Jinjiang, Fujian

Administrative divisions

Jinjiang has six subdistricts and 13 towns:

Jinjiang is known for the large number of factories which operate there, especially in the clothing and name-brand footwear industry. Many migrant laborers come from elsewhere in Fujian and even from outside the province to commit themselves to year-long contracts.

Jinjiang is famous as home to many Chinese in diaspora, especially in Taiwan, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar, Australia, etc. Once poor and overpopulated in early 19th century, Many locals moved to Southeast Asia for better lives, as what they called "xia nan yang, 下南洋", literally as "to sail down to the south sea" in English. Many of them have been successfully integrated into local societies and achieved great success. For example, according to Forbes, 6 out of 10 richest business tycoons in Philippines can trace their ancestry back to Jinjiang. Therefore, from 80s to 90s, Jinjiang received much donation and investment from overseas Chinese communities.

Jinjiang people speak the Quanzhou variant of Minnan dialect which is largely intelligible to speakers of the Xiamen, Zhangzhou and Taiwanese variants, even with many Chinese communities overseas, specially in southeast Asia, like Penang and Philippines. As in many parts of China, most Jinjiang people can use Putonghua (Mandarin) to communicate with non-local people in commercial and other daily interactions.

Transportation

Jinjiang hosts the Quanzhou Jinjiang International Airport, IATA code JJN. The facility is of international 4D standard, which is capable of handling mid-size jets, such as Boeing 737 series and Airbus 320 series. Most flights from JJN are domestic flights, with some international/regional flights to/from Hong Kong, Macao, Taipei, Manila, Bangkok, Singapore, etc. Another way to get into the city is flying into Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport in the nearby city Xiamen, which has more international routes, including intercontinental flights to/from Amsterdam, Sydney and Vancouver. From there, passengers can catch limousine buses to downtown Jinjiang in 1.5 hours.

Jinjiang Station of the new high-speed Fuzhou-Xiamen Railway is located 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) away from the center of the city. Passengers are able to travel to bullet train hubs like Shanghai or Shenzhen in 2 to 3 hours, and further transfer to other destinations national wide. The Jinjiang Railway Station is served by local buses and taxi.

Economy

Thriving with economics in private sections, Jinjiang has been ranked as No.1 county with the highest GDP in Fujian for over 15 consecutive years. Also, it's been ranked as top 10 richest county-level city in the whole country, as published by the National Bureau of Census. There are many sportswear and other garment and shoe manufacturers in Jinjiang. In 2013 the mayor of Jinjiang called for more focus on innovative design by shoe manufacturers plagued by surplus inventory.

Manufacturers were encouraged by local official to engage in IPOs and seek listings on stock exchanges such as the Frankfurt Stock Exchange to raise global capital for expansion. Raising capital in this way bypasses the difficulty medium-sized firms have with obtaining loans from Chinese banks. About 30 firms have achieved listing on global stock exchanges but many also have listings on stock exchanges in Shanghai or Hong Kong. As of 2012 many additional local firms include IPOs in their business planning.

In some instances over-capacity and declining profit margins have resulted from suboptimal investment of capital. Due to the prevalence of copying in the industry investing capital in research and development seems futile. Another problem is that many of the firms are in fact family-owned business which have taken on corporate form but not best corporate management practices. In an effort to achieve listings on exchanges with strict requirements there is a temptation to engage in creative accounting.

Notable people

Jinjiang's most infamous son is undoubtedly Lai Changxing (simplified Chinese: 赖昌星; traditional Chinese: 賴昌星; pinyin: lài chāng xīng) who has been described by the official Xinhua news agency as "China's most wanted fugitive". Lai was a major player in the Xiamen-centred Yuanhua corruption and smuggling scandal which broke in 1999. Tipped off by China's central police leadership, Lai fled to Canada on fake Hong Kong SAR documents with his wife Zeng (often Tsang) Mingna and their children. He was eventually detained on Canadian immigration charges and put under house arrest at his home in Burnaby, British Columbia.

Other famous people from Jinjiang include the current top national leader Zhang Gaoli, internationally awarded actress Gong Bibei, national celebrity Yao Chen and others.