Contents |
Located in the middle of Liaoning within a mountain area, Benxi is 84 kilometers south of Shenyang and 193 kilometers north of Dandong. 1.6 million people live here, including ethnic Manchu, Hui, Mongolian, Korean and other minorities. Benxi covers the four districts of Pingshan, Mingshan, Xihu and Nanfen, and two Manchu Autonomous counties, Benxi County and Huanren County. Benxi has plenty of mineral resources, making it the "Living Museum of Geography".
With its clean air, mountains and rivers, Benxi is a pleasant town to live in. Notable hotels are the five-star Marriott Hotel and Taizi City Hotel, and the four-star Pearl Hotel in downtown. Shopping malls such as New-Mart and supermarkets like Vanguard cater for residents and tourists.
Benxi has marvelous natural landscapes: Benxi Water Cave, Guanmen Mountain Scenic Area, and Jiuding Tiecha Mountain. The city’s urban area is like a garden. Trees and flowers can be found everywhere in the green city. The UN has listed Benxi as a pilot city for the Agenda 21 in nature, ecological environment, sustainable development.
Benxi has improved the living conditions of residents and their environment. As a result of the "going green" campaign, the green coverage rate of the urban area has reached 40 percent. Special funds are allocated for the city’s infrastructure and renovation every year.
The distance between Benxi and Shenyang Taoxian International Airport is 50 kilometers, and 190 kilometers to the Port of Yingkou. Railways are connected with the national network and the Korean Peninsula. Benxi is part of the national Shenyang Metro development strategy and expects great impetus to the development of the city.
Benxi’s economy grew 26 percent in 2008 to a regional GDP of 61.1 billion RMB. Value added of medium and large enterprises was 32 billion RMB (4.6 billion USD), up 18 percent, and fixed assets investment jumped 35 percent. At an average salary of 25,077 RMB (3,608 USD), urban per-capita disposable income was 13,300 RMB (1,913 USD), and consumption per capita 10,167 RMB (1,462 USD).
Benxi is speeding up its economic development. With 46 large and medium-sized enterprises in Benxi, main industrial products are raw iron (14 million tons), steel (13 million tons), finished steel (12 million tons), cement (3 million tons) and raw coal (1 million tons). In 2008, 92,615 people were employed in manufacturing, 20,368 in education, 19,228 in public administration and social organizations, 17,913 persons in the mining industry, and 12,997 in transportation and storage. According to the type of business ownership, 63,000 were employed in private companies.
| Key Economic Indicators of Benxi in 2009 | Billion RMB | Billion USD | Growth Rate |
| Gross Domestic Product | 68.0 | 8.0 | + 18.0 % |
| Investment in Fixed Assets | 35.0 | 5.0 | + 56.2 % |
| Financial Revenue | 5.0 | 0.7 | + 18.6 % |
| Total Retail Sales of Social Consumer goods | 16.7 | 2.4 | + 18.0 % |
Benxi has long been a "city of coal and iron", with raw materials industry as the mainstay. But the city has started to develop a multitude of industries, such as metallurgical industry, iron and steel deep processing, building materials manufacturing, pharmaceutical manufacturing, mining, and chemical and chemical products industry. The industrial pattern of the city supports a focus on metallurgical industry, supplemented with many "special, fine, new and customized" products. The economic structure is based on two large group enterprises, Bengang (Benxi Iron & Steel Group Co., Ltd.) and Beigang (Beitai Iron & Steel Group Co., Ltd.), and supplemented by 7 industrial parks.
Based on the iron and steel processing industry, four related industries take the lead:
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is another prosperous sector of Benxi. Medicinal herbs are grown on fields of 466 square kilometers. With total assets of TCM enterprises topping 200 million RMB (about 28 million USD), Benxi has become the "King of TCM" in Liaoning. The number of pharmaceutical enterprises has exceeded 50, most of them private enterprises, and 15 of them have an annual sales income of more than 5 million RMB (0.7 million USD). With an industrial value added of 940 million RMB (135 million USD) and profits and taxes of 718 million RMB (103 million USD) in 2008, these enterprises have ranked No. 1 in the pharmaceutical industry of Liaoning for five consecutive years.
In 2008, the foreign direct investment of the city was 113 million USD, up 32.5 percent, and exceeding the 100 million USD mark for the first time.
Total export volume was 2,425 million USD, a growth of 96 percent. The export growth rate of Benxi was the highest in Liaoning. Total import volume was 1,261 million USD, up 132 percent.
