Cangzhou
Encyclopedia
Cangzhou is a prefecture-level
city
in Hebei
province, People's Republic of China
. Cangzhou's urban center has a population of approximately 514,074 at the 2010 census which correspond to the built up area), while the prefecture-level administrative region in total has a population of 7,134,053. It lies 180 km from Beijing, China's capital, and 90 km from the major port city of Tianjin
.
city but the city's administrative territory also includes strongly agricultural areas, and is renowned in China for its Chinese jujube
fruit
s and Ya pears
(well-known by the export name of Tianjin Ya Pear). The North China Oil Field is within Cangzhou City's jurisdiction. Cangzhou also encompasses a large fishing
port
and the modern, coal
-export
ing Huanghua Harbour.
, near the coast of the Bohai Sea
of the Pacific Ocean
. It lies on the Jinghu (Beijing-Shanghai
) railway line and the notional Jinghu Axis, a geographic
and transport
ation corridor between Beijing and Shanghai to the south.
The Shicang Expressway connects Cangzhou to Shijiazhuang
, capital of Hebei province, and from thence links by road to the Jingshi Expressway
leading to Beijing, part of the Jingzhu Expressway
connecting all the way to southern China
, Hong Kong
, and Macau
. Cangzhou's Huanghua Harbour is the end of a main Chinese coal shipping railway, the Shuohuang Line.
Major airports located closest to Cangzhou include Beijing Capital Airport and Tianjin Airport
.
The Grand Canal passes directly through Cangzhou :File:Modern Course of Grand Canal of China.png, and a district of Cangzhou (Yunhe District) is named after it.
-influenced climate lying right on the border between the humid continental
and humid subtropical
regimes (Köppen
Dwa/Cwa), with cold, dry winters, and hot, humid summers. Monthly average temperatures range from -3.0 °C to 26.5 °C (79.7 °F), with an annual mean of 12.9 °C (55.2 °F).
period (420-589 CE).
The city has historically been known in China for its wushu
–or martial arts
–and acrobatics
(specifically, the Wu Qiao school). Cangzhou is also famed for its historic thousand-year-old 40-ton sculpture, the Iron Lion of Cangzhou
. The sculpture is reportedly the largest cast-iron sculpture in the world
, cast in 953 in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. The famed lion has even given its name to a locally-brewed beer
and is a symbol of the city.
Cangzhou is home to a traditional Chinese form of musical performing arts, Kuaiban Dagu.
The city's Hui
residents have seven mosques. One of them, the West Mosque, has collected at its museum one of Chinas's best collections of Islamic manuscripts and artefacts.
majority, is home to a sizable population of the Muslim
Hui minority. Intermarriage occasionally occurs between the majority Han and the Hui, but stereotypes of Hui still exist among Cangzhou's Han residents, and some tensions remain. Migration to Hebei province and Cangzhou by Xinjiang
Muslim minorities (generally ethnic Uighurs
) is increasing.
termed Cangzhou, and is a variety of Ji Lu Mandarin. There are some similarities with the Tianjin variety
and the Baoding
variety of Mandarin, but both are considered distinct groups from that of Cangzhou http://www.glossika.com/en/dict/classification/mandarin/jilu/canghui/huangle/index.php. Dialects of the Cangzhou area vary between localities and counties, though are generally intelligible
among each other. Cangzhou-area topolects are partially mutually intelligible with standard Mandarin
.
Prefecture-level city
A prefectural level city , prefectural city or prefectural level municipality is an administrative division of the People's Republic of China, ranking below a province and above a county in China's administrative structure. Prefectural level cities form the second level of the administrative...
city
City
A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...
in Hebei
Hebei
' is a province of the People's Republic of China in the North China region. Its one-character abbreviation is "" , named after Ji Province, a Han Dynasty province that included what is now southern Hebei...
province, People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
. Cangzhou's urban center has a population of approximately 514,074 at the 2010 census which correspond to the built up area), while the prefecture-level administrative region in total has a population of 7,134,053. It lies 180 km from Beijing, China's capital, and 90 km from the major port city of Tianjin
Tianjin
' is a metropolis in northern China and one of the five national central cities of the People's Republic of China. It is governed as a direct-controlled municipality, one of four such designations, and is, thus, under direct administration of the central government...
.
Administrative divisions
Cangzhou City comprises 2 districts, 4 county-level cities, 9 counties and 1 autonomous county.| Map | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | Name | Hanzi | Hanyu Pinyin | Population (2004 est.) |
Area (km²) | Density (/km²) |
| 1 | Yunhe District Yunhe District Yunhe District is a district of Cangzhou, Hebei, China. Its name means "Grand Canal District", referring to the Grand Canal of China that passes through it.-Administrative Divisions:Subdistricts:... |
运河区 | Yùnhé Qū | 270,000 | 138 | 1,957 |
| 2 | Xinhua District Xinhua District, Cangzhou -Administrative Divisions:Subdistricts:*North Jianshe Avenue Subdistrict , Chezhan Subdistrict , Nanda Avenue Subdistrict , Donghuan Subdistrict , Daodong Subdistrict The only township is Xiaozhaozhuang Township... |
新华区 | Xīnhuá Qū | 220,000 | 89 | 2,472 |
| 3 | Botou City | 泊头市 | Bótóu Shì | 550,000 | 977 | 563 |
| 4 | Renqiu City Renqiu Renqiu is a city in Hebei, China. It is located northwest of Cangzhou, which administers it, and southwest of Tianjin. It is the location of Huabei oil field.-Administrative Divisions:Subdistricts:... |
任丘市 | Rénqiū Shì | 770,000 | 1,023 | 753 |
| 5 | Huanghua City Huanghua, Hebei Huanghua is a county-level city located in the Bohai Gulf coastal regions of eastern China's Hebei Province. It is under the jurisdiction of Cangzhou municipality.... |
黄骅市 | Huánghuá Shì | 490,000 | 1,545 | 317 |
| 6 | Hejian City Hejian Hejian is a county-level city in the Cangzhou prefecture, in Hebei province, China. In 2004, Hejian population was ca. 770.000 inhabitants and the city territory was... |
河间市 | Héjiān Shì | 770,000 | 1,333 | 578 |
| 7 | Cang County Cang County Cang County is a county of Hebei, China. It is under the administration of Cangzhou City. County government offices are located in Xinhua District.-Administrative Divisions:Towns:*Xingji , Jiuzhou , Dusheng , Cui'erzhuang Townships:... |
沧县 | Cāng Xiàn | 660,000 | 1,527 | 432 |
| 8 | Qing County Qing County Qing County is a county of Hebei, China. It is under the administration of Cangzhou prefecture-level city.-Administrative Divisions:Towns:*Qingzhou , Jinniu , Xinxing , Liuhe , Mumendian , Machang Townships:... |
青县 | Qīng Xiàn | 390,000 | 968 | 403 |
| 9 | Dongguang County Dongguang County Dongguang County is a county under the jurisdiction of Cangzhou municipality, Hebei Province, People's Republic of China.Area is 710 km2 and population is 350,000... |
东光县 | Dōngguāng Xiàn | 350,000 | 710 | 493 |
| 10 | Haixing County Haixing County Haixing County is a county of Hebei, China. It is administered by Cangzhou city.-Administrative Divisions:Towns:*Suji , Xinji , Gaowan Townships:... |
海兴县 | Hǎixīng Xiàn | 220,000 | 836 | 263 |
| 11 | Yanshan County | 盐山县 | Yánshān Xiàn | 400,000 | 795 | 503 |
| 12 | Suning County Suning County Suning County is a county of Hebei, China. It is under the administration of Cangzhou City.-Administrative Divisions:Towns:*Suning Town , Liangjiacun , Wobei , Shangcun , Wanli Townships:... |
肃宁县 | Sùníng Xiàn | 330,000 | 497 | 664 |
| 13 | Nanpi County Nanpi County Nanpi County is a county of Hebei, China. It is under the administration of Cangzhou City.-Administrative Divisions:Towns:*Nanpi Town , Pingjiakou , Zhaizi , Baoguantun , Wangsi , Wumaying Townships:... |
南皮县 | Nánpí Xiàn | 350,000 | 794 | 441 |
| 14 | Wuqiao County Wuqiao County Wuqiao County is a county of Hebei, China. It is under the administration of the Cangzhou city. Wuqiao covers an area of 583 square kilometers with a population of 280,000 and 444 natural villages under its jurisdiction. Over a period of more than 1500 years, Wuqiao is an old county with a vivid... |
吴桥县 | Wúqiáo Xiàn | 280,000 | 603 | 464 |
| 15 | Xian County Xian County -Administrative Divisions:Towns:*Leshou , Huaizhen , Guozhuang , Hechengjie Townships:*Hancun Township , Monan Township , Chenzhuang Township , Gaoguan Township , Shanglin Township , Duancun Township , Zhangcun Township , Linhe Township , Shuipingwang Township , Shiwuji Township , Leitou Township ,... |
献县 | Xìàn Xiàn | 570,000 | 1,191 | 479 |
| 16 | Mengcun Hui Autonomous County | 孟村回族自治县 | Mèngcūn Huízú Zìzhìxiàn |
180,000 | 393 | 458 |
Economics
Cangzhou's urban center is a heavily industrialIndustry
Industry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...
city but the city's administrative territory also includes strongly agricultural areas, and is renowned in China for its Chinese jujube
Jujube
Ziziphus zizyphus , commonly called jujube , red date, Chinese date, Korean date, or Indian date is a species of Ziziphus in the buckthorn family Rhamnaceae, used primarily as a fruiting shade tree.-Distribution:Its precise natural distribution is uncertain due to extensive cultivation,...
fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
s and Ya pears
Pear
The pear is any of several tree species of genus Pyrus and also the name of the pomaceous fruit of these trees. Several species of pear are valued by humans for their edible fruit, but the fruit of other species is small, hard, and astringent....
(well-known by the export name of Tianjin Ya Pear). The North China Oil Field is within Cangzhou City's jurisdiction. Cangzhou also encompasses a large fishing
Fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....
port
Port
A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land....
and the modern, coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
-export
Export
The term export is derived from the conceptual meaning as to ship the goods and services out of the port of a country. The seller of such goods and services is referred to as an "exporter" who is based in the country of export whereas the overseas based buyer is referred to as an "importer"...
ing Huanghua Harbour.
Geography and transportation
Cangzhou is located to the south of BeijingBeijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
, near the coast of the Bohai Sea
Bohai Sea
Bohai Sea , also known as Bohai Gulf, Bohai, or Bo Hai, is the innermost gulf of the Yellow Sea on the coast of Northeastern and North China. It is approximately 78,000 km2 Bohai Sea , also known as Bohai Gulf, Bohai, or Bo Hai, is the innermost gulf of the Yellow Sea on the coast of...
of the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
. It lies on the Jinghu (Beijing-Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
) railway line and the notional Jinghu Axis, a geographic
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
and transport
Transport
Transport or transportation is the movement of people, cattle, animals and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, rail, road, water, cable, pipeline, and space. The field can be divided into infrastructure, vehicles, and operations...
ation corridor between Beijing and Shanghai to the south.
The Shicang Expressway connects Cangzhou to Shijiazhuang
Shijiazhuang
Shijiazhuang is the capital and largest city of North China's Hebei province. Administratively a prefecture-level city, it is about south of Beijing...
, capital of Hebei province, and from thence links by road to the Jingshi Expressway
Jingshi Expressway
The Jingshi Expressway is an expressway in China which links Beijing to the Shijiazhuang. It is c. 270 km in length. Its road numbering is G030...
leading to Beijing, part of the Jingzhu Expressway
Jingzhu Expressway
The Jingzhu Expressway is the first completed north-south expressway in the People's Republic of China, starting from Beijing and ending in Zhuhai, on the border with the Macau SAR....
connecting all the way to southern China
South Central China
South Central China is a region of the People's Republic of China defined by governmental bureaus that includes the provinces of Guangdong, Hainan, Henan, Hubei, and Hunan, and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, however excluding the 2 special administrative regions : Hong Kong and...
, Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
, and Macau
Macau
Macau , also spelled Macao , is, along with Hong Kong, one of the two special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China...
. Cangzhou's Huanghua Harbour is the end of a main Chinese coal shipping railway, the Shuohuang Line.
Major airports located closest to Cangzhou include Beijing Capital Airport and Tianjin Airport
Tianjin Binhai International Airport
Tianjin Binhai International Airport is an airport located east of Tianjin, in Dongli District. It is one of the major air cargo centers in the People's Republic of China....
.
The Grand Canal passes directly through Cangzhou :File:Modern Course of Grand Canal of China.png, and a district of Cangzhou (Yunhe District) is named after it.
Climate
Cangzhou has a four-season, monsoonMonsoon
Monsoon is traditionally defined as a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation, but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with the asymmetric heating of land and sea...
-influenced climate lying right on the border between the humid continental
Humid continental climate
A humid continental climate is a climatic region typified by large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot summers and cold winters....
and humid subtropical
Humid subtropical climate
A humid subtropical climate is a climate zone characterized by hot, humid summers and mild to cool winters...
regimes (Köppen
Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by Crimea German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen himself, notably in 1918 and 1936...
Dwa/Cwa), with cold, dry winters, and hot, humid summers. Monthly average temperatures range from -3.0 °C to 26.5 °C (79.7 °F), with an annual mean of 12.9 °C (55.2 °F).
History
Cangzhou is reported to have been founded in the Southern and Northern DynastiesSouthern and Northern Dynasties
The Southern and Northern Dynasties was a period in the history of China that lasted from 420 to 589 AD. Though an age of civil war and political chaos, it was also a time of flourishing arts and culture, advancement in technology, and the spreading of Mahayana Buddhism and Daoism...
period (420-589 CE).
Culture
Chinese martial arts
Chinese martial arts, also referred to by the Mandarin Chinese term wushu and popularly as kung fu , are a number of fighting styles that have developed over the centuries in China. These fighting styles are often classified according to common traits, identified as "families" , "sects" or...
–or martial arts
Martial arts
Martial arts are extensive systems of codified practices and traditions of combat, practiced for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, as well as mental and spiritual development....
–and acrobatics
Acrobatics
Acrobatics is the performance of extraordinary feats of balance, agility and motor coordination. It can be found in many of the performing arts, as well as many sports...
(specifically, the Wu Qiao school). Cangzhou is also famed for its historic thousand-year-old 40-ton sculpture, the Iron Lion of Cangzhou
Iron Lion of Cangzhou
The Iron Lion of Cangzhou is a cast iron sculpture located in the town of Cangzhou in Hebei Province, China, about 180 km southwest of the national capital Beijing...
. The sculpture is reportedly the largest cast-iron sculpture in the world
World
World is a common name for the whole of human civilization, specifically human experience, history, or the human condition in general, worldwide, i.e. anywhere on Earth....
, cast in 953 in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. The famed lion has even given its name to a locally-brewed beer
Beer
Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...
and is a symbol of the city.
Cangzhou is home to a traditional Chinese form of musical performing arts, Kuaiban Dagu.
The city's Hui
Hui people
The Hui people are an ethnic group in China, defined as Chinese speaking people descended from foreign Muslims. They are typically distinguished by their practice of Islam, however some also practice other religions, and many are direct descendants of Silk Road travelers.In modern People's...
residents have seven mosques. One of them, the West Mosque, has collected at its museum one of Chinas's best collections of Islamic manuscripts and artefacts.
Demographics and society
Cangzhou, though predominated by the Han ChineseHan Chinese
Han Chinese are an ethnic group native to China and are the largest single ethnic group in the world.Han Chinese constitute about 92% of the population of the People's Republic of China , 98% of the population of the Republic of China , 78% of the population of Singapore, and about 20% of the...
majority, is home to a sizable population of the Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
Hui minority. Intermarriage occasionally occurs between the majority Han and the Hui, but stereotypes of Hui still exist among Cangzhou's Han residents, and some tensions remain. Migration to Hebei province and Cangzhou by Xinjiang
Xinjiang
Xinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. It is the largest Chinese administrative division and spans over 1.6 million km2...
Muslim minorities (generally ethnic Uighurs
Uyghur people
The Uyghur are a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia. Today, Uyghurs live primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China...
) is increasing.
Language
The dominant first language of Cangzhou's population is a variety of the northeastern Mandarin dialect continuumDialect continuum
A dialect continuum, or dialect area, was defined by Leonard Bloomfield as a range of dialects spoken across some geographical area that differ only slightly between neighboring areas, but as one travels in any direction, these differences accumulate such that speakers from opposite ends of the...
termed Cangzhou, and is a variety of Ji Lu Mandarin. There are some similarities with the Tianjin variety
Tianjin dialect
Tianjin dialect is a Mandarin dialect spoken in the urban area of Tianjin, China. It is comprehensible to speakers of other Mandarin dialects, though its greatest deviation from the others lies in its individual tones, and the lack of retroflex consonants...
and the Baoding
Baoding
-Administrative divisions:Baoding prefecture-level city consists of 3 municipal districts, 4 county-level cities, 18 counties:-Demographics:The Baoding urban area has a population of around 1,006,000 . The population of the Baoding administrative area is 10,890,000. The considerable majority are...
variety of Mandarin, but both are considered distinct groups from that of Cangzhou http://www.glossika.com/en/dict/classification/mandarin/jilu/canghui/huangle/index.php. Dialects of the Cangzhou area vary between localities and counties, though are generally intelligible
Mutual intelligibility
In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is recognized as a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related languages can readily understand each other without intentional study or extraordinary effort...
among each other. Cangzhou-area topolects are partially mutually intelligible with standard Mandarin
Standard Mandarin
Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Chinese, also known as Mandarin or Putonghua, is the official language of the People's Republic of China and Republic of China , and is one of the four official languages of Singapore....
.
Municipal government
The city, like all other Chinese administrative divisions, has a party committee, the People's government, the People's Congress, and the Political consultative conference.Military
Cangzhou is home to Cangzhou Airbase of the People's Liberation Army-Air ForcePeople's Liberation Army Air Force
The People's Liberation Army Air Force is the aviation branch of the People's Liberation Army, the military of the People's Republic of China...
Famous residents
- Sun Yue (basketball) (1985), fifth Chinese player in the NBA
- Wang Zi-PingWang Zi-PingWang Zi-Ping was a Chinese-Muslim practitioner of Chinese Martial Arts and traditional medicine from Changzhou, Cangxian county, Mengcun, Hebei Province. He served as the leader of the Shaolin Kung Fu division of the Martial Arts Institute in 1928 and was also the vice chairman of the Chinese...
(1881–1973), Chinese martial arts grandmaster
External links
- http://www.china-military.org/units/cangzhou.htm
- Lions of Cangzhou: a Martial artsMartial artsMartial arts are extensive systems of codified practices and traditions of combat, practiced for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, as well as mental and spiritual development....
(wushu) school in MalleMalleMalle is a municipality located in the Campine region of the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality comprises the towns of Oostmalle and Westmalle. On 1 January 2006 Malle had a total population of 14,083...
, BelgiumBelgiumBelgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many... - Article about the Cangzhou Lion (in Chinese)
- "Chinese 'serial killer' arrested". BBC World ServiceBBC World ServiceThe BBC World Service is the world's largest international broadcaster, broadcasting in 27 languages to many parts of the world via analogue and digital shortwave, internet streaming and podcasting, satellite, FM and MW relays...
. 15 November 2003. (Incident in Cangzhou) - http://www.spotsoftime.com/blog/archives/cat_china.html
- http://archives.foodsafetynetwork.ca/animalnet/1999/7-1999/an-07-10-99-01.txt