Yuzhou () is a

county-level city A county-level municipality (), county-level city or county city, formerly known as prefecture-controlled city (1949–1970: ; 1970–1983: ), is a Administrative divisions of China#County level (3rd), county-level administrative divi ...

in the central part of

Henan Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. It occupies the northwest corner of the

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' ...

Xuchang Xuchang (; postal: Hsuchang) is a prefecture-level city in central Henan province of China, province in Central China. It borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the northwest, Kaifeng to the northeast, Zhoukou to the east, Luohe to the s ...

. The city is named for

Yu the Great Yu the Great (大禹) was a legendary king in ancient China who was famed for his introduction of flood control, his establishment of the Xia dynasty which inaugurated dynastic rule in China, and his upright moral character. He figures prominen ...

, the founder of the

Xia Dynasty The Xia dynasty () is the first dynasty in traditional Chinese historiography. According to tradition, the Xia dynasty was established by the legendary Yu the Great, after Shun, the last of the Five Emperors, gave the throne to him. In tradi ...

, which the city's government claims was founded in present-day Yuzhou, and that the dynasty's capital was located in present-day Yuzhou. There is a statue of Yu the Great in Yuzhou, and he serves as a symbol of the city. The famous Jun ware () of

porcelain Porcelain () is a ceramic material made by heating substances, generally including materials such as kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arises mainl ...

originates in Yuzhou, specifically, in the town of (). Jun ware comprises one of the Five Great Kilns, a group of highly esteemed porcelain types from 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 ...

. Yuzhou has historically served as a major center of

traditional Chinese medicine Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. It has been described as "fraught with pseudoscience", with the majority of its treatments having no logical mechanism of action ...

, and the city's historic medicinal tradition has been recognized by the national government. Famous Chinese doctor

Sun Simiao Sun Simiao (; died 682) was a Chinese physician and writer of the Sui and Tang dynasty. He was titled as China's King of Medicine (, Yaowang) for his significant contributions to Chinese medicine and tremendous care to his patients. Books Sun ...

() had been a doctor in Yuzhou for a long period of time during the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...

. Nicknames for the city include "Summer Capital" (), "Jun Capital" (), and "Medicine Capital" (). Yuzhou was named the first historical and cultural city in Henan Province in 1989. In 2011, it was named "China Ceramics Historical and Cultural City", and in 2018, it was named "National Health City" by the .

History

The Wadian archeological site, part of a network of sites belonging to the

Late Neolithic In the archaeology of Southwest Asia, the Late Neolithic, also known as the Ceramic Neolithic or Pottery Neolithic, is the final part of the Neolithic period, following on from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic and preceding the Chalcolithic. It is some ...

Longshan culture, is located in Yuzhou. The Wadian site spans an area of about , and contains a large complex believed to be an

ancestral temple An ancestral shrine, hall or temple ( or , vi, Nhà thờ họ; Chữ Hán: 家祠户), also called lineage temple, is a temple dedicated to deified ancestors and progenitors of surname lineages or families in the Chinese tradition. Ances ...

. Yuzhou was changed from a

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

to a

in 1988. At the beginning of January 2022, it was forced into a Covid-19 lockdown after three

asymptomatic In medicine, any disease is classified asymptomatic if a patient tests as carrier for a disease or infection but experiences no symptoms. Whenever a medical condition fails to show noticeable symptoms after a diagnosis it might be considered asy ...

cases of

Covid-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

variants were discovered.

Geography

Yuzhou's urban center is located from Xinzheng International Airport, and from the urban center of the provincial capital of

Zhengzhou Zhengzhou (; ), also spelt Zheng Zhou and alternatively romanized as Chengchow, is the capital and largest city of Henan Province in the central part of the People's Republic of China. Located in north-central Henan, it is one of the National ...

. 23.24% of Yuzhou's area is

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

ed.

Climate

Administrative divisions

Yuzhou is directly divided into 5

subdistricts A subdistrict or sub-district is an administrative division that is generally smaller than a district. Equivalents * Administrative posts of East Timor, formerly Portuguese-language * Kelurahan, in Indonesia * Mukim, a township in Brunei, Indon ...

, 19

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 ...

, 1

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...

, and 1 ethnic township. These 26 township-level divisions then further administer 678 village-level divisions.

Subdistricts

Towns

Townships

* ()

Ethnic townships

* ()

Demographics

As of 2020, the per capita disposable income of Yuzhou's urban residents reached 35,330

renminbi The renminbi (; symbol: ¥; ISO code: CNY; abbreviation: RMB) is the official currency of the People's Republic of China and one of the world's most traded currencies, ranking as the fifth most traded currency in the world as of April 2022. ...

(RMB), a 1.6% increase from 2019. This figure stood at 20,442 RMB for the city's rural residents, a 6.3% increase from 2019. 52% of Yuzhou's residents live in urban areas. 95% of Yuzhou's population is connected to the city's water grid, 90% of the population has a gas connection, and 58% receive municipal heating.

Economy

As of 2020, Yuzhou's

gross domestic product Gross domestic product (GDP) is a money, monetary Measurement in economics, measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjec ...

(GDP) totaled 84.96 billion

(RMB), a 3.1% increase from 2019. Yuzhou is located in the

Central Plains Economic Zone Zhongyuan Economic Zone () or Central Plain Economic Zone is the proposed economic development zone for the economic region in Henan Province and radiating to the surrounding areas by the Henan Provincial Government and the Chinese Central Governmen ...

, an economic region of central

province, and borders the

Zhengzhou Airport Economy Zone Zhengzhou Airport Economy Zone (), abbreviated as ZAEZ, is an airport-based economy zone developed around Zhengzhou Xinzheng International Airport in Henan, People's Republic of China. It is located about to the southeast of Zhengzhou, and cove ...

Agriculture

Crops used in

are grown in large quantities in Yuzhou, and a 2021 government publication estimates that about 400,000 mu of cropland are used to grow plants for use in traditional Chinese medicine. The same report estimated that 170,000 mu of cropland in Yuzhou is used to grow

sweet potato The sweet potato or sweetpotato (''Ipomoea batatas'') is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the Convolvulus, bindweed or morning glory family (biology), family, Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting tuberous roots are used as a r ...

es.

Grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legum ...

s are also grown in large quantities throughout the city, and a large number of

pig The pig (''Sus domesticus''), often called swine, hog, or domestic pig when distinguishing from other members of the genus '' Sus'', is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is variously considered a subspecies of ''Sus s ...

s are raised Yuzhou.

Natural resources

The area of Yuzhou is home to significant deposits of

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

bauxite Bauxite is a sedimentary rock with a relatively high aluminium content. It is the world's main source of aluminium and gallium. Bauxite consists mostly of the aluminium minerals gibbsite (Al(OH)3), boehmite (γ-AlO(OH)) and diaspore (α-AlO(O ...

, and

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

Electricity generation

The city is home to

thermal power plants A thermal power station is a type of power station in which heat energy is converted to electrical energy. In a steam-generating cycle heat is used to boil water in a large pressure vessel to produce high-pressure steam, which drives a steam ...

with a capacity of 2.02 million

kilowatts The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...

Transportation

Rail

The Beijing–Guangzhou railway passes through east of Yuzhou. The Yuzhou–Dengfeng railway () runs through the western portion of Yuzhou, connecting the city to nearby

Dengfeng Dengfeng (; postal: Tengfeng) is a county-level city of Henan Province, South Central China, it is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Zhengzhou. Dengfeng has an area of and a population of 630,000. It occupies the southw ...

. The begins in the city, linking it to the

of Bozhou in northwestern Anhui province.

Major roads

passes through east of Yuzhou. Major roads which run through Yuzhou include the , the S88 Zhengzhou–Xixia Expressway, and

provincial highways S103, S237, and S325.

References

{{County-level divisions of Henan
Cities in Henan County-level divisions of Henan Xuchang Late Neolithic