Geological Situation : Shanghai suburban area lies at 31°14’ north latitude and 12°19’ east longitude. It is located on the tip of Yangtze River Delta, bordering East China Sea in the east, Jiangsu and Zhejiang Province in the west, the mouth of Yangtze River at the north. It boasts convenient transportation and favorable geographic situation.

Climate :       With a pleasant northern subtropical monsoon climate, Shanghai suburbs enjoy four district seasons, generous sunshine and abundant rainfall all year round. The weather is beneficial for growing crops and raising livestock and poultry. The mean annual temperature is 16 degree centigrade and the city has a frost-free period of 230 days a year. The mean annual precipitation amount is 1,200 mm while the mean annual sunshine period is 2,000 hours. The flood period occurs every May to September and during this season, the precipitation amount accounts for nearly 60% of a year’s total.

Water Resources: The terrain of Shanghai suburbs is flat and its average elevation ranges from 2.5 to 4.5 meters above the Wusong datum plane. The suburban area is a plain with intricate river networks. On average, every square kilometer has rivers of six and seven kilometers in combined length. Water area accounts for 10% of the city’s total area. The annual average earth-surface water resource totals 59.35 billion cubic meters, including 1.86 billion cubic meters of earth-surface runoff water, 10.02 billion cubic meters of water from Taihu Lake and 47.47 cubic meters of tide water

Land Area :   Shanghai suburbs cover a total area of 5,900 square kilometers, accounting for 93 % of the city’s total. According to the first national agricultural survey in 1997, Shanghai has farmland of 5,1564 million mu, including 4.5087 million mu of cultivated land, accounting for 87.4%; 92,400 mu of forest land, accounting for 1.8%; 230,700 mu of gardening land, accounting for 4.5% and 326,400 mu of fish ponds, accounting for 6.3%. By the end of 2002, Shanghai suburbs have cultivated land of 270,400 hectares.

Administrative Division : Shanghai suburbs cover eight districts—Minhang, Baoshan, Jiading, Jinshan, Songjiang, Qingpu, Nanhui, Fengxian and Chongming, the rural part of the PuDong New Area; farms under the administration of the Shanghai Agriculture Industry & Commercial (Group) Corp, farms in Shanghai under the administration of the Shanghai Bureau of Reform Through Labour and 8 towns and townships now under the administration of the city’s central districts. There are 131 towns, 3 townships, 15 state-owned farms, and 2,044 administrative villiages.

Population :   At the end of 2002, Shanghai suburbs had a total population of 7,01 million, accounting for 52.5% of the city’s total. If divided by urban and rural area, 49% of the population living in the urban area, while 51% in rural area. Population density is 1188 people per square kilometer.

Economy Scale :    In 2002, four “new high” figures have been generated in  Shanghai Suburbs’ economy with added value of 168.044 billion yuan, an increase of 14.3% than last year, accounting for 31.1% of the city total. The figure of industrial output value is 420.037 billion yuan, an increase of 16.5% than last year, occupying 49.6% of the city total. The figure of introduced foreign contractual investment is US$ 7.058 billion , an increase of 54.46% than last year, sharing 66.7% of the city total. Fiscal income is 37.729 billion yuan, an increase of 36.4 % than last year, accounting 17.1% of the city total.

Industrial Structure: Abiding by the strategy of “ second industry, tertiary industry & primary industry”, industrial structure has continued to be optimized. In 2002, primary industry generated  5.3% total added value in Shanghai suburbs, down 12.9% than 1990, secondary industry 58.1%, 0.5% lower than 1990 and tertiary industry 36.3%, 13.3 percent higher than 1990.

Farmers’ Income : In 2002, per capita income of Shanghai farmers reached 6212 yuan, up 6.2%  than 2001, among which salary income rose 4920 yuan, occupying 79.2% of the total. Through the efforts of extending employment scope in non-farming area, we haveincreased farmers’ transferable property income, implemented the system of farmers’ social life insurance & co-medical insurance, reduced farmers’ burden. At present 100,000 non-farming posts are provided, in which 600,000 are new jobs.