Yuyao City is located in the eastern part of Zhejiang Province. It is west of Ningbo, east of Hangzhou. It faces Hangzhou Bay in the north and Siming Mountains in the south. About 830,000 people are living in 14 towns, 6 neighborhoods in an area of 1,527 square kilometers. In 1985, the State Council approved Yuyao to be upgraded to one of the first county-level cities in the country, in 1995, it was upgraded to a level Ⅱ city under the State Council approval.
Yuyao become a county in Qin Dynasty. It has earned prestige as “a celebrated place of outstanding personages and cultural legacies” and “the best county in the southeast and it has been a famous town of history and culture legacies. It was also the birthplaces of Yan Ziling, Wang Yangming, Zhu Shunshui and Huang Zhongxi, and others famous scholar. Yuyao is awarded by the state as China Red Bayberry Town, China Zhacai (hot pickled mustard tuber) Town, China Wild Rice Stem Town and China Red Maple Town. The discovery of “Cultural Ruins of Hemudu”, which dated back 7,000 years and it is the representative site of Yangtze River valley matriarchal clan’s prosperity period.
Yuyao has excellent geographical conditions. It is 40kms west of Ningbo and 120kms east of Hangzhou. The Shanghai Hangzhou Ningbo Expressway and State Road 329 and Xiaoshan Ningbo Railway and Hangzhou Ningbo Canal cross its territory from west to east. It only spends half an hour and 40 minutes to Ningbo international airport and Beilun port and it is about 40 minutes to Hangzhou Xiaoshan International airport and 30 kms away from the Hangzhou Bay Great Bridge. After the opening of Bridge, Yuyao will be incorporated into the “two hour traffic circle” of Shanghai and will be improved by the economic radiation of Shanghai.
Yuyao has a solid industrial economy. It has formed an industry system with the base of household appliances, plastic molds, metal machinery, chemical fiber textiles and other traditional industries and with the leading industries of electronic information, new materials, light mechanical and electrical integration, bio-chemical. Yuyao is known as the “Plastic kingdom” and “Mould town” and the industries of pens, buttons, lights, auto parts, plumbing equipment, electric tools, lighters and other industries are also has the high visibility in China.
During the period of "11th Five-Year Plan", the industrial economy is expected to be total 250 billion yuan. It is focused on the development of plastic molds, metal machinery, textile chemical fiber, household electrical appliances and the four pillar industries of electronic information, bio-chemicals, new materials, mechanical and electrical integration-4 big growth industry; the total contracted foreign investment capital will be 3 billion US dollars and the actually foreign investment capital 1.5 billion US dollars. The proportion of foreign investment utilization has markedly improved in the service sector, infrastructure, and agriculture and high-tech investment. The structure of foreign trade and efficiency will be efficiency improved significantly, and proportion of the processing trade has risen steadily. The total imports and exports will exceed 20 billion dollars.
The open economy of Yuyao started early, and the first Sino-Japanese joint venture was set up in Zhejiang Province in 1984. By the end of 2007, there are 1,539 foreign-invested enterprises with total investment of 8.123 billion US dollars and the actual amount of foreign capital of 760 million US dollars. At present, more than 60 countries and regions have investments in Yuyao, the actual foreign investment capital places first for eight consecutive years in the counties of Zhejiang Province. More than 1,000 enterprises trade with more than 150 countries and regions, and the export product trademarks are registered in more than 100 countries and regions. The export trade is ranked forefront in counties of Zhejiang Province. At the same time, 120 foreign enterprises have been set up.
In 2007, the gross domestic product (GDP) reached 41 billion Yuan, the budgetary revenue income was 6.337 billion Yuan, the total industrial output value was 135.8 billion yuan, the gross industrial product above the scale reached 70 billion yuan, the self-operated export volume was USD 3.7 billion, the actual foreign investment was USD 400 million, the total volume of social consumer goods retail sales was 13.4 billion yuan and the various market turnover was 40.7 billion yuan with 28.5 billion turnover of The Plastics City market. The per capita disposable income of urban residents reached 22,800 yuan and the per capita net income of rural residents reached 9,687 yuan. In 2006, the overall economic strength of Yuyao ranked 17 among more than 2,000 counties in China.
