Yangjiang (), alternately romanized via Cantonese as Yeungkong, is a

prefecture-level city A prefecture-level city () or prefectural city is an administrative division of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC), ranking below a province of China, province and above a Counties of the People's Republic of China, county in China's ...

in southwestern

Guangdong ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

Province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

in 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 ...

. It borders

Maoming Maoming, alternately romanized as Mowming, (Maoming Yue: ">ɐu22 mɪŋ21/nowiki>) is a prefecture-level city located in southwestern Guangdong province, China. Facing the South China Sea to the city's south, Maoming city borders Zhanjiang to ...

to the west,

Yunfu Yunfu (), postal map romanization, formerly romanization of Chinese, romanized as Wanfow, and historically known as Dong'an (), which was postal map romanization, formerly romanized as Tong On, from 1578 to 1913, is a prefecture-level city in we ...

to the north,

Jiangmen Jiangmen ( zh, c=江门), postal map romanization, alternately romanization of Chinese, romanized in Cantonese as Kongmoon, is a prefecture-level city in Guangdong provinces of China, Province in southern China. It consists of three urban distri ...

to the east, and looks out to the

South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by South China, in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan island, Taiwan and northwestern Philippines (mainly Luz ...

to the south. The local dialect is the

Gaoyang dialect Gaoyang (高陽) may refer to: *Gaoyang dialect (高陽方言), a dialect of Cantonese *Zhuanxu, or Gaoyang, legendary monarch of ancient China *Gao Yang, personal name of Emperor Wenxuan of Northern Qi Places in China *Gaoyang County, Hebei *Gaoy ...

, a branch of

Yue Chinese Yue () is a branch of the Sinitic languages primarily spoken in Northern and southern China, Southern China, particularly in the provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi (collectively known as Liangguang). The term Cantonese is often used to refer ...

. During the 2020 census, its population was 2,602,959 inhabitants of whom 1,292,987 lived in the built-up (''or metro'') and largely urbanized area comprising Jiangcheng District and Yangdong County.

History

Under the

Qing The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

, made up part of the

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 G ...

Zhaoqing Zhaoqing ( zh, c=肇庆), alternately romanized as Shiuhing, is a prefecture-level city in Guangdong Province, China. As of the 2020 census, its population was 4,113,594, with 1,553,109 living in the built-up (or metro) area made of Duanz ...

. It was later split off as a separate prefecture in its own right.

Administration

The

of Yangjiang administers 4 county-level divisions, including 2

districts A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions ...

, 1

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 ...

and 1

counties A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

. Yangjiang is located about from

Guangzhou Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...

, about 2.5 hours by bus. Notable areas include Zhapo Beach and Hailing Island near Shapa Town.

Economy and culture

Yangjiang is the base of Yangjiang Shibazi, a knife manufacturer. The

Yangjiang Group The Yangjiang Group is a Chinese artist collective founded in 2002 by Zheng Guogu (born 1970), Chen Zaiyan (born 1971), and Sun Qinglin (born 1974). The group's name takes after their hometown in Yangjiang, Guangdong Province. The Yangjiang Group' ...

artist collective is based in the city, and its members' work is largely inspired by the locality. Yangjiang is home to six nuclear reactors, the largest nuclear power station in China.

Geography

The city is named for the Moyang River. The city was hit by a magnitude 5.9

earthquake An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they ...

on July 25, 1969 which killed over 3,000 people. The area is known for its relatively high levels of natural background radiation.

Climate

Yangjiang has a

monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in Atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annu ...

-influenced

humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a subtropical -temperate climate type, characterized by long and hot summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

''Cwa''), with mild to warm winters and long, hot (but not especially so) summers, and very humid conditions year-round. Winter begins sunny and dry but becomes progressively wetter and cloudier. Spring is generally overcast, while summer brings the heaviest rains of the year though is much sunnier; there are 12.6 days with or more rainfall. Autumn is sunny and dry. The monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from in January to in July, and the annual mean is . The annual rainfall is around , close to two-thirds of which occurs from May to August. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 18% in March to 55% in October, the city receives 1,757 hours of bright sunshine annually.

Notes

References

Citations

Bibliography

* , reprinted 2000.

External links

Government website of Yangjiang

Official Yangjiang Travel Site
{{Authority control Prefecture-level divisions of Guangdong