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| Introduction |
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Loudi, situated in the central part of Hunan Province, adjoins Xiangtan to the east, Hengyang and Shaoyang to the south, Huaihua to the west, and Changde to the north. It is about 110 km southwest of Changsha, the provincial capital of Hunan Province. It covers an area of 8,117 sq km and has a population of 4.2 million. The climate in Loudi is a humid subtropical climate.
Loudi is rich in mineral resources. The proven coal reserves in the city amount to 1.1 billion tons, comprising over one third of Hunan's total and ranking first out of 14 prefecture and prefecture-level cities in Hunan Province. It also has large iron ore reserves. The proven reserves of iron ores in Loudi exceed 43 million tons.
Loudi is a transportation hub in Hunan Province. The Luoyang-Zhanjiang Railway, the Xiangqian Railway (which extends from Hunan to Guizhou), the Shanghai-Ruijin Highway, the Taiyuan-Macau Highway and the Loudi-Huaihua Highway connect the city with other major domestic cities. It takes merely 70 minutes to drive from the downtown area of Loudi to Changsha Huanghua International Airport.
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| Economic Features |
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In 2010, Loudi's GDP reached RMB 68 billion, representing a growth of 14.5%. However, its economy is still small in size. It ranked tenth among the 14 prefectures and prefecture-level cities in the province.
Value-added output from primary industry edged up 4.2% to RMB 9.98 billion in 2010, comprising 14.7% of the city's economy. Secondary industry (industry and construction), the strongest sector in Loudi, generated value-added output of RMB 36.37 billion, accounting for 54% of the city's GDP. The tertiary sector, which is also a major contributor to the city's GDP, realized value-added output of RMB 21.35 billion, contributing 11.2% to the city's GDP.
Loudi's total value-added industrial output rose 19.7% to nearly RMB 33.26 billion in 2010. Value-added industrial output generated by enterprises with designated size or above surged 21.8to RMB 30.14 billion.
Heavy industry is dominant in the city's industrial sector. Value-added industrial output from heavy industrial enterprises and light industrial enterprises climbed up 21.1% and 30.7% to RMB 27.71 billion and RMB 2.43 million in 2010, composing 91.9% and 8.1% of the city's total respectively .
The city has rich natural resources. Coal mining and dressing, metallurgy, power production and supply, agricultural products processing, ceramics and construction materials etc are the major industries in the city.
Lianyuan Steel is the largest industrial company in Loudi. It was inaugurated in Loudi in 1958 and has annual production capacity of 4.5 million tons of steel products. Lengshuijiang Iron & Steel is also a large steelmaker in Loudi. It has annual production capacity of 2 million tons of pig iron and 1 million tons of crude steel.
The consumer market saw stable growth in 2010. The sales of consumer goods in Loudi rose 18.4% from a year earlier to RMB 21.9 billion.
In 2010, foreign trade value in Loudi hit US$1.44 billion, increased 69.3% from the previous year. The export value reached US$1.11 billion, increased 53.9% year on year, while the import value was US$330 million, up 156% year on year. Mechanical and electronic products are the major export products from Loudi.
In 2010, the utilized FDI in the city stood at US$162million, increasing by 20.9%.
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| Cultural Highlights |
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Loudi is famous historical and cultural city. Its name comes from a legend that says the Lou Star and the Di Star shine on this area. Loudi's history extends back to the Spring-and-Autumn Period, when it was administrated by the Chu State. Loudi Prefecture-Level City was set up late in 1999.
Paper cutting, a kind of Chinese traditional fork art which uses scissors and paper, has been popular in Lianyuan as early as 300 years ago.
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| Tourist Attraction |
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Meishan Dragon's Palace and Old Residence of Zeng Guofan are the two top tourist attractions in Loudi. Meishan Dragon's Palace, located in Xinhua County of Loudi, is a famous karst cave. People traveling there can also experience the various folk arts of the Miao and the Yao, two ethnic minority groups in China. Old Resident of Zeng Guofan, also called Yi Yong Hou Di, is situated in Shuangfeng County. Zeng Guofan was a preeminent Han Chinese official and military general. The residence is a typical collection of Ming- and Qing-style buildings.
Loudi has many featured local dishes. The most popular dish in Loudi is San He Soup, which is made of beef, rice wine, ginger, chili and other ingredients, and is hot and spicy and very delicious.
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