Foreign Affairs Office of Lishui, China

About

Lishui was established as early as 1400 years ago. It has a total area of 17,300 km2, which occupies 1/6 of Zhejiang’s land area. It presently exercises jurisdiction over 9 counties (city & district) with a total population of 2.70 million. 

Lishui is an important ecological shelter zone in Zhejiang and even in East China. It is known as the “No.1 ecological city in China”. we have the largest mountain area in both Jiangsu and Zhejiang. It is the source of six rivers. The forest coverage rate is 81.7%. The air quality ranks in the top ten in the country. The Ecological Environment Status Index has ranked first in the province for 15 consecutive years. It has become the first batch of national ecological civilization demonstration zones, the first batch of national ecological protection and construction demonstration zones, and the national water ecological civilization cities, and was selected as the first batch of national climate-adaptive cities. 

Lishui is the hometown of Chinese folk art. It has 3 UN intangible cultural heritages and 18 national intangible cultural heritages. The three treasures of Lishui, Longquan Celadon, Longquan Sword, and Qingtian Stone Carving are famous in China and abroad. There are 257 national-level traditional villages in the city. It is the area with the largest number of ancient villages and the most complete style in East China. It is known as the “last secret place in the south of yangzi river”. In addition, the overseas Chinese culture, She minority culture and photography culture of Lishui are unique local cultural brands.    

Lishui is also a famous hometown for overseas Chinese. The population of Lishui is less than one twentieth of the whole province, but the proportion of overseas Chinese in Lishui exceeds one fifth of the whole province. Currently, there are 415,000 overseas Chinese, covering more than 130 countries and regions in five continents. They are an important bridge to build up friendship between Lishui and foreign countries.