hour, and, to Shanghai inland water transportation duction center and led in some Anhui ranks high in China or , only two hours. development. of the rural reforms of 30 years for its science and technology The Beijing-Shanghai high- The 400-km watercourse of ago. The incomes of farmers grads. By the end of 2008, it speed railway went operation- the Yangtze has ports at Anq- have increased as its agriculture had 1,533 scientific research al in May of this year and the ing, , Wuhu, Maan- becomes more modernized. institutes and about 1.47 mil- Nanjing- and Hefei- shan and . Its grain, oilseed, and cotton output ranks among the high- est in China. • Human resources: Hefei, Anhui province’s capital, was the nation’s first scientific and technological inno vation pilot, which is one reason for its pool of talented people. Its scientific research insti- tutes and schools include the University of Science and Tech- nology of China, the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Hefei Institute of Physical Science, Hefei University of Technol- ogy, and . •Water: The Huangshan Mountains are one of the few tourism destinations in the country that have been It has about 71.6 billion cubic Synchrotron radiation lab in Hefei, one of the facilities representing leading-edge frontier designated both a world cultural and natural heritage site as well as a world geopark. meters of water and systems for sciences in Anhui.