Westchester County, locally known as Westchester, is located in the southeastern area of New York State, America. Westchester covers an area of 450 square miles (1,200 km2), consisting of 48 municipalities. Westchester County has 6 cities, 19 towns and 23 villages. According to the 2010 Census , the county had a population of 949,113, estimated to have increased by 2.1% to 968,802 by 2013. The county, established in 1683, was named after the city of Chester, England . The county's location places New York City and the Long Island Sound to its south, Putnam County to its north, Fairfield County, Connecticut to its east and Rockland County as well as New Jersey to the west across the Hudson River .
According to 2011 U.S. Census Bureau data, the per-capita income in the county was $47,814 and the median income for a household in the county was $77,006. In terms of household income, Westchester County is the fifth-wealthiest county in New York (after Nassau , Putnam, Suffolk , and Rockland Counties) and is the forty-seventh wealthiest county nationally. Westchester County ranks second after New York County in terms of highest median income per person, with a higher concentration of incomes in smaller households.
Westchester has full range of industrial sectors，and many Top 500 companies and big multinational companies set the headquarters and branch offices here, such as IBM, MasterCard, Swiss Re-insurance Company American Branch, American Online, Pepsi Cola, Hitachi, Bayer, Abitibi-Price Sales Commercial Corporation, Akzo Chemie American Chemical Company, AVON, Cadus Medical Company, Clevepak, Computor City Company, Compusa, Computor Factory, Chicago and North Western Railway, Dannon Dairy Company, Fujifilm Company, Gabelli Funds, Toshiba Corporation, IP Tiberlands, ITT Automotive Engineering Industrial Corporation, Kame-Miller, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Lillian Vemon, Malcolm Pimie, Environmental Protection Engineering Consulting Firm, MBIA Finance and Insurance Corporation, Paxar, Royal Copenhagen, Siemens, Home Care Company in the United States and so on.
According to the regional economic experts from New York State labor's department, due to the rapid economic development, the non-agricultural employee in Westchester reached 423,000 up to June 2000, achieved the highest record.
Westchester has developed education. Westchester County contains 48 public school districts , 118 private college-preparatory and parochial schools, and 14 colleges and universities. There are 30 schools has been rated as national excellent schools by the U.S. Department of Education. The university graduation rates are high, and some schools even reach 100%. From the year 1998 to 1999, about 89.1% of high school graduates entered universities or colleges.
In 1999, the people work in service industry accounted for 36%, the government official 15%, construction industry 6%, manufacturing 9%, traffic utilities 5%, wholesale and retail 22%, finance, insurance and real estate 7%
In 2001, the people work in information industry was about 18,000. Another important industry the biological technology industry developed rapidly and about 8000 people worked in this industry. Westchester is the most crowded place in New York State where the biological technology person works.
Introduced by Mrs. You Rong wanping, the President of Sino-American Economic, Trade and Culture Exchange Center, Jingzhou City and Westchester County contact each other since 1995. During 1996 and 1997, both city send high-level delegations and made mutual visits. In June 1998, our two cities formally established the sister city relationship. In recent years, the main friendly exchanges between our two cities are in city construction. Jingzhou has sent the delegations of urban construction and landscape construction training in America, and repeatedly invited Mr. Anthony, the chief of Bureau of Parks in Westchester, to provide guidance, so that Jingzhou accumulated valuable experience of city construction and landscape planning. In 1998, Jingzhou gave Westchester County a Chinese-style garden house and a part of supporting facilities. Westchester County also sent Jingzhou Children Welfare and Zhongshan Park the children's toys and entertainment facilities that worth tens of thousands Yuan.