According to information from the State Statistics Bureau, China's first-batch 15 costal open cities realized last year a total regional output value of 2,924.4 billion yuan, more than 21.4 percent of the national GDP 1,3651.5 billion yuan, while the population of these cities only accounted for 7.4 percent of the national total.

The 15 cities formed four ranks in terms of economic aggregate. "Super giant" Shanghai took the lead with a regional output value exceeding 700 billion yuan; it was closely followed by Guangzhou with over 400 billion yuan; the third rank included Tianjin, Qingdao, Ningbo, Dalian, Yantai, Fuzhou, Wenzhou, Nantong, with a figure between 300 and 100 billion yuan; the last rank consisted Zhanjiang, Qihuangdao, Lianyungang and Beihai with an output value below 70 billion yuan.

Statistics showed that the average economic growth of the 15 cities was 15 percent, higher than the national average of 9.5 percent, remaining an important driving force of the national economy as a whole.

Per capita GDP in these cities were nearly three times national level. Their per-capita regional output value, after exceeding 3,000 US dollars in 2003, went beyond 30,000 RMB yuan last year to reach 30,729 yuan (calculated on the number of permanent residents), up 4,626 yuan over the previous year. Among them, the figure for Guangzhou and Shanghai were above 6,000 US dollars, and that for Weihai, Ningbo and Dalian were over 4,000 US dollars, and Tianjin, Qingdao, Fuzhou, Yantai over 3,000 US dollars.

By People's Daily Online