Quzhou lies in western Zhejiang Province and sits on the upper course of the Qiantang River, covering an area of 8,844 square kilometers. It borders four provinces, i.e. Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi and Anhui. It has three counties (Longyou County, Kaihua County and Changshan County), two districts (Kecheng District and Qujiang District) and one city (Jiangshan City) under its direct jurisdiction. Quzhou has a household registered population of 2.25 million.

General Secretary Xi Jinping made eight surveys in Quzhou during his work in Zhejiang Province, and gave a series of important instructions, such as “becoming a bridgehead for Zhejiang’s economic expansion into the central and western provinces”, “building a central city on the border of four provinces”, and “becoming a new growth point for Zhejiang’s economic development”, which have pointed out the direction and provided fundamental guidelines for Quzhou’s economic and social development.In recent years, Quzhou has deeply implemented the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important instructions on the work of Zhejiang Province and Quzhou City, fully implemented the decision-making and deployment of the CPC Central Committee and the CPC Provincial Committee, and made great progress in the development of various undertakings while bearing in mind his entrustment. In 2023, the growth rates of Quzhou’s 12 major economic indicators are all higher than that of the provincial average, with 11 indicators into the province’s top five. The regional GPD reached 212.52 billion yuan, with a growth rate of 6.8% ranking fifth in the province. Quzhou’s fixed-asset investment grew by 11.4%, total retail sales of consumer goods by 10.6%, and total foreign trade import and export by 16.7%, with growth rates ranking third, first, and first respectively in the province. The per capita disposable income of urban and rural residents in Quzhou amounted to RMB 60,592 and RMB 33,993, with growth rate of 5.4% and 8% respectively ranking fifth and third in the province.

Quzhou is a national historical and cultural city. It has a civilization history of more than 10,000 years and a city-building history of more than 4,000 years. It was listed as National Historical and Cultural City in 1994, with a long cultural lineage, and has historical and cultural monuments such as Quzhou Prefecture, which is the best-preserved ancient state-level city in the Jiangnan region, Quzhou Prefecture City Walls, which is the national key cultural relics protection unit, the restored Tianwang Tower, and the Wenchang Pavilion. Quzhou is the habitual place and second hometown of the descendants of Confucius, and is the spreading center of Confucian culture in Jiangnan. Historically, it has been known as the “Home of Southern Confucianism” because of its great Confucianism and talents, and the Southern Confucius Family Temple is one of the only two Confucius family temples in China. Quzhou has a reputation far and wide as the cradle of Go culture. The legend of the woodcutter Wang Zhi who met the immortal and played Go with the immortal on Mount Lanke is famous throughout China. Mount Lanke is renowned as the “The Celestial Land of Go”. Quzhou is the ancestral homeland of the great man Mao Zedong, and Qingyang Village in Jiangshan has been unanimously recognized by the Party History Research Center of the CPC Central Committee, National Archives Administration of China, and Mao Zedong’s grandson as Mao Zedong’s ancestral homeland and the “Birthplace of the Mao clan in Jiangnan”. The Genealogy of the Mao Clan in Qingyang has been included in the first batch of The Directory of Chinese Archives and Literature Heritage. In 2016, the 24 solar terms, represented by the Celebration of Beginning of Spring in Jiuhua, Kecheng District, were inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Quzhou earnestly implements the spirit of the important instruction of “developing Southern Confucianism with solid work and tangible effects” put forward by General Secretary Xi Jinping when he was working in Zhejiang Province. Quzhou comprehensively implements the project of ecological restoration, urban reconstruction and cultural renewal. The Confucianism Cultural Industrial Park is listed as a national cultural industry demonstration park, and Quzhou solidly pushes forward the Southern Confucianism Cultural and Tourism Zone to create a national AAAAA scenic area. Quzhou vigorously promotes the creative transformation and innovative development of excellent traditional culture, and spare no efforts to uphold the city brand of “Quzhou, Home of Southern Confucianism, A Model City of Virtue” while building of a national civilized model city, making Quzhou become a veritable model city of virtue. In November 2020, Quzhou was listed as the sixth batch of “National Civilized Model City” with the outstanding achievement of ranking 4th nationwide. Quzhou ranked 1st among 114 prefecture-level cities in the 2021 National Civilized Model City Assessment. Through vigorously cultivating and carrying forward the Quzhou Spirit--People-Oriented in the New Era: Uprightness and Courteousness, Openness and Confidence, Innovation and Excellence, Quzhou gathers the majestic power of united will to make common efforts. In the 2023 Comprehensive Brand Influence Index of Chinese Prefecture-level Cities, Quzhou ranked 33rd.

Quzhou is a beautiful city with lucid waters and lush mountains. Named for the mountains and prospering because of the water, Quzhou is embraced on three sides by the Xianxia Mountain Range, Huaiyu Mountain Range and Qianligang Mountain Range, and nine rivers, including Changshan River, Jiangshan River and the Wuxi River, converging in the city as a whole.The city’s forest coverage rate is 71.5%, and the quality of outbound water remains above Class II. It has won the “Dayu Ding”, the highest honor of  water control in Zhejiang Province, for 7 consecutive years. The urban air quality rate (AQI) is 96.4%, and the urban PM2.5 concentration is 26 micrograms per cubic meter. The green coverage rate of urban built-up areas is 42.8%, and the per capita park green area is 15.2 square meters. It is an important ecological barrier in Zhejiang, a national ecological demonstration area, a national garden city, and a national forest city. In December 2018, it was awarded “International Garden City” by The United Nations. Quzhou is an excellent tourist city in China and the first pilot national recreation area. There are 2 national AAAAA level scenic spots and 13 national AAAA level scenic spots, such as Root Palace and Buddhist Country Cultural Tourist Area, Jianglang Mountain-Nianbadu Tourist Area. Jianglang Mountain is the first World Natural Heritage in Zhejiang, Qianjiangyuan National Park is the only national park system pilot in East China, and Longyou Jiangxiyan is listed as the world’s irrigation engineering heritage along with Dujiangyan in Sichuan Province and Lingqu in Guangxi Province. At present, Quzhou is vigorously creating a national all-for-one tourism demonstration area, actively promoting the construction of Zhejiang-Anhui-Fujian-Jiangxi National Ecotourism Cooperation Zones, and jointly building the Zhejiang-Anhui-Fujian-Jiangxi “Union Garden” with Huangshan, Nanping, and Shangrao. It also cooperates with The Taohuayuan Foundation to build nature reserves, carries out the “Global Free Quzhou Tour” activity, creates “Four Attractions of Quzhou” cultural tourism products such as spectacular concerts, delicious “Three Flavors of Quzhou”, beautiful Garden City, and fun sports fields, striving to build “Poetry and Painting Zhejiang” as the best tourist destination in China and a world-class eco-tourism destination.

Quzhou is a city of openness and confidence. Quzhou borders Nanping in Fujian in the south, Shangrao in Jiangxi in the west, Huangshan in Anhui in the north, and intersects Jinhua, Lishui, and Hangzhou in the east. It has always been a boundary transportation hub and material distribution center for the four provinces of Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, and Anhui. It has been renowned as “a thoroughfare leading to four provinces”. Quzhou enjoys a convenient transportation by air, water, rail and road. Its civil aviation directly reaches 25 cities. The East China headquarter of Huaxia Airlines and International Flight School settles in Quzhou. Longyou Port Area and Qujiang Port Area of Quzhou Port are officially opened, and Hangzhou-Quzhou Cruise Ship is in service. Four expressways have formed a road network with Hangzhou-Jinhua-Quzhou expressway and Hangzhou-Xin’anjiang-Jingdezhen expressway run horizontally, and Huanshan-Quzhou-Nanping expressway and Longyou-Lishui expressway run vertically through the city. The beautiful 215-kilometer highway along the river runs through the whole line.  Zhejiang-Jiangxi railway, Hangzhou-Changsha high-speed railway, and Quzhou-Jiujiang railway traverse the entire territory. The Quzhou-Ningde railway officially opened to traffic on September 27th, 2020. All these forms a “Mi (米)”-shaped railway hub. It is the first prefecture-level city in the province where high-speed rail and expressways are connected in  every county. Thus, Quzhou’s location advantages are becoming more and more prominent. The construction of the Quzhou section of the Hangzhou-Quzhou high-speed railway started in May 2020. It is planned to be completed in 2024. At that time, the space-time distance between Quzhou and Hangzhou will be shortened to about 40 minutes. To create an upgraded version of “Mountain and Sea Collaboration” in the new era, deepen the “integration of Hangzhou, Ningbo and Shanghai”, Quzhou formally joined the Hangzhou metropolitan circle on October 25, 2018, accelerating the integration of Hangzhou and Quzhou, deepening strategic cooperation with Ningbo, and fully integrating into the development of the Yangtze River Delta. Quzhou has deeply implemented the “No.1 Opening-up Project” of upgrading the “Sweet Potato Economy”, and solidly pushed forward the action of upgrading foreign trade with hundreds of billions of RMB. In 2023, Quzhou was listed as one of China’s Top 100 Cities in Foreign Trade for the first time.

Quzhou is a city of innovation and vitality. It was reestablished as a prefecture-level city in 1985 when it was separated from Jinhua region. Over the past 30 years, Quzhou has made historic achievements and changes in economic and social development, and has built a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way at a high level. Quzhou deeply implements the “No. 1 Development Project” of digital economy innovation and quality enhancement, adheres to the strategy of “enhancing city with industry and prospering city by industry”, and focuses on the six iconic industrial chains, i.e. new materials, new energy, integrated circuits, intelligent equipment, life and health, and special paper. Quzhou carries out ten special projects in depth to strengthen the city with industry, promoting the integration of “five chains”, i.e. industrial chain, innovation chain, talent chain, capital chain, and service chain, accelerating the construction of a modern industrial system, paying close attention to the integration of industrial cities and counties. The Era Lithium Battery, Geely “Batteries, Motors and Electronic Controls”, Jinrui Hong, Penghui Technology, Xiandao Rare Materials, Yidao New Energy and other manufacturing projects with tens of billions of RMB are into operation. The number of A-share-listed enterprises reaches 17. The Quzhou Branch of ZJU Engineer College, the new campus of ZJU Quzhou Research Institute and the Yangtze River Delta Research Institute of the University of Electronic Science and Technology have been opened, the Provincial High-end Chemical Technology Innovation Centre set up, the Quzhou Fudan Research Institute constructed in cooperation with Fudan University, and cooperation with Shulan Hospital, Wenzhou Medical University and Zhejiang University of Traditional Chinese Medicine carried out. Quzhou has explored new ways to pursue the high-quality development of industry, and its innovation eco-system is becoming increasingly robust. Quzhou ranked 69th on the list of Top 100 Cities with Innovation Capacity and 47th on the list of Top 100 Most Attractive Cities for Talents. Taking the digital reform as engine, Quzhou has comprehensively deepened the“integration of counties and townships, and integration of districts and blocks”to promote the overall smart governance reform at county level, and solidly pushed forward the “comprehensive integration” administrative law enforcement reform, exploring and cultivating“Quzhou experience” of grass-roots governance modernization. Quzhou has pioneered the carbon account system and promoted the reform of “Two Mountains Cooperative” throughout the city, and has become one of the first practice and innovation bases of “Lucid water and lush mountains are invaluable assets” and a national pilot zone for green financial reform and innovation. Quzhou solidly promotes “No.1 Reform Project” to optimize and enhance its business environment, sparing no efforts in building a city with the best business environment in China. It also accelerates the construction of the whole industry chain and full life cycle service system, to build an ideal city where key enterprises in the industry chain operate and develop and a “new power city for venture capital in the Yangtze River Delta”. Quzhou’s one-stop service model has become a benchmark in Zhejiang Province. Quzhou ranked first among all prefecture-level cities in national evaluation of the business environment for two consecutive years in 2018 and 2019. It was shortlisted as a national benchmark city for the business environment for two consecutive years in 2019 and 2020. And the first on-site meeting of Zhejiang’s value-added reform of government services was held in Quzhou. For three consecutive years from 2021 to 2023, it has won the gold medal in the Reform Breakthrough Award of Zhejiang Province. In accordance with the positioning of the landscape garden city in the new era, Quzhou is building the “three small zones” (Southern Confucianism Ancient Zone, Core Circle Zone and High-speed Railway New Zone) with high quality, and the “three big zones” (Zhihui New Zone, Zhizao New Zone and Airport New Zone) with high standard, comprehensively implementing the ten major special projects for urban development, accelerating urbanization with the county as the vital carrier, and building Quzhou as the central city on the border of four provinces. It has obtained seventeen consecutive championships of Peaceful City Initiative and its whole region has been listed as peaceful city. Quzhou has been awarded the title of “Peaceful China Initiative Model City for the Year 2017-2020”.

In the new era, the development of Quzhou has ushered in unprecedented major opportunities, and has stood on its own strong outlet. Quzhou will follow the guidance of Xi Jinping’s thought of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, comprehensively study and implement the spirit of the 20th CPC National Congress, conscientiously implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important speech during his visit to Zhejiang Province, firmly observe “Two Affirmations” and “Two Upholds”, implement “Double Eight Strategy” in depth, and faithfully fulfill the earnest entrustment. Focusing on the three basic paths of “deepening innovation, reforming and upgrading opening-up”, and taking the “No. 1 Development Project” for innovation and quality improvement of digital economy, the “No. 1 Reform Project” for optimizing and upgrading the business environment, and the “No. 1 Opening-up Project” for upgrading the energy of the “sweet potato economy” as the engine, Quzhou makes every effort to build ten “bridgeheads” in modern industry, talent innovation and entrepreneurship, digital revolution, opening-up and development, transportation and logistics, regional tourism, culture and civilization, public service, social governance, and green ecology. Quzhou accelerates the construction as the central city at the borders of four provinces with strong attraction, influence, appeal and leadership, striving to promote the high-quality leapfrog development and becoming a new growth point of Zhejiang’s economic development. Quzhou strives to explore a universally applicable road of common prosperity and modernization in mountainous and inter-provincial areas, contributing more Quzhou power to Zhejiang’s initiative to be a forerunner and write a new chapter.