ABSTRACT
The Eastern Coastal Region has been correctly characterized as the most developed part of China. The Seventh Five-Year Plan envisages that, because it is the most industrialized region, it will take the lead in the modernization of traditional industries and the training of industrial personnel , as well as the introduction of new high-tech industries to China. However, the region is far from homogeneous. The north-eastern provinces of Liaoning , Jilin and Heilongjiang have had a long (pre revolutionary) tradition of heavy industrial development. Jiangsu , Zhejiang and Guangdong, in the south-east, have had an even longer established reputation for agricultural and light industrial products . In contrast, and apparently atypically for a province in the Eastern Coastal Region, Shandong is somewhat undeveloped and unindustrialized. This chapter considers the development of Shandong (which is roughly in the centre of the Eastern Coastal Region) in order to illuminate the problems associated with both the northern and the southern parts of the region.
