Chaozhou is located in the east of Guangdong Province, adjoining Fujian Province on the east, neighboring Shantou Special Economic Zone on the south, being adjacent to Jieyang City on the west and Meizhou City on the north, facing the South China Sea. In Chaozhou City, with jurisdiction of Chaoan County, Raoping County, Xiangqiao District and Fengxi District, has the area of 3613.9 square kilometers and the population of 2.479 million.

    Chaozhou has a centuries'old history. In Qin Dynasty, guarding region had been settled here and Chaozhou had been set as a state by withdrawing the Shire in Shui Dynasty. Since then, "Chaozhou" has been called until now for over 1600 years. Chaozhou is the famous cultural and traditional city with the national reputation of Littoral Zhou Lu and Ling Hai City.

    Chaozhou has the unique culture. There are regional styles in Chaozhou Dialect, Chaozhou Drama, Chaozhou Music, Chaozhou Cuisine, Chaozhou Kongfu Tea and Chaozhou Housing etc.. Chaozhou Cuisine is very famous throughout the world by its unique flavors. Chaozhou Embroidery is an important one among the four famous embroideries in China. Chaozhou Wood-sculpture is one of two wood-sculpture systems in China. Fenxi, called Ceramics Capital of South Country, is the main ceramics export base throughout the country.

    Chaozhou has the massive cultural relics. There are more than 700 relics in the city, among which five are the important cultural relics of national protections and eleven are that under provincial protections.

    Among the five, there is Guangji Bridge, called the first stone pivot bridge in the world. In the eleven, there are Hanwengong Shrine which had been constructed since Song Dynasty and become the longest existing and the most completed reservation memorial of Han Yu, who is the great literary man in Tang Dynasty; and the Guangji Gate Storey built since Ming Dynasty. Chaozhou Eight Sceneries and so on are also famous in the world.

    There are beautiful natural landscapes in Chaozhou. Bijia Mountain, Jin Mountain and Hulu Mountain surround the ancient urban district. Han River flows from the north to the south. Phoenix Mountain in the north is the top peak in the east of Guangdong, which is also the famous county of Chinese Wulong Tea and the cradle of She Minority. The resorts include the hot spring and mineral spring on the foot of Sangpu Mountain, the marine erosion physiognomy alongside the Meilin lakefront, the egret habitat in Tuolin Bay on the east and the good Natural bathing beach, etc..

     Chaozhou is the famous hometown of overseas Chinese. The number of emigrants from Chaozhou, overseas compatriots and Chinese is 2.3 millions.

     Mr. Lee Jiacheng who is the top businessman in Hong Kong business circles was born in
Chaozhou. So did Professor Rao Zongyi, who is the famous Sinology Master in Hong Kong University. These overseas Chinese have been concerned with Chaozhou and made great contribution to the social development and economic construction of hometown.

    Chaozhou is rich in natural resources. The reserves of water power resource is 256,000 kw., of which the exploitive capacity is 188,000 kw. Near 20 kind of minerals have been found, among which porcelain clay reserves is 200 millions tons. There are various animals and plants, and rich foreshore resources. Moreover, the ample tourism resources and relatively high quality labour resources are available.

    The economic construction and foreign trade of Chaozhou are thriving and flourishing. In 2002, the GDP was RMB 2.15 billion with an annual grow rate of 8.2% in recent 5 years. Through the implementation of industrialization strategy, Chaozhou has established four pillar industries including ceramics, rag trade, foodstuff manufacture, electronic industries; moreover, there are over 30 kinds of industries including pharmacy, chemical industry machinery, textile, machine and electric, hardware manufacture etc.. The level and quality of Chaozhou's industries develop steadily. In 2002, the gross industrial output value was RMB 37.6 billion, increased by 10.1% over that of the previous year. As for the agriculture, ten 10,000-mu production bases has been established, including tea, fruit planting and aquiculture etc.. A number of export-oriented agricultural enterprises are forming the economy scale. The foreign Trade and economic cooperation develop rapidly and formed the new structure of export-oriented economy. Nowadays, there are 280 enterprises with the authorized import and export rights, about 415 foreign invested corporations and over 2000 enterprises producing export products. In 2002, total export and import value of Chaozhou reached USD 931 million with a growth rate of 28% over that of the previous year, among which, the export value was USD 812 million.

   The products of four pillar industries, e.g. Ceramic, rag trade, foodstuff and electronic manufacture, are also the main export commodities taking amount of more than 80% of the total export value of the city annually. At present, Chaozhou has established trade relations with more than 156 countries and regions throughout the world. In 2002, The accumulated actual utilization of direct foreign investment has been up to USD 1.7 billion. Over 20 countries and regions, e.g. the United State, France, Germany, Japan, Canada, Indonesia, Sinagore, Thailand, Hong Kong etc., have invested in Chaozhou, covering the fields of manufacture, architecture, agriculture, transportation, storage and public undertaking etc.. There are 4 provincial economic development zones as the main carriers and bases to attract foreign direct investment, as well as a number of burgeoning industrial and technology parks.

    Chaozhou's infrastructure construction has been continuously improved. In order to cultivate an excellent investment environment, Chaozhou strengthens the infrastructure in the fields of water conservancy, transportation, energy, communication etc.. In recent 5 years, the fund of RMB 7 billions has been put into the infrastructure constructions. The consolidation and up-to-par projects in the water conservancy have been implemented, for example, Han River Chaozhou water hub project with RMB 1.4 billion input has been under construction. After Chaozhou section of Guang(zhou) -Mei(zhou)-Shan(tou) railway has been put into operation, the extension part of Chaozhou feeder of Shan(tou)-Fen(yang) Expressway has also been open to traffic.

    Chaozhou Harbour has become the independent Grade-1 opening port and opened the sea routes for containers to Hong Kong and Korea etc.. It is only 30 km from Chaozhou to Shantou Airport by freeway. Chaozhou has constructed the convenient transportation network. A batch of the power transformation stations has been built up. Chaozhou improved the power systematic automation, communication net and the capacity of power supply. Telephone switches by program control and digital transmission have been realized and multi-dimensional transmission network has come into being. The communication capacity and technology have been improved dramatically.

    Chaozhou's port administration framework is rather consummated. The Customs and examination institutions in the port provide high efficient and quick service for traders and investors.

     The appearance of Chaozhou changed dramatically. Through the implementation of the strategy of "building the new urban district and protecting ancient urban district", Chaozhou has extended its urban area from 5 km to 31.4 km and formed a new urban district with
relatively large scale. By carrying out the strategy of "flourishing market with tourism", it has repaired and reconstructed Kaiyuan temple and Hanwengong Shrine, the cultural long corridor along Han River west bank, and the ancient castle of Song Dynasty and Ming Dynasty. It also reconstructed a number of urban roads and built the civil residences. By improving of civil cultural trait, Chaozhou has been appraised as provincial hygiene city and civilization city. At present, Chaozhou has passed the exam and awarded the "Chinese Excellent Tourism City".

     Chaozhou, the cultural city with the unique character, is bathing in the sprig wind of reform and opening to the outside world and striding forward to the new century! You are warmly welcome to visit and invest in Chaozhou!