Economy of Zhejiang

Agriculture, forestry, and fishing

Zhejiang is one of the more prosperous of China’s provinces and is among the foremost in the country in farm productivity. It is the national leader in tea production and is second only to Sichuan in sericulture (the raising of silkworms to produce raw silk). Its agriculture is among China’s most diversified, with less than half its farm output by value coming from food and cash crops.

Because of the province’s hilly topography, only about one-fifth of its land surface is arable. Two-fifths of the cultivated land lies in northern Zhejiang, in the Yangtze delta and on the southern shore of Hangzhou Bay. About four-fifths of Zhejiang’s arable land is irrigated—one of the highest ratios in eastern or southern Asia—and about two-thirds of the arable land is used to grow the staple food crops of rice, wheat, barley, corn (maize), and sweet potatoes. The rest of the farmland is used for either green manure crops or such industrial crops as cotton, jute, ramie (a shrub yielding a fibre used for textiles), rapeseed, sugarcane, and tobacco. Most farmers raise pigs and poultry on their small private plots, and many also raise fish in village ponds, reservoirs, or lakes and rear silkworms during the slack farming season in spring. In the well-watered hilly areas, tea is grown. All these activities provide either primary or secondary incomes for peasant households.

Rice is the chief staple food and is grown widely throughout Zhejiang province, although the well-watered northern plains constitute the most productive area of cultivation. Both single-cropping and double-cropping systems are followed in paddy (wet-rice) cultivation. Since 1949 double-cropping of rice has been vigorously promoted, and its share in the rice acreage has increased to more than half of the total.

Zhejiang traditionally has four principal tea districts. The Hangzhou district produces the famous Longjing (Dragon Well) green tea. The Pingshui district, south and east of Shaoxing, has the largest tea acreage and the highest production of processed tea. The other two districts are Jiande, in west-central Zhejiang, and Wenzhou, in the southeastern hilly region. The Sino-Japanese War (1937–45) caused serious damage to the tea industry as tea plantations were abandoned and aging shrubs were not replaced. During the 1950s a systematic rehabilitation and development program was undertaken. Improved methods of tea cultivation and processing were introduced and new plantations established, and the province resumed its position as China’s leading tea producer.

Zhejiang has also been long famous for its sericulture . The principal silkworm-rearing areas are on the Lake Tai plain. Secondary districts are located in the northeast and the northwest. These areas, which have a long history of sericulture, yield a consistently high quality of silk from the cocoons. The industry, like tea production, suffered serious damage during the Sino-Japanese War and the civil war that followed, but vigorous measures to restore production raised output. However, by 2000 local cocoon production had started to decline somewhat because of rising labour costs and lower prices for raw silk.

Forests cover some three-fifths of Zhejiang’s total area, with the main concentrations in the western mountains. The province produces a variety of timber but is best known for its bamboo and tung oil.

The Zhejiang coast lies at the convergence of western Pacific warm and cold currents. Its rivers carry rich organic material into the shallow waters above the continental shelf, notably around the Zhoushan Archipelago. As a result, many kinds of fish come there to spawn; more than 100 varieties of fish are found there. Important commercial catches include drums (or croakers), cutlass fish, and cuttlefish. The rapid growth of fishing has required readjusting fishing quotas to protect the fishing banks from overexploitation.

Zhejiang’s great expanses of coastal waters gave rise to a flourishing aquaculture sector, which produces kelp, the edible red algae Porphyra (used in making soups and condiments), shellfish, and other marine products. However, since the beginning of the 21st century, increased water pollution caused by rapid industrialization in small cities and towns has harmed the province’s aquaculture industry.

Resources and power

The province has few exploitable minerals, although local low-grade coal deposits are mined and consumed in a number of locations. China’s largest fluorspar mine is located in central Zhejiang, around Jinhua and Wuyi, and has been worked since the early 1930s. The province also has large quantities of pyrophyllite and alunite deposits. Offshore exploration in the East China Sea has yielded both petroleum and natural-gas finds.

Industrial development was stimulated by the growth of electric power generation based on Zhejiang’s fast-flowing rivers. The Xin’an River hydroelectric plant, completed in 1965, is one of the largest in China. The first reactor of the Qinshan Nuclear Power Station, near Haiyan on the northern coast of Hangzhou Bay, began operation in 1994, with more units coming on line there in the early 21st century.

Manufacturing

Most of Zhejiang’s wealth derives from light industry. This in part reflects the province’s historical role as a commercial and handicraft centre and a significant textile producer since the 1890s. Hangzhou emerged as a major industrial city after 1949; it produces a wide range of industrial and consumer goods, including machinery, textiles, agricultural implements, chemicals, radios, and televisions. Ningbo is also a major industrial centre, manufacturing tractors, electronics, and petrochemicals. The province has become a significant exporter with a number of specialized export centres for light industrial products and handicrafts. The designation of Ningbo and Wenzhou as two of China’s “open” cities stimulated programs promoting foreign investment and technology transfers. Some specialized market towns and centres in the province, such as Yiwu city, have grown rapidly and have garnered recognition throughout China, and even worldwide, for their annual international commodity fairs.

A flourishing handicraft industry is located mostly in rural villages. Nationally and internationally known products include the porcelain of Longchuan, the silk umbrellas and tapestry of Hangzhou, and embroideries, laces, wood and stone carvings, inlay ware, and a host of other products of Chinese folk art. Huadiao, a type of rice wine made in Shaoxing, is a well-known local traditional product.

Transportation

The rivers play an important role in the province’s transport, and a significant amount of the total freight volume travels on these inland waterways. Most of the remainder of the freight volume is moved by road or, in the case of heavier goods, is often shipped by rail, especially for longer distances. Although historically there were numerous harbours along the Zhejiang coast, coastal shipping accounted for only a small percentage of the total freight volume for some time. However, construction of the new seaport of Beilun, east of Ningbo, in the 1980s increased the importance of the province’s coastal shipping, and by the early 21st century Beilun had become one of the largest seaports in China in terms of freight-handling capacities.

The Shanghai-Hangzhou railway is an important trunk line, connecting Zhejiang with eastern and northern China. The Zhejiang-Jiangxi line runs south and southwest from Hangzhou and links Zhejiang with southern and central China; a branchline extends to the southeast from Jinhua to Wenzhou and Longwan. In addition, a line from Zhejiang to Anhui that crosses the Yangtze River via a bridge at Wuhu (Anhui) shortens the rail distance between Hangzhou and Hefei, the capital of Anhui. Finally, a line between Hangzhou and Beilun connects the southern littoral of Hangzhou Bay with the rest of the province’s rail system.

A modern highway network with its primary centre at Hangzhou connects the province with the cities of Shanghai and Nanjing and with the provinces of Anhui, Jiangxi, and Fujian. It includes express highways in the northern and eastern parts of the province. The Hangzhou Bay Bridge between Cixi (south) and Haiyan (north) opened in 2008; it considerably reduces the travel distance between Ningbo and northern Zhejiang and Shanghai. Several cities in the province have airports with service to domestic destinations; those at Hangzhou, Ningbo, and Wenzhou also handle international flights.

Constitutional framework

Zhejiang province was governed as part of the East China greater administrative region from 1950 until it came under the direction of the central government in 1954. It is divided into 11 prefecture-level municipalities (dijishi). Below these are districts under municipalities (shixiaqu), counties (xian), autonomous counties (zizhixian), and county-level municipalities (xianjishi).

Education

Zhejiang has a strong tradition of locally supported education. Its levels of adult literacy and primary-level educated citizens are among the highest in China. The province boasts more than 70 institutions of higher learning, notably Zhejiang University (founded 1897) and Zhejiang University of Technology (1953; originally part of Zhejiang University), both located in Hangzhou.