We have talked before about big Chinese cities. We now move
to the southwest of the country, where we find a city that is quite peculiar for a number of reasons: Guiyang.
Guiyang is the capital and largest city of Guizhou Province, one of Chinese poorest regions.
Its population of 5 million people (the metropolitan area included) gives an idea of its relevance, but it is so, for many more reasons. Readers of the first S3 Newsletters might remember how we used to participate in the Alcoholic Beverages Fair in Guiyang, an event aimed at promoting (among others) the city’s most emblematic industry: the one of Moutai, a very prestigious brand of baijiu, China’s liquor based on fermented sorghum.
In fact, the relevance of Kweichow Moutai, producer of this (for Western tastes; quite strong) beverage, is so big that a few months ago it suddenly became the world’s most valuable alcoholic drinks company. It jumped ahead of the British giant Diageo, a huge conglomerate with brands like Smirnoff, Johnny Walker, Baileys and Guinness. Currently, the valuation of Kweichow Moutai stands at some 128 billion euros. Peanuts!
But Guiyang is not only about traditions or Mao Zedong’s favor drink, the city and region are also known for state-of-the-art developments.
Last year China finalized work on the world’s largest monoparabolical radio telescope(known as FAST), located near the city. With a diameter of 500 meters it is capable of capturing radio frequencies as far away as no less than 10.000 light years.
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Sources: Wikipedia