Datong Economy

The GDP per capita was ¥10550 (ca. US$1270) per annum in 2003, ranked no. 242 among 659 Chinese cities. Coal mining is the dominant industry of Datong.Its history and development are very much linked to this commodity.

Development zones Datong Economic and Technological Development Zone

Due to its strategic position it is also an important distribution and warehousing center for Shanxi, Hebei and Inner Mongolia.China Briefing Business Guide.

Datong is an old fashioned coal mining city in China, and still sits on significant reserves of this commodity. Consequently it has developed a reputation as one of China’s most polluted cities. The Datong Coal Mining Group is based here and is China’s third largest such enterprise. Datong is indeed however an emerging economy, as the city seeks to loosen its dependence on coal, introduce more environmentally friendly and efficient methods of extraction and move into other areas of business services. Local government has continued to upgrade its pillar coal sector (and related industries like coal chemicals, power and metallurgy), while also developing "substitute industries" such as machinery manufacturing, tourism and distribution, warehousing and logistics services. This has had some impact. Datong's GDP grew by 11 percent in 2007 to RMB45.5 billion. China Briefing Business Guide: Datong Economy.

While coal will continue to dominate, Datong has been identified as one of the key cities requiring redevelopment, with part of this being in environmental cleanup, rehabilitation and industrial refocusing. Datong is a pilot city for rehabilitation studies following years of pollution. To this end it has already struck up strong relationships with other cities worldwide with similar backgrounds, and has begun plans, for example, to develop a tourism base focused on steam engine technology with antique locomotives to be used along designated tracks.China Briefing Business Guide: Datong Economy.

Datong has a large railway locomotive works, where the 'Aiming Higher' class of steam locomotive was built as late as the 1970s, possibly the last place that still constructs steam engines.

Special Touring Regions: