Xiangshan County, also spelled Hsiangshan, Siangshan, Heungsan, and Heungshan, was a former county in Southern China. From 1912, it was a county in Guangdong Province, in the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

. It was renamed

Zhongshan Zhongshan ( zh, c=中山 ), alternately romanized via Cantonese as Chungshan, is a prefecture-level city in the south of the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong province, China. As of the 2020 census, the whole city with 4,418,060 inhabitants is n ...

(then usually romanized "Chungshan") in April 1925, in honor of the founder of the Republic of China, Sun Yat Sen, a Xiangshan native. The county covered the modern-day Zhuhai City, Zhongshan City and a part of Nansha District of Guangzhou City in the Guangdong Province of the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

(PRC), and the Macau Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, formerly known as

Portuguese Macau Macau was under Portuguese Empire, Portuguese rule from the establishment of the first official Portuguese settlement in 1557 until its Handover of Macau, handover to China in 1999. It comprised the Municipality of Macau and the Municipality of ...

until 1999.

History

The county consists of the entirety of Xiangshan Island, an island in a bay where three rivers emptied into the sea, part of the

Pearl River Delta The Pearl River Delta Metropolitan Region is the low-lying area surrounding the Pearl River estuary, where the Pearl River flows into the South China Sea. Referred to as the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area in official documents, ...

. It was originally separated from the continent by the distributaries in the delta, until it became a peninsula some time during the 17th century, but remained separated from the mainland by waterways. Around the 8th century (during the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...

), a Xiangshan

Township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

was carved out of the Bao'an County and Dongguan County, at the present-day Shanchang () of

Zhuhai Zhuhai; Yale romanization of Cantonese, Yale: ''Jyūhói''; Chinese postal romanization, also known as Chuhai is a prefecture-level city located on the west bank of the Pearl River (China), Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern ...

. Around the 12th century (during the

Northern Song dynasty The Song dynasty ( ) was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Ten Kingdoms, endin ...

), this township became a separate county. During the mid-16th century, in the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...

, the Portuguese settled in

Macau Macau or Macao is a special administrative regions of China, special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most List of countries and dependencies by p ...

. This was permitted by the Ming dynasty, but despite the Portuguese presence, Macau was still under the jurisdiction of Xiangshan. Matteo Ricci and Nicolas Trigault, '' De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas''. Page 140 in the English translation: Gallagher (1953). "China in the Sixteenth Century: The Journals of Matteo Ricci", Random House, New York, 1953. English translation of Trigault's Latin by Louis J. Gallagher. Ricci's transcription for "Xiangshan" is ''Hiam-Xan''.) Macau became a full Portuguese colony in 1847. This colony later expanded to include Ilha Verde, Taipa and Coloane. In December 1952, Yumin County () was created out of islands from Hsiang-shan County, Pao-an County and Tung-kuan County. This county was renamed Chu-hai County () in April 1953, and was expanded. Chu-hai County was briefly merged with Hsiang-shan County in March 1959, and was reconstituted in April 1961. From 1961 onwards, the territory of Chung-shan County was reduced by 43%, with areas ceded to the counties of Tou-men, Pan-yu, Shun-te and Hsin-huei. Its romanization was changed to Zhuhai following the introduction of the Pinyin orthography for romanizing Chinese characters. In 1979, Zhuhai County () became

City (). In December 1983, Zhongshan County () became Zhongshan City (). Originally a

county-level city A county-level city () is a County-level divisions of China, county-level administrative division of the China, People's Republic of China. County-level cities have judiciary, judicial but no legislature, legislative rights over their own local or ...

, Zhongshan was elevated to prefecture level in January 1988. A 6.81-square kilometer

special economic zone A special economic zone (SEZ) is an area in which the business and trade laws are different from the rest of the country. SEZs are located within a country's national borders, and their aims include increasing trade balance, employment, increas ...

was established within Zhuhai City in August 1980. The special economic zone was expanded to 15.16 square kilometers in June 1983, and 121 square kilometers in April 1989. In May 1983, Doumen County () became administrated under Zhuhai City.

References

External links

''Nanfang Wang''
{{coord missing, Macau History of Macau Zhongshan Zhuhai Special Economic Zones of China 1912 disestablishments in China

History

See also

References

External links