Zhaoyuan () 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 ...
within 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' ...
of
Yantai
Yantai, Postal Map Romanization, formerly romanization of Chinese, known as Chefoo, is a coastal prefecture-level city on the Shandong Peninsula in northeastern Shandong province of People's Republic of China. Lying on the southern coast of ...
,
Shandong Province
Shandong ( , ; ; alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region.
Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilizatio ...
,
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 ...
, located on the
Bohai Sea
The Bohai Sea () is a marginal sea approximately in area on the east coast of Mainland China. It is the northwestern and innermost extension of the Yellow Sea, to which it connects to the east via the Bohai Strait. It has a mean depth of a ...
.
Zhaoyuan is well known for its abundant gold deposit and production, and is occasionally nicknamed "China's gold capital" ().
The city spans an area of ,
and has a population of 560,234 as of 2019.
History
The area was first incorporated under the
Han dynasty
The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) and a warr ...
as Qucheng County ().
Gold was discovered at Zhaoyuan in 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 ...
. The myth accompanying the city's discovery of gold is that a giant tortoise named
Ao once told villagers struggling with famine to dig, and upon digging, they struck gold.
The county was named Zhaoyuan County () in 1131.
People's Republic of China
Five
townships
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 ...
in Zhaoyuan were upgraded to
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 ...
on September 1, 1988.
On December 21, 1991, Zhaoyuan was upgraded 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
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 ...
.
Throughout the mid-1990s, three more townships were upgraded to towns.
On January 11, 1999, the town of Zhaocheng () was divided into three
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 ...
: ,
Quanshan Subdistrict, and .
The
reported that Zhaoyuan had a population of 593,705.
On December 19, 2000, Dahuchenjia Township () became the city's last township to be upgraded to a town.
2014 murder of Wu Shuoyan
In late May 2014, five members of
The Church of Almighty God, an outlawed new-age cult, entered a
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...
in Zhaoyuan and began soliciting customers' phone numbers.
When 37 year-old Wu Shuoyan refused to give her phone number to the group, they claimed she was an "evil spirit", and began beating her with chairs and a metal mop handle, ultimately killing her.
In February 2015, two of the attackers were executed, and the other three received jail sentences ranging from seven years to life.
Geography
Zhaoyuan's city center is located approximately southwest of Yantai's urban center.
The city's terrain is higher in the northeast, middle and west, and lower in the northwest and southeast
Climate
The city's annual average temperature is , and its annual average precipitation is .
Administrative divisions
Zhaoyuan administers five
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 ...
and nine
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 ...
.
Subdistricts
Zhaoyuan's five subdistricts are ,
Quanshan Subdistrict, , , and .
Towns
Zhaoyuan's nine towns are , , , , , , , , and .
Economy
The city has a significant amount of
gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...
deposits, largely concentrated in its northeast.
Zhaojin Mining has its headquarters located in the city. Additionally,
Linglong Tire is headquartered in the city.
Transport
National Highway 206 runs through Zhaoyuan.
Tourist attractions
A large golden statue of
Ao'','' a Chinese mythical giant turtle is located in the
village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...
of Oujiakuang (), in the town of .
Located in Luoshan National Forest Park (),
the statue is Asia's largest statue of Ao'','' and is located at . The statue is 15 meters tall and 20 meters long.
[招远罗山《金鳌》](_blank)
/ref>
The is located in Zhaoyuan.
Notable people
*Chi Haotian
Chi Haotian (; born 9 July 1929), also spelled as Chih Hao-tien, is a retired general of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. He served as Minister of National Defence from 1993 to 2003.
Biography
Chi was born 9 July 1929 in Zhaoyuan, Sha ...
, PLA
PLA may refer to:
Organizations Politics and military
* People's Liberation Army, the armed forces of China and of the ruling Chinese Communist Party
* People's Liberation Army (disambiguation)
** Irish National Liberation Army, formerly called ...
General,
* Sun Baoguo, BTBU Professor, Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering
The Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE, ) is the national academy of the People's Republic of China for engineering. It was established in 1994 and is an institution of the State Council of China. The CAE and the Chinese Academy of Sciences ...
References
{{Yantai
Cities in Shandong
Yantai