Tongling

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For the county of the same name administered by Tongling City, see Tongling County.

铜陵市
Tónglíng Shì

Administration Type	Prefecture-level city
City Seat	Tongguanshan District (30°56′N 117°46′E)
Area	1,113 km²
Population
GDP - Total - Per Capita	¥13.672 (2004) ¥
Major Nationalities	Han
County-level divisions	4
Township-level divisions
CPC Committee Secretary	Shen Suli (沈素琍)
Mayor	Chen Liangping (陈良平)
Area code	562
Postal Code	244000 (Urban center) 244100 (Tongling County)
License Plate Prefix	皖G

Tongling (Simplified Chinese: 铜陵; Traditional Chinese: 銅陵; pinyin: Tónglíng; Wade-Giles: T'ung-ling; former names: Tunglinghsien, Tungkwanshan; literally "Copper Hillock") is a prefecture-level city in southern Anhui province, People's Republic of China. A river port along the Yangtze River, Tongling borders Chaohu to the north, Wuhu to the east, Chizhou to the southwest and Anqing to the west.

1 Administration
2 History
3 Economy
4 Culture
5 Relationships
6 Children's Welfare Institute
7 External links

[edit] Administration

The prefecture-level city of Yantai administers 4 county-level divisions, including 3 districts and 1 county.

Tongguanshan District (铜官山区)
Shizishan District (狮子山区)
Jiao District (郊区)
Tongling County (铜陵县)

[edit] History

Tongling has been famous as a beautiful mountain city since its origins in the Han dynasty over 1500 years ago. Owing to its copper and tin deposits, it was an important center in the past for bronze production. The scale of industrial activity gradually increased through the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, the Japanese occupation of 1938-45, and especially under the Communist government since 1949.

[edit] Economy

Today the city's industrial base still revolves around the several nearby copper mines and copper processing operations. The local mineral resources also include : iron, coal, gold, silver and tin, plus more than twenty other rare minerals associated with them such as nickel, cadmium, gallium, molybdenum, germanium and selenium. Other important industries include chemical works, textiles, building materials, electronics, machinery and food processing. Long a hub of water transportation, in 1995 Tongling became the site of Anhui Province's first highway bridge spanning the Yangtze River.

Although Tongling City is mostly mountainous, the surrounding flatlands are rich agricultural regions producing rice, wheat, cotton, beans, garlic , herbal medicines and ginger. Large amounts of fish are also harvested in the region.

Tongling is the center for conservation efforts to preserve the last remaining Yangtze freshwater dolphins. Two semi-natural reserves have been established in the Tongling area, in the Tongling and Shishou oxbow lakes, but as yet no dolphins have been successfully captured and moved from the river into the lakes.

[edit] Culture

The famous poet of Tang Dynasty, Li Bai (c.700–762, also known as Li Po) praised the beauty and richness of Tongling.

[edit] Relationships

Tongling-City has established relations to several cities throughout the world. E.g. a contract of town-twinning was signed with the city of Marbach am Neckar in Germany was signed in 2005 after 15 years of friendly contacts. One lady citizen of Marbach am Neckar has been awarded honorary citizenship of Tongling City in 2005, rewarding restless efforts for keeping up the town-twinning.