well-known as “hometown of confucius” and “city of the grand canal”, jining is one of the most important birthplace of chinese culture, the birthplace of five cultural saints: confucius, mencius, yanzi, zengzi and zisizi. located in southwest shandong province, covering an area of 11 million square meters, with a population of 8.3 million, jining has 12 counties and districts with one national level new & high tech zone. the gdp of jining city reached rmb 228 billion in 2009, ranked no. 6 in shandong, with a tax revenue of rmb 13.47 billion, ranked no. 5 in the province. jining is one of the most important industrial and agricultural cities in shandong province. its main industries include chemicals, machinery, special purpose vehicles, bio-science technology, new materials, optoelectronics and information technology, etc.
