Chenzhou () 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 Chi ...

located in the south of

Hunan Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangx ...

province, China, bordering the provinces of

Jiangxi Jiangxi (; ; formerly romanized as Kiangsi or Chianghsi) is a landlocked province in the east of the People's Republic of China. Its major cities include Nanchang and Jiujiang. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze river in the north int ...

to the east and

Guangdong 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 ...

to the south. Its administrative area covers , 9.2% of the provincial area, and its total population reached 4,581,779 in the 2010 census, 26% of them living in urban areas, 74% of them live in rural areas.

History

Chenzhou is a historical city dating back from the

Qin Dynasty The Qin dynasty ( ; zh, c=秦朝, p=Qín cháo, w=), or Ch'in dynasty in Wade–Giles romanization ( zh, c=, p=, w=Ch'in ch'ao), was the first dynasty of Imperial China. Named for its heartland in Qin state (modern Gansu and Shaanxi), ...

. The area was historically named Guiyang (simplified Chinese: 桂阳; traditional Chinese: 桂陽; pinyin: Guìyáng)

Commandery In the Middle Ages, a commandery (rarely commandry) was the smallest administrative division of the European landed properties of a military order. It was also the name of the house where the knights of the commandery lived.Anthony Luttrell and ...

before being renamed to the current name in the year 735 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 ...

. The Chinese character 郴, meaning "City in the Forest", uniquely refers to only the area. Known to be popular among the literacy circle of the Tang courts, poets such as

Wang Changling Wang Changling (; 698–756) was a major Tang dynasty poet. His courtesy name was Shaobo (). He was originally from Taiyuan in present-day Shanxi province, according to the editors of the '' Three Hundred Tang Poems'', although other sources c ...

Du Fu Du Fu (; 712–770) was a Tang dynasty poet and politician. Along with his elder contemporary and friend Li Bai (Li Po), he is frequently called the greatest of the Chinese poets.Ebrey, 103. His greatest ambition was to serve his country ...

, Han Yu, Liu Yuxi and Qin Guan have visited and wrote

poems Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings ...

to the natural beauty of the area. According to unsourced claims from Jung Chang and Jon Halliday in their book Mao: The Unknown Story, Chenzhou, along with neighboring

Leiyang Leiyang () is a county-level city and the third most populous county-level division in Hunan Province, China. Leiyang is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Hengyang. Located on the south of the province, the city is bordered ...

city was razed in 1928 by troops ( Chinese Red Army) under the command of

Zhu De Zhu De (; ; also Chu Teh; 1 December 1886 – 6 July 1976) was a Chinese general, military strategist, politician and revolutionary in the Chinese Communist Party. Born into poverty in 1886 in Sichuan, he was adopted by a wealthy uncle at ...

, who was following directives which originated in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

and passed on by higher officials of the

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Ci ...

. The strategy was to leave large numbers of peasants from the cities with no option but to join communist uprisings. Chenzhou was the site of a large investigation when its municipal government and party committee, led by Secretary Li Dalun, was charged on multiple counts of corruption in June 2006.

Geography

Chenzhou is situated at the juncture of Hunan and Guangdong provinces at the foot of small Qitian Mountains of the Nanling Mountain Range. Places of interest, natural scenic spots, ancient relics and buildings make for over 100 tourism spots in the city. The major ones are the Suxian Hill, the Wanhuayan, the Dongjiang Lake, and the Wugai Mountain Hunting Field.

Climate

Chenzhou has a

humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a zone of climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between latitudes 25° and 40° ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

: ''Cfa''), with four distinct seasons. Spring is subject to heavy rainfall, while the summers are long, hot, and humid with lesser rainfall, and autumn is comfortable and rather dry. Winter is rather brief, but cold snaps occur with temperatures occasionally dropping below freezing, and while not heavy, rain can be frequent.

Administrative divisions

* Beihu District (), . Population: 300,000 (2003). * Suxian District (), . Population: 249,900 * Zixing City () . Population: 360,000 * Guiyang County (), . Population: 790,000 *

Yongxing County Yongxing County () is a county in Hunan Province, China, it is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Chenzhou. Located on the south eastern part of the province, it is adjacent to the north of the city proper in Chenzhou. The ...

(), . Population: 630,000 * Yizhang County (), . Population: 560,000 * Jiahe County (), . Population: 340,000 * Linwu County (), . Population: 310,000 * Rucheng County (), . Population: 360,000 * Guidong County (), . Population: 170,000 *

Anren County Anren County () is a counties of China, county in Hunan, Hunan Province, China, it is under the administration of Chenzhou, Chenzhou prefecture-level City. Located on the southeast of the province, it is the northernmost county-level division of ...

(), . Population: 390,000

Economy

Major deposits of

tungsten Tungsten, or wolfram, is a chemical element with the symbol W and atomic number 74. Tungsten is a rare metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively as compounds with other elements. It was identified as a new element in 1781 and first isol ...

bismuth Bismuth is a chemical element with the symbol Bi and atomic number 83. It is a post-transition metal and one of the pnictogens, with chemical properties resembling its lighter group 15 siblings arsenic and antimony. Elemental bismuth occurs ...

and

molybdenum Molybdenum is a chemical element with the symbol Mo and atomic number 42 which is located in period 5 and group 6. The name is from Neo-Latin ''molybdaenum'', which is based on Ancient Greek ', meaning lead, since its ores were confused with lead ...

make Chenzhou a production base for non-ferrous metals.

Colleges and universities

* Xiangnan University

Notable people

Duan Yixuan Duan Yixuan (; born August 19, 1995 in Chenzhou, Hunan, central southern part of China) is a Chinese singer and actress, and member of Chinese idol group SNH48, of which she is the Captain of Team SII. Career On July 25, 2015, during SNH48's ...

, a singer and actress * Long Yang, a hostess in

CCTV Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signal is not openly ...

* Ouyang Jingling, a paralympic athlete *

Xue Yiwei Xue Yiwei (, born in 1964) is a Chinese-born Canadian author. His hometown is Changsha, Hunan, and his birthplace was Chenzhou in the same province. He attended the Beijing University of Aeronautics (now Beihang University) in a computer science ...

, Chinese writer living in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

*Li Xingxue (李星学), Chinese botanist and member of

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); ), known by Academia Sinica in English until the 1980s, is the national academy of the People's Republic of China for natural sciences. It has historical origins in the Academia Sinica during the Republi ...

Government

The current CPC Party Secretary of Chenzhou is Yi Pengfei and the current Mayor is Liu Zhiren.

Tourism

The areas of interest in Chenzhou include: Wanhua Rock (), Wugai Mountain Hunting Field, Suxian Hill and Dongjiang Lake. The city is served by

Chenzhou Beihu Airport Chenzhou Beihu Airport () is an airport serving Chenzhou city in Hunan province, China. Its location in Tashui Village, Huatang Town, Beihu District was approved by the Civil Aviation Administration of China in January 2015. The airport constructi ...

References

External links

Chenzhou News Website
run by Chenzhou Government
Official website of Chenzhou Government
{{Prefectural-level divisions of the People's Republic of China Cities in Hunan