Kunming, capital city of southwest China's Yunnan Province, has steadily built 
itself into a regional international center thanks to rapid economic and social 
development over the past 70 years.

Kunming has continuously deepened its opening-up, actively serving the Belt and 
Road construction. The city has established trade relations with 203 countries 
and regions, and attracted 98 of the World Top 500 companies to invest. In 
2018, the total export value of the city reached 13.12 billion U.S. dollars.

From 1952 to 2018, Kunming's GDP increased from 156 million yuan to 520.6 
billion yuan, an increase of 543 times, and the per capita GDP exceeded 10,000 
U.S. dollars. The general budgetary revenue of the city increased from 366 
million yuan in 1978 to 59.563 billion yuan in 2018, an increase of 162.7 
times. The city's industrial structure has gradually been optimized, with the 
contribution to GDP by the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries adjusted 
from 39:34:27 in 1952 to 4.3:38.4:57.3 in 2018.

As for urbanization, the urban area of Kunming has expanded from 7.8 square 
kilometers in 1949 when the People's Republic of China was founded, to 416 
square kilometers at present, showing an increase of 52.3 times. Now, urban 
residents represent 72.9 percent of permanent residents in the city, while the 
figure was only 29.5 percent in 1978.

In terms of transportation, the urban bus network coverage rate of Kunming has 
reached 79 percent, ranking second among cities in China. The urban rail 
mileage of the city is 88.76 kilometers and the expressway mileage is 766 
kilometers. With Kunming Changshui International Airport going into operation 
in 2012, the transportation hub function of the city is further enhanced.

Known as the "Spring City", Kunming has firmly promoted the concept of green 
development and paid high attention to ecological civilization. In 2018, the 
city's forest coverage rate reached 49.57 percent, and the per capita public 
green area was three times that of 1952. The water quality in the Dianchi Lake, 
once one of the most polluted lakes in China, rose to grade IV in 2018, the 
best in the recent 30 years.

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SOURCE: Xinhua Silk Road Information Service