Economy

This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)Today the city's industrial base still revolves around the several nearby copper mines and copper processing operations. The local mineral resources also include : iron, coal, gold, silver,tin, Iron sulfide, plus more than twenty other rare minerals associated with them such as nickel, cadmium, gallium, molybdenum, germanium and selenium. Other important industries include chemical works, textiles, building materials, electronics, machinery and food processing. Long a hub of water transportation, in 1995 Tongling became the site of Anhui Province's first highway bridge spanning the Yangtze River.Although Tongling City is mostly mountainous, the surrounding flatlands are rich agricultural regions producing rice, wheat, cotton, beans, garlic, herbal medicines and ginger. Large amounts of fish are also harvested in the region.Tongling is the center for conservation efforts to preserve the last remaining Yangtze freshwater dolphins. Two semi-natural reserves have been established in the Tongling area, in the Tongling and Shishou oxbow lakes, but as yet no dolphins have been successfully captured and moved from the river into the lakes.Tongling has developed at a rapid speed in the past 5 years,i.e. 2003 to 2007.The average GDP per capita has reached ¥44,870 in 2008 which is the second in Anhui province. And the increasing rate is 13%, far more than the average increasing rate of the whole province which is 12.8%.And it aims to achieve $10000 GDP per capita in 2012

Transport

As of January 2015, Tongling has one bridge across the Yangtze River and one under construction.Rail[edit]Tongling is served by the Nanjing–Tongling, Tongling–Jiujiang Railways and Beijing-Fuzhou Railway.

Geography

Tongling is located in southern Anhui on the southern (right) bank of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, with latitude ranging from 30° 45' 12" to 31° 07' 56" N and longitude ranging from 117° 42' 00" to 118° 10' 06" E; the maximal north-south extent is 42.5 kilometres (26.4 mi), and the greatest east-west width is 40.6 km (25.2 mi).[1] It borders Fanchang County to the southeast, Qingyang County and Nanling County to the south, Guichi District of Chizhou to the southwest, and, northwest across the Yangtze, Wuwei County and Zongyang County.

History

Tongling has been famous as a beautiful mountain city since its origins in the Han dynasty over 1500 years ago. Owing to its copper and tin deposits, it was an important center in the past for bronze production. The scale of industrial activity gradually increased through the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) dynasties, the Japanese occupation of 1938-45, and especially under the Communist government since 1949.