Special Report: Jia Qinglin Visits Four European Countries

    BEIJING, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Jia Qinglin, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, is paying a visit to Slovenia.

    Here are some basic facts about Slovenia and its bilateral relations with China.

    Located in central-south Europe, Slovenia is bound by the Gulf of Trieste to the southwest, Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast and Croatia to the south and southeast. It has an area of 20,273 square kilometers.

    Slovenia has a moderately continental climate inland with cold winters and warm summers while along the coast the climate can be described as subtropical Mediterranean.

    The Slovenes, the leading ethnic majority in the nation, account for 91 percent of the about 2-million population. Other ethnic minorities include Italians, Hungarians, Croats, Czechs, Slovaks and Germans.

    The official language is Slovene. Other minority languages include Italian, Serbo-Croatian, Czech, Slovak and German.

    Slovenia established diplomatic relations with China on May 12,1992. Since then, the two countries have witnessed a smooth development of bilateral relations and frequent high-level exchanges between the two countries.

    Bilateral trade between the two countries have increased rapidly in recent years. In 2006, bilateral trade volume reached 543 million U.S. dollars, an increase of 67.7 percent over the same period of previous year.