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| Introduction |
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Puer, named after the world famous Puer Tea, is located in the southwestern part of Yunnan Province, bordering Laos, Vietnam, and Burma. It covers an area of 44,221 sq km, and is the largest of the prefectures and prefecture-level cities in Yunnan. Its population is 2.59 million.
Puer has a subtropical monsoon climate with no bitterly cold winter or extremely hot summer. The average temperature is 18-20°C, while the average annual precipitation totals 1,514 mm.
Puer is rich in natural resources. Forests cover 64.9% of the city’s lands. Average annual runoff of the surface water amounts to 32.6 billion steres, accounting for 14.7% of the province's total. In addition, Puer is the major planting area of the well-known Puer Tea, which was tribute tea for emperors in feudal societies of China.
Transportation in Puer mainly relies on highways, waterways and airports. The Puer-Kunming Expressway is under construction and expected to be completed in 2010. Puer also has access to the Lancang River international shipping channel and has a state-level port, Puer Dock. Puer Airport, 2 km from the city’s downtown, operates scheduled flights to Kunming, and Xishuangbanna.
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| Economic Features |
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Puer realized GDP of RMB 24.73 billion in 2010, representing a rise of 13.6% year on year. The city's GDP accounted for approximately 3.9% of Yunnan's total.
The agricultural sector, the second smallest contributor to the city's economy, generated value-added output of RMB 7.4 billion in 2010, accounting for 29.8% of the city's GDP. Total output value of the sector amounted to RMB 11.3 billion, up 7.1% year on year. Grain output of Puer amounted to 0.9 million tons, up 2.7% year on year.
Secondary industry (industry and construction), the smallest contributor to the city's economy, realized value-added output of RMB 8.3 billion during the same year, accounting for 33.5% of the city's total.
The industrial sector realized total industrial output of RMB 12.8 billion in 2010, up 13.8% year on year, while industrial output of enterprises with designated size or above totaled RMB 9.63 billion, contributing 75% to the industrial sector's total. Tea, forest products processing, electricity and mining are the major industries of the city. In 2010, these industries generated RMB 9.45 billion gross industrial output in total, accounting for 73.8% of the city's total.
Service sector, the largest contributor to the city's economy, generated value-added output of RMB 9.1 billion, accounting for 36.7% of the city's total GDP in 2010.
Tourism is the most important pillar of the service sector. During 2010, 3.47 million domestic tourists visited the city, up 14.2% year on year, while tourism income totaled RMB 1.71 billion, representing a rise of 27.5% compared to the previous year.
In 2010, the total value of imports and exports amounted to US$170.6 million (comprising export value of US$95.39 million and import value of US$75.21 million), up 49% year on year. The city's major export goods are rosin, cement, fertilizer, tea and steel. Burma is the largest trading partner of the city in terms of trading value.
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| Cultural Highlights |
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Puer, originally called Simao City, is one of the most important commercial ports in Yunnan Province.
Puer tea, which has a rich history of over 1700 years, can be traced back to the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 AD). It was offered as tribute to the Emperor of China and is revered as a traditional medicinal tea with many health benefits.
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| Tourist Attraction |
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The most famous tourist attractions of the city are China Puer Tea Exhibition Garden, which comprises a tea museum, a tea-making workshop, a tea-picking zone, a tea appraisal garden and some other facilities, and Awa Mountain, which boasts sea clouds in winter and spring.
When it comes to special local products, Puer Tea, bamboo shoots, edible fungi, purple rice and mango are enjoyed by tourists who visit Puer.
Since Puer is famous as the hometown of the well known Puer Tea, the local people have developed unique ways of serving it. Visitors can sample bamboo tube tea, cold tea dish, earth-pot tea and baked tea, among others.
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