Lanzhou, known as "Lan" and "Gaogao", is a prefecture-level city and the capital of Gansu Province, an important industrial base and comprehensive transportation hub in northwest China, one of the important central cities in the western region, and an important node city of the Silk Road Economic Belt. node city of the Silk Road Economic Belt. As of 2020, Lanzhou has five districts and three counties under its jurisdiction, with a total area of 13,100 square kilometres. As of 2021, Lanzhou has a resident population of 4,384,300 and a gross regional product of RMB 323,129 million.
Lanzhou is located in northwest China, the geometric centre of the land area of mainland China, in central Gansu, the political, cultural, economic and scientific and educational centre of Gansu, the strategic platform for the opening up of the country to the west, an important engine for the development of the west, a demonstration area for scientific development in the northwest, a city with a long history of Yellow River culture, a modern central city with international influence in the west, facing the " A modern and international metropolis facing the "Belt and Road" and radiating to Central Asia, West Asia and South Asia.
Lanzhou has been a city for more than 2,000 years since the Qin Dynasty, and has been a transportation hub and military fortress since ancient times, "liaising with four regions and carrying 10,000 miles", named after the "Golden City and Tang Pond", and known as the "Pearl of the Yellow River It is also known as the "Pearl of the Yellow River". Lanzhou benefited from the Silk Road and became an important transportation and commercial port. It became one of the first cities in China to embrace modern industrial civilisation and was identified by the state as one of the key industrial bases to be built after the founding of New China, becoming an important national base for petrochemical, biopharmaceutical and equipment manufacturing.
In 2012, the State Council approved the Lanzhou New Area, the first national-level new area in the northwest region, explicitly making the construction of Lanzhou New Area an important initiative to further implement the western development strategy and develop Lanzhou into a modern metropolis in the northwest region by 2020. In 2017, the Lanzhou-Xining City Cluster Development Plan clearly cultivated and developed the Lanzhou-Xining City Cluster into an important city cluster that supports homeland security and ecological security patterns and maintains the prosperity and stability of the northwest region.
