Sanmenxia is located in the western part of Henan province and the Yellow River Golden Triangle of Henan, Shanxi and Shanxi Provinces. It is an emerging city that rose with the construction of the First Dam of the Yellow River, Sanmenxia Hydraulic Project in 1957. Now, it has six counties (city, district), one provincial economic development zone and one urban and rural integration demonstration area. Sanmenxia is 1,0496 square kilometers in area, ranking No.7 in Henan province and has a population of 2.3 million. Sanmenxia has successively won the titles of the Top Tourist City of China, National Landscape Garden City, National Forest City, and Top Ten Charming Chinese City. It’s also the first city in Henan to win the highest honor of comprehensive management of public security, Chang’an Cup. It’s honored as the Pearl of the Yellow River, the Holy Land in Culture and City of Swan.

 In recent years, Sanmenxia has vigorously implemented the plans of the central committee, provincial committee and government and municipal committee and government. Adhering to the keynote of seeking stabilized growth, led by the new development concept, centering on improving development quality and efficiency and focusing on building a high-quality inter-provincial regional center city, Sanmenxia has made great efforts in “the Third Entrepreneurship”, building “Colorful Sanmenxia” and “Three Places and Five Centers”, and accelerated the transformation and innovation development. The economy of Sanmenxia has developed faster and better, improved quality while maintaining stability. People’s livelihood has been improved continuously and various social undertakings have made significant progress. In 2018, the GDP of Sanmenxia reached 152.812 billion yuan, an increase of 8% year-on-year; the public budget income reached 12.02 billion yuan, an increase of 10.7%; industrial added value above designated size reached 62.25 billion yuan, an increase of 11.1%; total retail sales of consumer goods reached 53.374 billion yuan, an increase of 10.7%; the per capita disposable income of urban residents reached 29,822 yuan, an increase of 8.2%; the per capita disposable income of rural residents reached 14,262 yuan, an increase of 9%. All major economic indicators have entered the first square in Henan province.

In summary, the features of Sanmenxia are as follows:

First, unique location. Sanmenxia is located at the “west gate” of Henan province. From the geographical perspective, Sanmenxia borders Guanzhong in the west and the Central Plains in the east, which is a strategic point to leave Guanzhong and enter the Central Plains historically. The Xiaohan Ancient Route is famous for its steepness, and the Hangu Pass on the ancient route is so crucial that can be guarded with little force. In Sanmenxia, the Lanzhou-Lianyungang Railway, Zhengzhou-Xi'an High-speed Railway, Lianyungang-Khorgos Expressway, National Highway No.310 and Sanmenxia-Yangkou Railway (under construction) run from east to west, the National Highway No.209, San Xi Expressway, Haolebaoji-Ji'an Railway and Yuncheng-Shiyan High-speed Railway (under construction) connect the south and north, forming the “double crosses” of high-speed railway and expressway, the “double centers” of passenger and freight transportation and the large transportation network of estuaries to the east and south. Sanmenxia is a regional transportation hub connecting Henan, Shanxi and Shanxi. From the perspective of the regional economy, Sanmenxia is the convergence zone of the Central Plains Economic Region and the demonstration area of the Yellow River Golden Triangle of Henan, Shanxi and Shanxi’s Undertaking of Industrial Transfer. It borders the Central Plains Economic Region on the east, Guantian Economic Zone on the west and Taiyuan Economic Circle on the north, which is an important node city of the “belt and road” strategy.

Second, rich resource endowment. There are mainly two types of resources in Sanmenxia, one is mineral resources and the other is agricultural resources. In terms of mineral resources, 66 types of resources have been discovered, of which the dominant “yellow, white and black” resources: possible gold reserves are 1,000 tons, ranking second in China for both its reserves and output; bauxite reserves are 378 million tons, ranking third in Henan province; preservation of coal reserves are 1.1 billion tons, ranking fifth in Henan province. The agricultural resources are of various types and good quality, among which 16 agricultural products including the Lingbao apple, jujube, Lushi forsythia, fungus and Yangshao dried persimmon have won the title of National Geographical Indication Protective Products, ranking top in the whole country. With an annual output of 2.33 billion kilograms of high-quality apples, an annual processing capacity of 600,000 tons of fruit products and an annual production capacity of 400,000 tons of syrup, Sanmenxia ranks first among prefecture-level cities in China. In addition, Sanmenxia tobacco leaf is a famous and high-quality product in Henan province. Its tobacco leaf production has ranked first in Henan for many successive years and it’s the largest city of tobacco leaf production in Henan.

Third, solid industrial foundation. The modern industrial structure dominated by pillar industries include gold, aluminum industry, equipment manufacturing and coal chemical industry has been formed, accounting for over 80% of the industrial added value above designated size in Sanmenxia. The equipment manufacturing industry led by precision measuring instrument, hydraulic machinery, chemical pressure vessel and machine tool is fully reinforced. Sanmenxia is also the national manufacturing center of electric and steam measuring instrument, and its manufacturing ability and scale of chemical equipment rank first in Henan province and the forefront in China. At present, supported by the seven provincial-level industry clusters, Sanmenxia is actively developing the strategic emerging industries such as battery electric vehicle, biology, new material and new energy and trying to build the national influential industry base for gold, aluminum and aluminum intensive processing, coal chemical industry, sophisticated equipment manufacturing, motor vehicles and parts, new material, photovoltaic, new energy, enzyme, etc.

Fourth, profound cultural heritage. According to the legend, 4,000 years ago Great Yu controlled the waters and he cleaved the mountain into three canyons, namely the “men gate”, “sacred gate” and “ghost gate” to orient the Yellow River to the east, that’s where Sanmenxia (three-gate canyon) gets its name. Sanmenxia is where the Yangshao culture, Taoism, Guo Sate Culture, the surname Guo originated, where the Yellow Emperor built the Ding, where Laozi wrote Tao Te Ching, where Bodhidharma, the ancestor of Zen passed away, and where the embodiment of the Chinese national spirits, the tower of strength locates. There are 10 major historical and cultural sites protected at the national level, 33 historical and cultural sites protected at the provincial level and a collection of more than 70,000 cultural relics. The discovery of the fossil site of Shanghe Eosimias in Mianchi has made the appearance of anthropoid 10 million years earlier and even shaken the theory that “human beings originate from Africa”. Lingbo Xipo site is listed as one of the six major sites of projects to trace the origins of Chinese civilization. The three excavations of Yangshao cultural site, Miaodigou cultural site and Shangyang city, capital of Guo and cemetery were selected into the China's 100 major archaeological discoveries in the 20th century. Sanmenxia is also one of the major cities of “the trip of the Yellow River, the spirits of the Chinese nation” and the trip of “Chinese dynasties” initiated by the National Tourism Administration.

Fifth, good natural and ecological environment. Sanmenxia has colorful topographic and geomorphic conditions and is known to have around 50% mountains, 40% ranges and 10% plains. The forest coverage rate of Sanmenxia is 50.72%, ranking first in Henan province. There are four national forest parks and 6 provincial forest parks in Sanmenxia. It’s also the major city for ecological tourism in Henan province. The urban area is located on the peninsula extending along the banks of the Yellow River, “surrounded by mountains by all sides and waters by three sides”. The city and forest enhance each other’s beauty. The Swan Lake National Urban Wetland Park in the urban area has a total area of more than 10,000 acres and a water area of more than 3,000 acres, which is the largest city garden in northern China. Every year from the end of October to the beginning of March of the following year, thousands of white swans fly here from Siberia to spend the winter, forming an ecological picture of people living harmoniously with nature. Therefore, Sanmenxia is called “the Village of Swan in China”