Zhoucun district () is a town and district of agricultural land inside

Zibo Zibo (, ) is a prefecture-level city in central Shandong province, China. It borders the provincial capital Jinan to the west, Tai'an to the southwest, Linyi to the south, Weifang to the east, Dongying to the northeast, and Binzhou to the ...

city. The city covers and had an estimated population of 288,440 in 2013. Its main industry is textiles and furniture manufacture. The center of the commercial district has a recently refurbished area with traditional buildings. Some of the filming for

Zhang Yimou Zhang Yimou (; born 2 April 1950) is a Chinese film director, producer, writer, actor and former cinematographer.Tasker, Yvonne (2002). "Zhang Yimou" i''Fifty Contemporary Filmmakers'' Routledge Publishing, p. 412. . Google Book Search. Retriev ...

's film '' To Live'' was done in the district.

Historical anecdote

In the 17th century, the textile industry was flourishing in Zhoucun, while the local government was corrupted to a point that it set up a department called "" for extorting money. The department hired parasitic scumbags to levy various high taxes. It was not long before the merchants disappointed and began to leave. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Justice of the

Qing Government The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speaki ...

, Huahsi Lee, came back to Zhoucun to see his family. He was outraged by the state of the economy of his hometown, and reported to Emperor

Shunzhi The Shunzhi Emperor (15 March 1638 – 5 February 1661) was the second emperor of the Qing dynasty of China, and the first Qing emperor to rule over China proper, reigning from 1644 to 1661. A committee of Manchu princes chose him to succee ...

. It would have been embarrassing for

not to show his mercy, but inadequate to take ease on his taxes. He compromised: Zhoucun shall take only one day off the tax. This kind of stingy "mercy" was really some gigantic excrement drained upon Huahsi's head, but he thought of a way around it. Hushsi made orders to build a monument with "" ("No Tax Today") carvings ambiguously under the command of the emperor, so merchants are able to do business tax-free all the time. Later on Huahsi felt guilty about tax evasion and undertook the taxes himself. Huahsi even promised that whoever got robbed within 200 Li(about 115 km) around Zhoucun shall get reparation from his family. Such act maintained for seven generations, about 200 years. The economically preposterous and doubtful monument is still at the center of the relics called "", but it was long invalid.

Administrative divisions

As 2012, this County is divided to 5 subdistricts and 4 towns. ;Subdistricts ;Towns

Climate

References

County-level divisions of Shandong Zibo {{Shandong-geo-stub