Danzhou () is a

prefecture-level city A prefecture-level city () or prefectural city is an administrative division of the People's Republic of China (PRC), ranking below a province and above a county in China's administrative structure. During the Republican era, many of China ...

in the northwest of the Chinese island

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

Hainan Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China,The island of Taiwan, which is slightly l ...

. Although called a "city", Danzhou administers a large area which was called Dan County or Danxian () until 1993. The administrative seat and urban center of Danzhou is Nada Town, which is often colloquially referred to as Danzhou city. Danzhou was upgraded from a county-level city into a prefecture-level city in February 2015.

History

What is now Danzhou was firstly named Danzhou () during the

Song Dynasty The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...

in the 12th century and only renamed to Danxian in 1912 after hundreds of years, but later re-obtained its name Danzhou after the Communist takeover in the 1950s. During World War 2, Danzhou was among the top most devastated counties in Hainan as the Japanese had massacred more than 30,000 people in Danzhou, destroying over than 10,000 houses and 300 Danzhou villages.

Subdivisions

Danzhou is a

of the

. An uncommon administrative feature is that it has no county-level division. The city government directly administers over 17

towns A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

(), one state-run institute, and four state-run farms plus an economic development zone:

Demographics

The city's population was in 2010. The Han population is 857,342 and the minority population is 75,020.

Language

The Danzhou natives speak the Yue Danzhou dialect, unlike the

Min Min or MIN may refer to: Places * Fujian, also called Mǐn, a province of China ** Min Kingdom (909–945), a state in Fujian * Min County, a county of Dingxi, Gansu province, China * Min River (Fujian) * Min River (Sichuan) * Mineola (Am ...

Hainanese language that is spoken throughout most of eastern Hainan.

Transportation

The area will be served by Danzhou Airport, an under-construction airport approximately northeast of Nada. It will be international-class, built to handle the increasing number of tourists visiting the area. The airport is scheduled for completion in 2022. The

Hainan Western Ring High-Speed Railway The Hainan western ring high-speed railway (, often abbreviated ) is a high-speed railway operated by China Railway High-speed in Hainan Province. It started operation on 30 December 2015. The 344-km long rail line runs along the western half o ...

also provides access.

Climate

References

{{authority control Cities in Hainan Prefecture-level divisions of Hainan