(Provided to People's Daily Online)

(1) Advantageous geographic location

Pu'er is situated at the golden forefront of the "bridgehead" for China's opening-up to the world, and the central area of the Lancang River – Mekong River Sub-region Cooperation and the China-ASEAN Free Trade Zone.

It shares with Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar the "same sources for mountains and rivers", long-standing and well-established economic and trade cooperation and cultural and personnel exchanges with these countries.

Lancang River –Mekong River which runs through Pu'er City and connect Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam acts as an important hub for China's exchanges with ASEAN countries. The Kunming-Bangkok Expressway passes through Pu'er; the Yuxi-Mohan railway will start its construction at the end of this year; the three Yunnan-Guangxi border railways which are incorporated in the national and provincial "Twelfth Five-year Plan" and long and medium-term planning as well will pass Pu'er; and Pu'er Airport, Lancang Airport and Jingdong Airport are being carried forward in terms of their construction.

In Pu'er, there are 18 roads leading to Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam. Also, there is Simao Port - a national Class A waterway port, Menglian Port- a national Class B waterway port, Mengkang Port and Futong Terminal at Jiangcheng County in Pu'er. Moreover, in Pu'er, there are 28 flights flying to Kunming every week and 1 flight flying nonstop to Beijing every day.

With the construction of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Zone, the further promotion of Mekong River Sub-regional Cooperation and the full operation of the great international passage, Pu'er will become the forefront for China's opening-up to Southeast Asia.

As the "bridgehead" is formally included into the national development strategy, making Yunnan a new hot spot for development of the western regions, Pu'er is also facing unprecedented development opportunities as a regional international city shouldering historical missions in cooperation between China and ASEAN.