Kyoto


Kyoto is a city located in the central part of the island of Honshu, Japan, about 370 kilometers away from Tokyo and 45 kilometers from Osaka respectively. Being the largest inland city in Japan, Kyoto covers an area of 827.9 square kilometers with a population of 14,740,000.

In the end of the 8th century, Emperor Kanmu relocated Japanese capital to Heiankyo (now Kyoto). In 1869, the capital of Japan was again moved from Kyoto to Tokyo.

Kyoto is a famous ancient capital and a tourist destination, with about 17 locations on the UNESCO World Heritage list, such as Kiyomizu, Kinkaku-ji, Ginkaku-ji, Kamigamo Shrine, Shimogamo Shrine, Nijō Castle and Nishi Honganji, etc. receiving about 500,000 foreign and 35,000,000 domestic visitors annually.

Kyoto used to be one of the largest manufacturing cities in Japan, with its producing of precision apparatus, semiconductor element and storage battery accounting for a higher ratio of the market. The service industry including wholesale, retail and catering services also form a large part of Kyoto’s economy.

As a birthplace of Japanese culture, Kyoto has many academic centers and houses 38 institutions of higher education like Kyoto University, Kyoto Prefectural University, Ritsumeikan University and Doshisha University, etc. with a total school population of 1,240,000.

Kyoto became a sister city of Xi’an on May 10, 1974 and the present mayor is Daisaku Kadokawa.