Baoding

As the south gate of China's capital Beijing, Baoding literally in Chinese means "defending the capital and maintaining peace in the country". Baoding administers four cities (Dingzhou is a pilot directly under the jurisdiction of Hebei province), five districts, 15 counties (Xiongxian, Rongcheng, and Anxin counties are under the jurisdiction of Xiong'an New Area) and two development zones, and in total (excluding 19,300 square kilometers of Xiong'an New Area and Dingzhou city) covers an area of 22,000 square kilometers. According to the seventh national census in November 2020, Baoding has a current population of 11.437 million (excluding9.243 million in Dingzhou city, Rongcheng County, Anxin County, Xiongxian County, and Longhua Township of Gaoyang County). A population of 3.154 million lives in the 2,531-square kilometer urban area.

Baoding is characterized by its important location for capital as well as its environs, rich culture and history, beautiful landscape, and low-carbon development.

Situated in the strategic hinterland of the Xiong'an New Area in the golden triangle formed by Beijing, Tianjin, and Shijiazhuang, Baoding city is 140 kilometers south of Beijing, 145 kilometers west of Tianjin, and 125 kilometers northeast of Shijiazhuang, and is considered as the south gate of the capital. In terms of coordinated development for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, which is part of China's development strategy, Baoding is in the core area and serves as an important center city. It is also adjacent to the four airports in the region: Beijing Capital International Airport, Beijing Daxing International Airport, Tianjin Airport, and Shijiazhuang Airport, as well as the two seaports in Tianjin and Huanghua in Hebei province. It is in the "one-hour commuting circle" and "half-hour living circle" in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

Baoding has been designated a famous historical and cultural city in China by the State Council. It has been home to a lot of historical figures such as Liu Bei, Zu Chongzhi, Li Daoyuan, Liu Yuxi, Zhao Kuangyin, and Guan Hanqing; and in modern times to Tong Linge, the martyr in the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, Feng Yuxiang, the patriotic democrat, writers Sun Li, Liang Bin, Xu Guangyao, Su Shuyang, and Tie Ning and painter Huang Zhou. It has 59 national and 74 provincial-level key protected cultural relic units, the most among cities in Hebei province. Baoding is also rich in folk culture with 18 national and 99 provincial items of intangible cultural heritage. In 2017, the city was awarded the title of Hebei provincial civilized city, and today it is striving to win the honor at the national level.

Baoding has 17 colleges and universities, including two under the management of the Ministry of Education of China and five under the management of the Hebei Education Department. It has 270,000 college students, the highest concentrations among prefecture-level cities in China. Baoding is famous for its sports champions, among them 27 world champions such as Guo Jingjing and Wang Han. At the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Pang Wei, Wang Han, Li Bingjie and Zhang Yifan, all from Baoding, won four gold medals, one silver medal, and two bronze medals, setting a new record for the "City of Champions".

Having Taihang Mountain to the west and Baiyang Lake to the east, Baoding has beautiful mountains, clear waters, and a pleasant climate. Its rivers are mainly in the Daqinghe River basin, which is located in the middle of the Haihe River Basin. As many as 178 rivers in Baoding have been included in the "River and Lake Protection List in Hebei Province". In addition, the city has four large-scale reservoirs, six medium-sized reservoirs, and 83 small-scale reservoirs, with a combined storage capacity of 3.3 billion cubic meters. It serves as an ecological conservation area for Beijing and Tianjin as well as an ecological protection resource of the Xiong'an New Area. With beautiful and unique natural resources, plains and mountainous areas account for 43 percent and 57 percent of the city's total area respectively. It has 46 A-level scenic spots, including three 5A-level and 14 4A-level scenic spots. In 2019, Baoding was awarded the honorary title of "National Forest City".

Baoding sits on the list of pilot low-carbon cities compiled by the World-Wide Fund for Nature and China's National Development and Reform Commission. It is also the first prefectural-level innovation-driven development demonstration city in China approved by the China Association for Science and Technology. In the first half of 2021, it was approved as the only "Science and Technology Innovation China" pilot city in Hebei province. The city ranked first in Hebei province for six consecutive years in terms of manufacturing quality competitiveness. It has been working on its key industries such as life and health products and services, new energy vehicles, intelligent electric power manufacturing, data services, and cultural tourism, as well as ultra-low-energy buildings and urban agriculture. Baoding has a lot of well-known enterprises such as Great Wall Motors, Baoding Tianwei Group Tebian Electric Co., Ltd., China Lucky Group Corporation, Orient Sundar Group, and Hebei Synlight Crystal Co., Ltd. Currently, Baoding is accelerating its development into the "Electricity Valley of China", and is increasing construction of the Baoding Shenzhen High-tech Innovation Industrial Park, the Baoding Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Industrial Base, the Chinese medicine hub in An’guo city, and the Baoding-Zhongguancun Innovation Center.