Sitting in the south of Haiyan, Ganpu got its name from the following description, “In Haiyan, there is a mountain Qinwang, near which a river Ganpu runs.” Around the town there is the Hangzhou Bay on the east and south, Qinshan Sub-district on the northeast, Tongyuan Town on the north and Haining City on the west. Near the town are all economically developed regions along the north bank of the Hangzhou Bay and the regions in the core of the south of the Yangtze River Delta with Shanghai as the center.

As early as 2010, Ganpu began efforts to build an ecologically friendly town. In recent years it has set a target to build a “delicately beautiful town” in response to the construction of Beautiful China and water quality improvement. Tourists here can enjoy tea in the tea garden, local opera in Gandong Village and the view of Zijin Mountain. Now Ganpu is a provincial-level beautiful town for its effort in water quality improvement and a provincial-level rural model town.

While keeping environment beautiful, Ganpu also focuses on improving industrial quality. It has phased out outdated capacities such as dyeing and chemical industries, and introduced and developed new material industry and equipment manufacturing. After more than 40 years of development, it has established an industrial system with top-end enterprises and regional features, mainly composed of high-end equipment manufacturing, new energy (photovoltaic industry), clothing, textile, precision metal cutting tools and mechanical manufacturing with Changqiangshan Industry Park and Liuli Industry Park as the main development platforms. Based on good location and the development of Changqiangshan Industry Park, the town has attracted a number of top industrial enterprises in recent years such as Zhejiang Zhongtuo New Material Sci-tech Co., Ltd., SikaDavco (Zhejiang) New Material Co., Ltd., Nissei Plastic Industry (Haiyan) Co., Ltd., Zhejiang Yalei shaped Cold Drawing Co., Ltd., and Jiaxing Lifutong New Material Sci-tech Co., Ltd. Meanwhile, local enterprises have enlarged investments, expanded production scales and accelerated transformation and upgrading.

In terms of agricultural development, the town has made full use of the advantages of its soil rich in selenium, focused on “healthcare” and grown rice and fruits rich in selenium, dendrobium officinale and Brazilian mushrooms. Besides, it has integrated agriculture and tourism; and now it is a provincial-level demonstration town integrating leisure agriculture and rural tourism. As to the tertiary industry, the town has developed tourism industry with Scenic Area of South-north Lake as the center.

In recent years Ganpu has worked hard to construct Future City of South-north Lake. Based on its one-year, three-year, five-year and ten-year development targets, Ganpu is intensifying efforts in the development of the Scenic Area of South-north Lake, Reclamation Area of Huangshawu and the downtown Ganpu to build an international modern future city that integrates urban and industrial development, and sci-tech, agricultural and cultural innovation, and a town that is desirable to live, work and travel in through high-quality planning, construction and management.

With a core area of 15 square kilometers, the Scenic Area of South-north Lake is located in the south of Haiyan. It is the only scenic area combing the scenery of the mountain, sea and lake in China, a national-level 4A tourist attraction, one of the first province-level scenic areas and one of the top ten optimal resorts in Zhejiang. It is surrounded on three sides by the mountains and one side by the sea. It was a lagoon formed in the period of Kingdom Wu (222-280). The Lake is divided into south part and north part by a causeway. According to Liu Bowen (1311－1375)-a famous militarist, litterateur and geomancer of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), the Lake was the place where the southern dragon entered the sea.

The South-north Lake enjoys a long history and splendid culture. In the past it was called Yongan Lake, Ganhu Lake, Gaoshi Lake and Small West Lake. According to Ganshui Annals, “Yongan Lake is located 2.5 kilometers away from the southwest of Ganpu, and about 10 kilometers long and wide. Around the Lake there are mountains. A causeway divides the Lake, where tourists come here for rowing and sightseeing. It is also called Small West Lake.” Yang Zi, who was born in the Yuan Dynasty (1271~1368) and the founder of “Haiyan Opera”, once sang and danced his wife and concubines on the boat of the Lake and wrote Yongan Lake into the songs. Chen Congzhou, a famous garden expert of China, once made a comment on the Lake as follows, “Looking at the South-north Lake, you can find its mountains well-ranged, rivers winding and sea striking. It is more graceful than the Slender West Lake in Yangzhou, and more exquisite than the West Lake in Hangzhou. It integrates the beauty of the both.”