Covering an area of 168,000 square kilometers and with a permanent population of 14,564,000, Beijing is the political, cultural and international contacts center of China. Beijing is one of the strongest cities of China in terms of comprehensive strength. In 2003, the total output value of Beijing reached 361.19 billion Yuan, up 10.5% from the preceding year. The economic growth rate have maintained above 10% for five consecutive years.

Foundational industries including auto, electromechanical, chemical and steel industries have achieved a considerable economic scale. The high- and new-technology sector such as electronics and IT have formed remarkable industrial scale, which is taking the lead in China and keeping a high growth rate.

Beijing is the city with the most developed tertiary industry in China. In 2003, the added value achieved in the financial and insurance industry, commerce, real estate industry and postal/communication industry accounted for 23.2%, 12.2%, 8.4% and 7.8% of the whole tertiary industries respectively.

Beijing is the city with the most flourishing and developed science and technology, education and culture in China. Beijing has over 4000 scientific research institutions and 73 colleges and universities, with a total of 460,000 college and university students, 120,000 postgraduate students and 260,000 secondary vocational study students. The ratio of the total students of colleges, universities and above to the total population in Beijing reaches 3.98%. Beijing is the largest scientific research base nationwide and an important collecting and distributing center of both domestic and international scientific and technological information.