Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is to pay an official visit to Finland from Sept. 9-12, during which he will meet with Finnish officials on ways of promoting comprehensive Sino-Finnish cooperation and attend the 9th China-EU summit and the sixth Asia-Europe Summit. The following is a brief introduction to the country:

Finland lies in northern Europe, it borders Sweden on the northwest, Norway on the north and Russia on the east. Bounded by the Baltic Sea on the southwest, it has a total area of over 338,000 square km, one third of which is found within the Arctic Circle.

The climate of Finland is marked by cold winters and fairly warm summers. Finland has population of 5.22 million; most of them live in the south where the climate is mild.

Ten percent of Finland's area is covered by water and it has around 188,000 lakes. Some 179,000 islands are scattered off its 1100 km of coastline.

With two thirds of its area covered by forest, the country is extremely rich in forestry resources, wood and paper products, and forestry machinery has become one of its economic pillars.

Finland experienced a significant boost to its national economy with the growth of its forestry and metal industries after the end of WWII, and it now leads the world in the fields of energy, communication, biotech and environmental protection.

In 2003, Finland was named "the most competitive country in the world" for the year 2003-2004 by the World Economic Forum.

China and Finland established diplomatic relations in October 1950. Bilateral relations have developed smoothly, with multiple exchanges of high-level visits and contacts.

Economic and trade links between the two countries have progressed vigorously in recent years and Finland became China's largest trade partner in northern Europe in 2004. In 2005, bilateral trade volume topped 6.25 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 13.4 percent on a yearly basis.