FIND CHINA introduces Jinhua

Jinhua is a prefecture-level city in central Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. Located about 300 km south of Shanghai it borders the provincial capital of Hangzhou to the northwest, Quzhou to the southwest, Lishui to the south, Taizhou to the east, and Shaoxing the northeast.

There are numerous scenic and historical sites in the Jinhua region, including many places associated with the Immortal Huang, and a palace of the Dukes of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Jinhua has a subtropical climate with four distinctive seasons. The average annual temperature is 16°-18°C and the average annual rainfall is 1303-1412 millimetres.

Jinhua is located in the southern wing of the Yangtze River Delta Economic Zone with its centre in Shanghai. It has such advantage of convenient transportation that it becomes the communications hub connecting the southeast coastal areas with the inland China. It is also a major hub of land transportation in China. There is a crisscrossed network of highways in Jinhua that extend in all directions, leading to Hangzhou and Shanghai in the north, to Quzhou in the west, to Ningbo and Taizhou Ports in the east, and to Wenzhou Port in the south.

The radiating highways, including the Hangzhou-Jinhua-Quzhou, Jinhua-Lishui-Wenzhou, Jinhua-Ningbo Expressways and 330 state highways and 03 provincial highways, all contribute to the transportation network, with the Jinhua at its centre. The Taizhou-Jinyun and Zhuji-Yongkang Expressway is under construction. The plan of the Loop Road of Jinhua, Dongyang-Yongkang and Jinhua-Lin’an Expressways are under consideration. Today it is only a one-and-a-half-hour drive from Jinhua to Hangzhou, and a three-hour drive to Shanghai. When the Jinhua-Ningbo Expressway is open to traffic, the distance between the two cities will also be shortened to a 90-minute ride.

Three railroads, namely, the double-track Zhejiang-Jiangxi Railway, the Jinhua-Wenzhou Railway, and the Jinhua-Qiandaohu Railway, are intersected here in Jinhua. Among other railroads, the Jinhua-Ningbo and Jinhua-Jiaojiang Railways, and the Jinhua-Huangshan Railroad, are all included in the blueprint. Jinhua Railway Station, one that ranks Class 3 in Grade A according to the national standard, is the biggest marshalling yard in East China, and Jinhua is an important centre of railway transportation in the area as well.

It is a 1-to-3-hour drive from the city of Jinhua to the surrounding international airports in Hangzhou, Shanghai and Ningbo, and a 20-minute drive to Yiwu Civil Airport, where over ten air routes are available at present, including those destined for Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Beijing and Xiamen.

In the vicinity of Jinhua are Shanghai Port, Ningbo Port and Wenzhou Port. The Jinhuajiang River (also known as the Wujiang River), the largest of the district, flows into the Grand Canal and other coastal ports. Today the waterless port—an international container freight station—has been put into operation in Jinhua, where a straight-through CIQ supervision office has been set up. Cargoes sealed in Jinhua can be shipped directly to Ningbo Port for export shipment. A public tariff protective warehouse, which is the only of its type in the mid-western area of Zhejiang Province, has been built in the neighbourhood.

Jinhua is one of the origins of overseas cuisine. It is famed for ham dishes and various flavour snacks. There are more than 100 delicious Jinhua ham dishes and other special food such as Jinhua crisp cake, Jinhua stew, Jinhua rice meat dumplings with bamboo leaves, Jinhua soup dumpling, Pan'an's made-on-spot noodles, Pan'an dumpling and cake tube, Golden honeyed dates, red bayberry alcohol. The main places to go are: Jinhua night food fair, hundred-year-old restaurant Qinghe Garden, Guomao Guest House, Shibo Gourmet House, Lanxi Ancient Business Town and Pan’an Food Street..