Jinhua, Zhejiang Province, China

🇨🇳 Jinhua, alternately romanized as Kinhwa, is a prefecture-level city in central Zhejiang province in eastern China. It borders the provincial capital of Hangzhou to the north-west, Quzhou to the south-west, Lishui to the south, Taizhou to the east, and Shaoxing to the northeast. The built-up area is made of two urban districts.

Jinhua is rich in red soil and forest resources. The Jinhua or Wu River flows through the Lan and Fuchun to the Qiantang River beside Hangzhou, which flows into Hangzhou Bay and the East China Sea. In medieval China, it formed part of the water network feeding supplies to the southern end of the Grand Canal. It is best known for its dry-cured Jinhua ham.

The history of Jinhua dates back to the 2nd century BC, when it was a county subordinate to Shaoxing. It was given the name Jinhua under the Sui dynasty in AD 598 and later became the seat of a prefecture. The present city and its walls date to the Yuan dynasty in 1352.

The prefecture-level city of Jinhua administers 9 county-level divisions, including 2 districts, 4 county-level cities and 3 counties.

Economy Jinhua has a rather flexible economic system with distinctive economic characteristics in different areas. 90% of enterprises are in and about 88% of its GDP are from private sector.

Industry Jinhua enjoys an advanced civilian-owned economy, with its industry mainly supported by processing and manufacturing. Leading industries of the city include clothing and textile, mechanics and electronics, pharmacy and chemistry, manufacturing crafts, metalwork processing architecture and building materials, automobile-and-motorcycle accessories, food processing, and plastic ware.

Industries are distributed with different characteristics in different counties or county-level cities. For instance, Yiwu is characterised by its light-industry commodities, Yongkang by its automobile-and-motorcycle accessories and mechanical and electric tools, Dongyang by its clothing, architecture and magnetic materials, the Jinhua Proper by its pharmacy, construction materials and industrial measures, Lanxi by its non-ferrous metal, cement, towels and daily chemicals, and Pujiang by its textile, lock-making, and lantern ornaments of crystals.

Handicrafts Traditional handicrafts have been flourishing in Jinhua. The wood carving and bamboo weaving in Dongyang, the straw plaiting, lace purling and crystals carving in Pujiang, and the hardware crafts in Yongkang, all enjoy a long history of development and the products sell well both abroad and at home.

Rail Main railway stations: • Jinhua railway station • Jinhua South railway station • Yiwu railway station. Jinhua enjoys convenient transportation, being the communications centre in south-east China between coastal and inland areas. It is one of the major hubs of land transportation in the country. The Zhejiang-Jiangxi, Jinhua-Wenzhou and Jinhua-Qiandaohu railways intersect in the city. The Hangzhou-Jinhua-Quzhou Expressway, the Jinhua-Lishui-Wenzhou Expressway, the No. 330 and 320 National Highways, and other provincial highroads traverse the area. The city aggregation around Jinhua Proper has formed a "Half-an-Hour's-Ride Economic Circle", there being merely a 90-minute and a 3-hour journey driving from the city to Hangzhou and Shanghai respectively.

Metro Jinhua Rail Transit is a metro system in Jinhua, Yiwu and Dongyang. It was opened on August 30, 2022.

Air Yiwu Airport offers airlines destined for Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xiamen, Qingdao, and Hong Kong.