As the provincial seat, Lanzhou has been a major commercial city and the tea-horse trade market on the Silk Road since ancient times. It is now developed into an important commodity distribution center in the west region. Lanzou has formed the industrial system of relatively full categories, with petroleum, chemical-making, machinery, metallurgy as four industrial pillars. It is one of the major bases for heavy chemical industry, energy and raw material production. In 2008, Lanzhou’s GDP reached RMB 84.628 billion, with a per capita GDP of RMB 15,051 against the permanent-resident population of 3.29 million.
With the opening of the New Eurasian Land Bridge, especially with the implementation of the West Development Strategy, Lanzhou has become even more prominent with its strategic position as the crucial channel for China-Western cooperation and exchanges and a major passage to central Asia, West Asia, the Middle East and Europe, and is playing an important role in connecting the east with the west, collaborating with the south in supporting the north. The building of a multi-level and normalized market system in Lanzhou is increasingly complete, with logistic service functions obviously improved, the flow of people, goods, funds, information relatively flourishing, and the structure of greater commerce, circulation and market initially formed, radiating 8 provinces, 4 million square kilometers and over 300 million people in the west region .