Tonghua city in Northeast China's Jilin province. [Photo/sipaphoto.com]

Located in the southeast of Jilin province in Northeast China, Tonghua city covers an area of 15,600 square kilometers with a total population of 2.15 million.

The city administers seven cities, counties and districts: Meihekou city, Ji'an city, Huinan county, Liuhe county, Tonghua county, Dongchang district and Erdaojiang district, as well as one national medicine high-tech zone and five provincial development zones.

Tonghua has a long history and profound rich heritage. It has a recorded history of more than 6,000 years and was the birthplace of the Koguryo culture and the shaman culture.

The Koguryo Kingdom Relics Park scenic area in Tonghua. [Photo/sipaphoto.com]

The first aviation school and the engineering school of the People's Liberation Army were established there and it is also the hometown of Gao Zhihang, who is hailed as the father of the Chinese air force.

With a forest coverage of 67.15 percent, Tonghua has rich natural resources. It is hailed as the hometown of traditional Chinese medicine, wine, ginseng, high-quality rice, Songhua inkstone and the winter sport of skiing. It also has five national-level forest parks and six national-level nature reserves.

Tonghua is hailed as the hometown of ginseng in China. [Photo/tonghua.gov.cn]

Located in the heart of the Northeast Asian economic circle, Tonghua faces the Democratic People's Republic of Korea across the Yalu River. It is an open border city and a trade and logistics center, as well as a regional transportation hub in Northeast China.

The city boasts an active private economy and has three pillar industries -- medicine, food and tourism -- as well as the three other major industries of metallurgy, building materials and equipment manufacturing.

There are more than 80 pharmaceutical companies above designated size in the city -- those with annual revenue of 20 million yuan ($2.8 million) or more.

The Shougang Tonggang Limited Company is the largest steel company in Jilin province, while Tonghua wine has a history of nearly 100 years and was the only official wine for the founding ceremony of the People's Republic of China. It has also seen rapid development of new material industries such as basalt fiber, graphene and fullerene.

The city also encourages innovation and was rated as one of the top 100 cities in the country for its innovative abilities. It has also been rated as an intellectual property pilot city, a smart city pilot city, as well as an outstanding city for green development.

In 2020, the city's regional GDP was 107.07 billion yuan ($16.45 billion).