Tianjin Binhai New Area (TBNA) is situated north of the North China Plain, at the junction of the Shandong and Liaodong peninsulas, close to Beijing and Tianjin. There are 11 large cities within a 500-kilometer circumference of the area, each with a population of more than one million people.
Tianjin Binhai New Area occupies a core position in the Bohai Economic Rim, facing Japan and the Korean Peninsula across the sea.
The new area has abundant natural resources and boasts l,200 square kilometers of saline and alkaline wasteland expansive enough for eco-improvement and construction. The area has 100 square kilometers of usable water surface and wetland. It is also rich in petroleum and natural gas. The area has more than 10 billion tons of verified oil resources, 193.7 billion cubic meters of natural gas deposits, and an annual output of 2.4 million tons of crude salt.
TBNA has built a comprehensive traffic network composed of highways, railways and shipping routes. The network plays an important role in connecting China's various regions as well as providing a platform to reach the outside world. Tianjin is expected to become a hub connecting expressways between Beijing and Shenyang, Beijing and Shanghai expressways, and Tangshan and Tianjin. The city will become a major access point to North China.
Tianjin Binhai International Airport, with its recently completed expansion project, will play a significant role as a domestic trunk line airport and international freight airport. The airport is expected to develop into a collection and distribution center for North China and Northeast Asia.
Located in Tanggu district of Tianjin municipality, at the estuary of the Haihe River, Tianjin Port is the largest artificial port in China. Situated along the central part of the west coast of the Bohai Sea, the port is 170 km away from Beijing and 60 km away from downtown Tianjin. It is an important foreign trade port for Beijing and Tianjin. The port also serves as a container port along shipping lines and modern logistics center for the nation.
Tianjin Binhai New Area is home to industrial clusters with distinct advantages. Dominated by secondary and tertiary industries, the area is home to 219 Fortune 500 companies. Industrial clusters are taking shape in processing and manufacturing industries and the service industry. Secondary industrial zones are currently distributed along the coastline, the Tianjin-Tanggu highway, and the banks of the Haihe River, forming a cross-shaped, industry-concentrated belt.
Tertiary industry enterprises, including logistics, finance, trade, information service and tourism companies, are distributed in a logistics service zone centered around Tianjin Port. The zone spans extended traffic lines and reaches the Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area, Tianjin Port Free Trade Zone and Tanggu district.
The industrial distribution of Binhai New Area can be briefly described as "one belt, six clusters and fourteen chains."
One industrial belt runs through the whole city. Tianjin municipality and Binhai New Area are located in the east section of the Beijing-Tianjin-Tanggu new and high-tech industrial belt. It is home to five State-level new and high-tech industrial zones, six modern manufacturing R&D clusters, and several higher-education institutions. The industrial belt boasts optimized infrastructure, five expressways and supporting facilities.
Tianjin municipality and Binhai New Area have six major industrial pillars and competitive industries. They include industrial clusters in the following fields: microelectronics, steel and metal, automobiles and components, chemical engineering, modern medicine, and new energy and high technology.
Fourteen industrial chains, including mobile communications products, microelectronics, automobile, electronic components and parts, white goods (or white household electric appliances), digital audio-visual products, automobiles, petrochemicals, marine chemical engineering, steel smelting and intensive processing, modern medicine, carbon black and rubber, bicycles and components, carpet manufacturing, green food processing, and new building materials.
The area has formed an innovative, multilayered science-tech system. There are 33 state-, provincial- and ministerial-level engineering centers, 80 enterprise technical research centers, 41 R&D centers for foreign investment, 52 postdoctoral working stations, and nine venture capital institutions. The output value of new and high-tech industries accounts for 47 percent of the total industrial output value in the zone.
Tsinghua University, Peking University, Nankai University, Tianjin University and other famous universities have set up research institutes and key laboratories here, which train and absorb a large number of high-caliber personnel with advanced technologies and modern management experience.
