Economy

Economy Overview
The funding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 marked the starting point for the economic development of New China. From 1953 to 2019, China has successively completed thirteen Five-Year Plans and accomplished remarkable achievements, laying a solid foundation for national economic development. Since the economic reform and opening up of China in 1979, China’s economy has experienced an unprecedented rapid growth. Furthermore, the nation has maintained a steady and fast growth rate after entering the 21st century. In 2019, the gross domestic product (GDP) in China was 99,086.5 billion yuan, an increase of 6.1% over the previous year at comparable prices. The total value of China’s primary industries was 7,046.7 billion yuan, an increase of 3.1% over the previous year. Secondary sector industries were valued at a total of 38,616.5 billion yuan, an increase of 5.7%. Lastly, the added value of the tertiary industry in China reached 53,423.3 billion yuan, an increase of 6.9%. China has now become one of the world’s largest economies with the greatest potential for development; and Chinese people's living standards have reached a moderately prosperous level.

The cultural and tourism industry benefited from the overall economic situation, and has become an indispensable driving force for China's economic development. By the end of 2019, in the national, cultural, and tourism systems there were 2,072 art performance groups and 3,410 museums. Nationwide, there were 3189 public libraries with a total circulation of 877.74 million. Also in 2019, there were 3,325 cultural centers throughout the country and 212 million cable TV users, of which 198 million were digital TV users. The coverage rate of radio programs was 99.1% and the rate of TV program coverage was 99.4%. Throughout the year, 10646 episodes of 254 TV series and 94,659 minutes of TV cartoons were broadcast. 850 feature films and 187 other films were produced, including science films, educational films, documentaries, animations, and high-tech films. China has published 31.5 billion copies of newspapers, 2.2 billion copies of periodicals, 10.2 billion copies of books, and 7.29 copies of books per capita. By the end of the 2019 year, there were 4,136 archives nationwide, and 143.41 million volumes of files and documents accessible to the public. The total revenue of cultural and related industries in 2019 reached 8662.4 billion yuan, a 7.0% increase over the previous year on a comparable basis.

In the whole year of 2019, the number of domestic tourists was 6.01 billion, an increase of 8.4% over the previous year; and domestic tourism revenue was 5,725.1 billion yuan. This means domestic tourism revenue went up by 11.7% from the year prior. The total number of inbound tourists was 145.31 million (2.9% up), of which 31.88 million were foreign tourists (4.4% up). There were 113.42 million tourists from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan (2.5% up) in the 145.31 million inbound tourists. In terms of inbound overnight tourists there were 65.73 million (4.5% up). International tourism revenue has reached 131.3 billion US dollars, an increase of 3.3%. The number of outbound tourists of Chinese citizens was 169.21 million (4.5% up). Among the outbound trips, 162.11 million trips (4.6% up) were made for private purposes, and 102.37 million (3.2% up) of them were trips to Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan.

With sustained economic development and cultural prosperity, China continues to warmly welcome tourists from all over the world to visit!