Jiangmen (Chinese: 江门) is a prefecture-level city in Guangdong province in southern China with a population of about 4.48 million in 2010.
Jiangmen has various alternative romanisations including Kong-Moon, Kongmun or Kiangmoon. The area is alternately referred to as Siyi. The name Jiangmen is often the butt of jokes because both Jiangmen and Gāngmén (肛门), the scientific name for the anus, are pronounced identically as Gōngmùhn in Cantonese. One example which came to national attention in early 2012 was a colon cleansing service provider whose advertisement stated: "We wish the people of Jiangmen to have happy anuses"; Jiangmen residents complained that this slogan was uncivilised and insulting. As a result there have been some proposals to change the name of the city, for example a 2009 proposal to change it to "Qiaodu" (侨都, "City of Overseas Chinese").
The port of Jiangmen, was forced to open to western trade in 1902. One legacy of this period is an historic waterfront district lined with buildings in the treaty port style. The city has an ongoing renewal project which has restored many of these buildings.
Jiangmen was proclaimed a city in 1951, and later became the administrative capital of the prefecture for the Siyi region which includes Taishan, Kaiping, Xinhui, Enping and Heshan.
The city is located on the lower reaches of the Xijiang or West River, in the west of the Pearl River Delta in the middle of southern Guangdong Province. It faces the South China Sea in the south and is 100 kilometres (62 mi) away from Guangzhou and Zhuhai by highway. Jiangmen city has an area of 9,260 square kilometres (3,580 sq mi), about one quarter the size of the Pearl River Delta.
The climate is subtropical with monsoonal influences. The annual average temperature is 21.8 °C (71.2 °F).
Jiangmen was selected by the Chinese state as a pilot city for a nationwide information programme. It was also chosen by the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) as a trial city for the Regional Integration for Sustainable Economics (RISE) project. According to the "Report on Investment Environment in China 2003" by the World Bank, Jiangmen ranked the fourth after Shanghai, Hangzhou and Dalian of 23 cities under evaluation in China. Among various indicators, Jiangmen excelled in infrastructure, labour redundancy, proportion of joint ventures in all firms, informal payments to government, taxation, productivity and the investment rate.
The economic development strategies within Jiangmen focus on the three urban districts, and the south, middle and north lines. It is planned to develop four main economic areas: the central urban district of the city, the Yinzhou Lake (银州湖) economic area, and two economic areas along the various transport axes.
Similar to other cities in the western Pearl River Delta, the manufacturing sector plays a significant role in Jiangmen's economy. The chief industries include manufacturing of motorcycles, household appliances, electronics, paper, food processing, synthetic fibers and garments, as well as textiles and stainless steel products. Some worldwide brand names have factories in Jiangmen including Haojue motorcycles, Jingling fan/washing machines, Vinda toilet paper, ABB Group and Lee Kum Kee foods.
The city was the proposed site of a $6.5 billion, 40 billion renminbi, uranium processing plant which would have supplied about half of the enriched uranium needed by China's nuclear power plants. Announcement of the plant in July, 2013 was met by public protests.The proposal was withdrawn out of "respect for public opinion" shortly thereafter.
Jiangmen Port is the second largest river port in Guangdong province. The local government plans to develop a harbour industrial zone with heavy industries to include petrochemical and machinery plants, as well as an ocean-based economy.
Jiangmen has a mature network of inter-city highway (between Guangzhou, Foshan, Zhuhai, Zhongshan, Yangjiang etc.). It sits astride a key route between Guangzhou and the southwest region of its home province, and also Guangxi Province.
A network of intra-city roadways has been built since the late 1990s to facilitate industrial integration within the city.
Railways came to Jiangmen failry recently. The city is served by the Xinhui branch of the Guangzhou–Zhuhai Intercity Mass Rapid Transit (opened 2011), which provides frequent service to Guangzhou South Railway Station, where connections to the nation's high-speed railway network are available. Since the late 2012, Jiangmen is also served by the freight-only Guangzhou–Zhuhai Railway.
Making use of the Jiangmen Port facilities, Chu Kong Passenger Transport (CKS) connects Jiangmen with high speed ferry services to Hong Kong (95 nautical miles) taking about 2.5 hours each way.
Wuyi University is the main university in Jiangmen.
Jiangmen No.1 Middle School is claimed to be the top middle school in the district, was one of the best middle school in Guangdong Province in 1980s~1990s. However in recent years the quality of its education has been dropping and in the district of Jiangmen, its status has been constantly challenged by Xinhui No.1 Middle School in Xinhui, Kaiqiao (Kaiping Emigrant) Middle School in Kiaping and Heshan No.1 Middle School in Heshan etc.
Jiangmen is the homeland of 3.68 million overseas Chinese, who live in 107 countries and regions throughout the world. Strong oversea connections are especially found in the villages.
A significant amount of historical heritage survives from the period of mass emigration prior to World War II. The most significant are the fortified multi-story towers found mainly in Kaiping. These are known as "Gold Mountain Towers" or diaolou. Number of natural Hotspring resorts has been developed successfully by using its wealthy natural heated ground water resources such as Gudou Hotspring Resort (古兜温泉).
The local government's economic development strategies emphasize the development of tourism and protection of the environment.
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