Xiangshan County, also spelled Hsiangshan, Siangshan, Heungsan, and Heungshan, was a former county in Southern China. Since 1912, it was a county in
Kwangtung Province
Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) a ...
("Guangdong"), in the
Republic of China
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...
. It was renamed
Zhongshan County
Zhongshan County (; za, Cunghsanh Yen) is a county in the northeast of Guangxi, China. It is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Hezhou
Hezhou () is a prefecture-level city in the northeast of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous ...
(then usually romanized "Chungshan") in April 1925, in honor of the founder of the Republic of China,
Sun Yat Sen
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radia ...
, a Xiangshan native.
The county covered the modern-day
Zhuhai City,
Zhongshan City
Zhongshan (; ) is a prefecture-level city in the south of the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong Provinces of China, province, China. As of the 2020 census, the whole city with 4,418,060 inhabitants is now part of the Guangzhou–Shenzhen conurbati ...
and a part of
Nansha District
Nansha District and Nansha New Area is one of 11 urban districts and a state-level new area of the prefecture-level city of Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province, China. It is the home of the present-day port of Guangzhou, as well as ...
of
Guangzhou City
Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kong ...
in the
Guangdong Province
Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...
of the
People's Republic of China (PRC), and the
Macau Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, formerly known as
Portuguese Macau until 1999.
History
The county consists of the entirety of
Xiangshan Island
Zhongshan Island, formerly also known as Macau Island
. ''The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia'' (6th ed. ...
, an island in a bay where three rivers emptied into the sea, part of the
Pearl River Delta
The Pearl River Delta Metropolitan Region (PRD; ; pt, Delta do Rio das Pérolas (DRP)) is the low-lying area surrounding the Pearl River estuary, where the Pearl River flows into the South China Sea. Referred to as the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Mac ...
. It was originally separated from the continent by the
distributaries in the delta, until it became a peninsula some time during the 17th century, but remained separated from the mainland by waterways.
Around the 8th century (during the
Tang Dynasty), a Xiangshan
Township was carved out of the Bao'an County and
Dongguan County
Dongguan (; ) is a prefecture-level city in central Guangdong Province, China. An important industrial city in the Pearl River Delta, Dongguan borders the provincial capital of Guangzhou to the north, Huizhou to the northeast, Shenzhen to the s ...
, at the present-day Shanchang () of
Zhuhai. Around the 12th century (during the
Northern Song Dynasty), this township became a separate county.
During the mid-16th century, in the
Ming Dynasty, the Portuguese settled in
Macau. This was permitted by the Ming dynasty, but despite the Portuguese presence, Macau was still under the jurisdiction of Xiangshan.
Matteo Ricci
Matteo Ricci, SJ (; la, Mattheus Riccius; 6 October 1552 – 11 May 1610), was an Italians, Italian Society of Jesus, Jesuit Priesthood in the Catholic Church, priest and one of the founding figures of the Jesuit China missions. He create ...
and Nicolas Trigault, '' De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas''. Page 140 in the English translation: Gallagher (1953). "China in the Sixteenth Century: The Journals of Matteo Ricci", Random House, New York, 1953. English translation of Trigault's Latin by Louis J. Gallagher. Ricci's transcription for "Xiangshan" is ''Hiam-Xan''.) Macau became a full Portuguese colony in 1847. This colony later expanded to include
Ilha Verde,
Taipa and
Coloane.
In December 1952, Yumin County () was created out of islands from Hsiang-shan County,
Pao-an County and
Tung-kuan County. This county was renamed Chu-hai County () in April 1953, and was expanded. Chu-hai County was briefly merged with Hsiang-shan County in March 1959, and was reconstituted in April 1961.
From 1961 onwards, the territory of
Chung-shan County was reduced by 43%, with areas ceded to the counties of
Tou-men,
Pan-yu,
Shun-te and
Hsin-huei. Its romanization was changed to Zhuhai following the introduction of the Pinyin orthography for romanizing Chinese characters.
In 1979, Zhuhai County () became
Zhuhai City (). In December 1983, Zhongshan County () became Zhongshan City (). Originally a
county-level city, Zhongshan was elevated to
prefecture level in January 1988.
A 6.81-square kilometer
special economic zone was established within Zhuhai City in August 1980. The special economic zone was expanded to 15.16 square kilometers in June 1983, and 121 square kilometers in April 1989. In May 1983, Doumen County () became administrated under Zhuhai City.
See also
*
Hong Kong, another city of China what was named after
References
External links
''Nanfang Wang''
{{coord missing, Macau
History of Macau
Zhongshan
Zhuhai
Special Economic Zones of China
1912 disestablishments in China