Ningyang county
Ningyang county is under the jurisdiction of Tai'an city, lying in the middle of East China's Shandong province. It lies to the south of Mount Tai, the Top of Five Most Famous Mountains in China, to the north of Qufu, the hometown of Confucius.
The industrial system with complete structure and reasonable construction of Ningyang county has taken shape, featuring chemical industry, coal, machine, light and textile industry, building material and farm and sideline products processing. In 2015, Ningyang's GDP reached 38.27 billion yuan ($5.53 billion) with per capita 50,000 yuan.
Ningyang has been listed as the commodity production base of foodstuff, cotton, peanut, vegetable, seeds of high-quality crop, silkworm, date and the Yellow Cattle of West Shandong successively by central, provincial and municipal governments. The total yield of vegetable reach 0.5 million tons and the type of seed production is more than 50, among which the seed production of cucumber occupies 70 percent of the whole nation’s demand. The date here with the annual yield of more than 10 million kilos also has a long history, renowned home and abroad.
Ningyang boasts convenient transportation. The two railway lines of Beijing-Shanghai and Ciyao-Laiwu joined in the county. The highway from Beijing to Fuzhou, the 104th national road and the road from Jinan to Weishan crisscross the county from south to north. Mengguan Road runs through from east to west. The high-speed railway from Beijing to Shanghai runs across the east of the county.
The initially proved-up minerals including metal and non-metal has reached more than 30 species, among which the reserves of coal with high-quality is more than 0.5 billion tons, and the granite more than 50 million cubic meters,the potash feldspar 8.6 million tons. All these resources are of high explorative value. The famous Dawenkou Culture Relics lies in Ciyao town.
Ningyang county has planned and constructed two economic and technological development zones. This provides the traders both at home and abroad with convenient conditions for investment, production and living.
Besides, the cricket industry here ranks high in the whole East Asia area. The history of cricket fighting originated from QinDynasty (BC 221-206), and Ningyang was renowned as No1 nationwide, famous for the good quality of crickets here. There are more than 260 species including some most precious species.
The crickets in the county are sold to many countries and regions including Hongkong, Macao, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and Malaysia. September 6 to 9 is designated for Chinese Cricket Friendship Contest every year. With this chance, the county will organize series of cultural activities such as Chinese Cricket Research Meeting, Renowned Insects Exhibition of Ningyang and the Tour of Mount Tai, Qufu, Liangshan and Shentong Moutain. And this is listed as the important project of Mount Tai International Mountaineering Festival.