Bozhou () 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 ...

in northwestern

Anhui Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze Riv ...

province, China. It borders

Huaibei Huaibei () is a prefecture-level city in northern Anhui Province, China. It borders Suzhou (Anhui) to the east, Bengbu to the south, Bozhou to the west, and the provinces of Henan to the northwest and Jiangsu to the northeast. The population wa ...

to the northeast, Bengbu to the southeast,

Huainan Huainan () is a prefecture-level city with 3,033,528 inhabitants as of the 2020 census in north-central Anhui province, China. It is named for the Han-era Principality of Huainan. It borders the provincial capital of Hefei to the south, Lu'an ...

to the south, Fuyang to the southwest, and

Henan Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is a ...

to the north. Its population was 4,996,844 at the 2020 census, of whom 1,537,231 lived in the built-up area made of Qiaocheng urban district, even though the county remains largely rural.

Administration

The

of Bozhou administers 4 county-level divisions, including 1

district 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, subdivision ...

and 3 counties. * Qiaocheng District () * Guoyang County () * Lixin County () * Mengcheng County ()

Geography

Bozhou features 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 atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...

-influenced

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 ''Cwa'') with four distinct seasons. With an annual mean temperature of , the monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from in January to in August. Winters are damp and cold (yet the precipitation is low) while summers are hot and humid. Rainfall is heavily concentrated in the warmer months, as more than half of the annual total occurs from June to August. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 46% in January and March to 54% in May, the city receives 2,242 hours of bright sunshine annually.

History

Bozhou was, in addition to being a prefecture 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 ...

, once the Qiao Commandery () at the time of the

Sui dynasty The Sui dynasty (, ) was a short-lived imperial dynasty of China that lasted from 581 to 618. The Sui unified the Northern and Southern dynasties, thus ending the long period of division following the fall of the Western Jin dynasty, and la ...

. In 1355, during the

Yuan dynasty The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fif ...

, Han Lin'er () was proclaimed by Liu Futong () to be the

Emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother ( ...

of Great Song (, a reference to the extinct

Song dynasty The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the res ...

) with the

regnal year A regnal year is a year of the reign of a sovereign, from the Latin ''regnum'' meaning kingdom, rule. Regnal years considered the date as an ordinal, not a cardinal number. For example, a monarch could have a first year of rule, a second year ...

Longfeng (). Chao was nicknamed "The Little

Ming The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han pe ...

King" (). In 1368, Bo Prefecture was downgraded in status and became a

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

. In 1496, it was again upgraded to a prefecture then later lowered to a county in 1912 when it became Bo County. In May 1986, it was upgraded to a county-level city administered by Fuyang Prefecture (). In 1996, Bozhou was upgraded to a provincially directly administered city (), under the control of Fuyang City on behalf of the province. The province has directly administered Bozhou since February 1998. In June 2000, Bozhou was made a

. The city is located on two main Chinese train routes running from Beijing to the south and from the east to Shanghai which facilitate the easy transportation of goods and people. Bozhou's population currently stands at around the three million mark which makes it small by Chinese standards. Whilst Bozhou is currently developing and expanding, it still has few internationally recognized brands based in the city.

Traditional Chinese Medicine Market

Bozhou is currently the capital of

Traditional Chinese medicine Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. It has been described as "fraught with pseudoscience", with the majority of its treatments having no logical mechanism of acti ...

(TCM) in mainland China, with one of the largest TCM industries and production area in the country. In 2008, companies based in Bozhou exported over 160,000 tons of products (out of total Chinese exports of 240,000 tons). Whilst relatively underdeveloped compared to coastal regions of China, Bozhou continues to be the primary location and trading hub for TCM within China. The international TCM Expo is held in Bozhou in September each year which sees delegates from around the world coming to discuss TCM.

Notable people

* Cao Song, father of Cao Cao **

Cao Cao Cao Cao () (; 155 – 15 March 220), courtesy name Mengde (), was a Chinese statesman, warlord and poet. He was the penultimate grand chancellor of the Eastern Han dynasty, and he amassed immense power in the dynasty's final years. As one o ...

(155 - 220), last

chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

and ''de facto'' ruler of the

Eastern Han Dynasty The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by th ...

* Hua Tuo (110 - 208 (estimated)), renowned Eastern Han Dynasty

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

, first inventor of

general anaesthesia General anaesthesia (UK) or general anesthesia (US) is a medically induced loss of consciousness that renders the patient unarousable even with painful stimuli. This effect is achieved by administering either intravenous or inhalational general ...

* Hua Mulan, legendary heroine who disguised herself as a man in order to replace her father in the army draft * Zhang Jun, (b. 1963), economist and professor at Fudan University

References

External links

Government website of Bozhou
(in Simplified Chinese)
New English version of Bozhou's tourist website
{{Anhui Cities in Anhui