page_title: Wenzhou
section_title: Economy
hierarchical_section_title: Wenzhou / Economy
caption_attribution_description: English: Wenzhou City, Zhejiang, China 中文: 中国浙江省温州市
context_page_description: Wenzhou is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Zhejiang province in the People's Republic of China. Wenzhou is located at the extreme south east of Zhejiang Province with its borders connecting to Lishui on the west, Taizhou on the north, and Fujian to the south. It is surrounded by mountains, the East China Sea, and 436 islands, while its lowlands are almost entirely along its East China Sea coast, which is nearly 355 kilometres in length. Most of Wenzhou's area is mountainous as almost 76 percent of its 11,784-square-kilometre surface area is classified as mountains and hills. It is said that Wenzhou has 7/10 mountains, 1/10 water, and 2/10 farmland. At the time of the 2010 Chinese census, 3,039,500 people lived in Wenzhou's urban area; the area under its jurisdiction held a population of 9,122,100 of which 31.16% are non-local residents from outside of Wenzhou.
  Originally known as Yongjia, Wenzhou was a prosperous foreign treaty port, which remains well-preserved today.
context_section_description: Wenzhou exports food, tea, wine, jute, timber, paper, Alunite (a non-metallic mineral used to make alum and fertilizer). Alunite is abundant and Wenzhou claims to be the "Alunite Capital of the World". Its 10 main industries each exceeding 1.5 billion dollars are electrical machinery, leather products, general equipment, power supply, plastic manufacturing, textile and garment, transport equipment, chemical products, metal products and metal processing.
  From the 1990s, low-voltage electric appliances manufacturing became one of the major industries in Wenzhou, with some of the large private enterprises setting up joint ventures with GE and Schneider.
  In 1994, exploration for oil and natural gas commenced in the East China Sea 100 km (62 mi) off the coast of Wenzhou. Companies such as Texaco, Chevron, Shell and JAPEX have started to drill for oil but the operations have been largely unsuccessful.
  Wenzhou is a city full of vibrant business activities. When China began economic reforms in 1978, Wenzhou was the first city in China to set up individual and private enterprises as well as shareholder cooperatives. It has also taken the lead in carrying out financial system reform and structural reform in townships. Being a pioneer in utilizing marketing mechanism to develop urban constructions, Wenzhou has won a number of firsts in China and set many national records.
  From 1978 through 2016, the GDP of Wenzhou, a third-tier city in China, has increased from 1.32 billion RMB to 504.54 billion RMB with the gross fiscal revenue increasing from 0.135 billion RMB to 72.4 billion RMB, and the disposable net per capita income for rural residents increasing from 113.5 RMB to 22,985 RMB. The per capita disposable income for urban residents increased from 422.6 RMB in 1981 to 47,785 RMB in 2016, which is the among the highest in China.
caption: Wuma Shopping Street
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