Description

Baiyin is a medium-sized city in Gansu province (Gansu), one of the 12 less-developed provinces and autonomous regions targeted under the Western Development Strategy of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city was originally established as a national copper mining base in the 1950s but its socioeconomic development suffered major setbacks after continuous copper exploitation and depletion, and environmental degradation. Since the Eleventh Five-Year Plan 2006-2010, Baiyin received special support from the national and provincial governments to jumpstart its industrial transformation. The goal was to transform Baiyin from a resource-exhausted mining city into a new industrial center through technology upgrading and diversification of existing production chains, while achieving efficient use of resources and reducing adverse impacts on the environment.