About the Local People of Beijing

Population, Ethnic Groups and Religions

Some 10.998 million people are registered as permanent residents of Beijing. These, plus a transient population of an estimated 3 million, make the population density in the urban sector of the municipality reach 27,358 people per square kilometers. The local population consist of all the 56 ethnic groups if the Chinese nation. Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicism and Christianity are the prevalent religious beliefs in the Chinese capital, of which Buddhism, Taoism and Islam have exerted a great influence on the history and culture of Beijing. There are 103 sites for religious worshiping in the city, and 320,000 Beijing residents are religious believers.

People's livelihood

In 1999, disposable incomes for Beijing residents averaged 9,182.8 yuan per capita, up from 501 yuan in 1980. The 1999 net incomes for rural residents amounted to 4,316.4 yuan per capita. The year-end balance of savings deposits of urban and rural residents rose from 1.44 billion yuan in 1980 to 268.07 billion yuan of 1999. In 1999, expenditure on food for Beijing households amounted to 2,595 yuan per capita, including 731 yuan spent on clothing and 794 yuan on durable goods. In every 100 households there were 141.4 color television sets, 102.8 refrigerators, 99.6 washing machines, 23.5 personal computers, 38.2 video disc players, 5.6 video cameras, 49.9 air conditioners and 12.9 mobile phones.

With advancement in economy and improvement in living standards, the need of the Beijing people for intellectual and cultural activities is constantly on the rise. Many of them now care more of their self-improvement than in the past. For this reason, participation in various technical training courses has become a fashion. In recent years, there has been a great increase in per capita expenses on education and recreational activities. Tours of other parts of China are becoming increasingly hot, while outbound tours are becoming popular.

Health Care and Medical Service

In 1999, Beijing had 5,990 hospitals, clinics and health centers with a total of 68,000 beds. In accordance with the established rules, these operate at the city, district (county), and town and neighborhood levels, separately. Medical practitioners numbered 116.600 in total. There were, on an average, 4.79 doctors and six hospital beds for every 1,000 residents. To put in a nutshell, in health care and medical services, Beijing has attained the advanced standard for developing countries. Work is being done to ensure that all neighborhoods will have a medical center by 2001. Doctors in Beijing have scored several world-leading achievements in medicine, and they are as good or nearly as so in fields like neurosurgery, ophthalmology, oto laryngology and pediatrics.

Labor and Social Security

Along with the economic restructuring in urban areas, Beijing has embarked on a comprehensive reform of its social security system, and has instituted the old-age pension system, the unemployment insurance system and the health insurance scheme covering major cases of illness for urban enterprise employees and retirees.

Personal Insurance

Currently, some 51.1% of Beijing families have insured themselves against various personal risks, of which personal insurance accounts for 69.6%; endowment insurance, 53.4%; life insurance, 47.4%; insurance against major diseases and accidents, 38.3% and 29.3% respectively.

Transportation, Tele-communication and Public Utilities

At the end of 1999, there were 14,729 vehicles in operation in the mass transit system that had 322 routes totaling 74,670 kilometers in length. At present, Beijing's subway system has two lines in operation, the Straight Line and the Loop Line, which total 53 kilometers in length and handle a daily traffic of 1.20 million passengers. Beijing's postal service sector has a total of over 100,000 kilometers of postal routes and handles over 8.2 million pieces of mail per day. Beijing's telecommunication network consists of a local telephone network a capacity of 7.55 million phones, an international and domestic telephone network with nearly 123,200 terminals, a network of key optical cables of 12,000 kilometers, a ground satellite reception station able to relay Chinese and foreign TV programs on 20 channels simultaneously. The city is also fitted with multi-media and Internet service facilities. Beijing's capacity of water supply has reached 3.058 million cubic meters per day, including 2.75 million cubic meters for downtown areas. Daily consumption of water by urban residents exceeds 133.15 liters per day.

Nearly 2.678 million households all over the city have access to clean fuels like natural gas, coal gas and liquefied petroleum gas. At the end of 1999, the area covered by centralized heating systems exceeded 41.45 million square meters; the length of the key pipelines of centralized heating systems exceeded 284 kilometers, and there were 1,151 heating centers in operation. Now, Beijing tops the nation in terms development of centralized heat supply.

Housing and Commerce

The floor space completed in 1999 of all kinds of building totaled 23.215 million square meters. Beijing residents each have a living space of 15.44 square meters on an average. In 1999, the gross commodity sales volume of Beijing amounted to 265-86 billion yuan, and the gross purchase volume reached 232.71 billion yuan. Currently, there are 241,000 commercial outlets throughout the city. These include more than 80 large shopping centers with a business space of over 10,000 square meters for each, and 943 urban and rural markets of all types. The aggregate retail sales volume for consumer goods in Beijing amounted to 131.33 billion yuan in 1999.

On-line shopping, TV purchasing, home delivery by sales agents, and chain operations have been developing rapidly. Some 1.25 million men and women are working in the commercial sector, accounting for 20.1% of those in the city who are fully employed.

Culture, Education and Sports

Beijing is home to a great number of top writers and artists. Many of its excellent films and TV programs, plays and literary works have won various top prizes in the country. It boasts the first-class museums and the most valuable cultural relics. It has reaped gratifying achievements in art, mass culture, cultural market and facilities building, journalism, radio, and television broadcasting, etc. Beijing's education has been well developed. Currently, there are 64 institutes of higher learning with over 230,000 students. Over the past two decades, schools of higher learning in Beijing have produced nearly 620,000 graduates. In basic education, there are 754 high schools with 630,000 students and 2352 primary schools with nearly 840,000 pupils, suggesting that 99.95% of

The school-age children are in school. Since 1998, all primary school graduates have been able to enter junior high schools in the vicinity of their homes without examination. Beijing has been a forerunner in pushing the nine-year compulsory education scheme that began as early as in 1993. Adult and vocational education has received a broad attention in Beijing from the city's government and people of all walks of life. Beijing now boasts a multi-level and multi-form educational system that offers secondary- and higher-level vocational education, technical education, on-job training for workers, farmers and government functionaries, higher TV education, self-learning university courses, in addition to numerous community-run schools. Over 1.08 million professionals who has been relieved from their original posts were trained through the "Adult Education & Training Project" of Beijing during the period of eighth Five-year Plan. In 1999, over 80,000 laid-off workers were trained through the project, and 6,200 of them received training for free.

There are 25 amateur sports schools and 3 secondary sports schools. Sports facilities for professionals and the public are found all the city, in both the urban and rural areas of Beijing. These number 5.750 in total, including 40 large-sized well-equipped gymnasiums.

Gardening & Afforestation, Environmental Protection

Great achievements to the marvel of the world have been made in Beijing's gardening and greening. At present, there are 24,285 hectares of urban green space in completed area. The city proper is surrounded by over 5,000 hectares of greened strips outside the Fifth Ring Road. Up to now, there are 134 parks and scenic spots throughout the city. Covering a combined area of 4,320 hectares. The green space coverage of the city proper and outskirts is 35.3% , which averages 8.22 square meters for each resident. In 1992, Beijing won the honorific title "garden- like city" from the Ministry of Construction Since 1990, the Municipal Government has invested over 26 billion yuan in building of environment-related infrastructure facilities. For a total improvement of the environment, the government has formulated the Objectives and Measures for The Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution in Beijing (Outline) and intensified its effort in this regard.