Yuzhou () is a

county-level city A county-level municipality (), county-level city or county city, formerly known as prefecture-controlled city (1949–1970: ; 1970–1983: ), is a county-level administrative division of the People's Republic of China. County-level ...

in the central part of

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 ...

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

. It occupies the northwest corner of the

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 ...

Xuchang Xuchang (; postal: Hsuchang) is a prefecture-level city in central Henan province in Central China. It borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the northwest, Kaifeng to the northeast, Zhoukou to the east, Luohe to the southeast, and Pi ...

. The city is named for

Yu the Great Yu the Great (大禹) was a legendary king in ancient China who was famed for his introduction of flood control, his establishment of the Xia dynasty which inaugurated dynastic rule in China, and his upright moral character. He figures promine ...

, the founder of the Xia Dynasty, which the city's government claims was founded in present-day Yuzhou, and that the dynasty's capital was located in present-day Yuzhou. There is a statue of Yu the Great in Yuzhou, and he serves as a symbol of the city. The famous Jun ware () of

porcelain Porcelain () is a ceramic material made by heating substances, generally including materials such as kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arises main ...

originates in Yuzhou, specifically, in the town of (). Jun ware comprises one of the Five Great Kilns, a group of highly esteemed porcelain types from the

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 ...

. Yuzhou has historically served as a major center 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 ...

, and the city's historic medicinal tradition has been recognized by the national government. Famous Chinese doctor Sun Simiao () had been a doctor in Yuzhou for a long period of time 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 ...

. Nicknames for the city include "Summer Capital" (), "Jun Capital" (), and "Medicine Capital" (). Yuzhou was named the first historical and cultural city in Henan Province in 1989. In 2011, it was named "China Ceramics Historical and Cultural City", and in 2018, it was named "National Health City" by the .

History

The Wadian archeological site, part of a network of sites belonging to the Late Neolithic Longshan culture, is located in Yuzhou. The Wadian site spans an area of about , and contains a large complex believed to be an ancestral temple. Yuzhou was changed from 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 ...

to a

in 1988. At the beginning of January 2022, it was forced into a Covid-19 lockdown after three asymptomatic cases of

Covid-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quick ...

variants were discovered.

Geography

Yuzhou's urban center is located from Xinzheng International Airport, and from the urban center of the provincial capital of Zhengzhou. 23.24% of Yuzhou's area is

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

ed.

Climate

Administrative divisions

Yuzhou is directly divided into 5 subdistricts, 19

towns A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an or ...

, 1

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, ...

, and 1 ethnic township. These 26 township-level divisions then further administer 678 village-level divisions.

Subdistricts

Towns

Townships

* ()

Ethnic townships

* ()

Demographics

As of 2020, the per capita disposable income of Yuzhou's urban residents reached 35,330

renminbi The renminbi (; symbol: ¥; ISO code: CNY; abbreviation: RMB) is the official currency of the People's Republic of China and one of the world's most traded currencies, ranking as the fifth most traded currency in the world as of April 202 ...

(RMB), a 1.6% increase from 2019. This figure stood at 20,442 RMB for the city's rural residents, a 6.3% increase from 2019. 52% of Yuzhou's residents live in urban areas. 95% of Yuzhou's population is connected to the city's water grid, 90% of the population has a gas connection, and 58% receive municipal heating.

Economy

As of 2020, Yuzhou's

gross domestic product Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjective nature this measure is of ...

(GDP) totaled 84.96 billion

(RMB), a 3.1% increase from 2019. Yuzhou is located in the

Central Plains Economic Zone Zhongyuan Economic Zone () or Central Plain Economic Zone is the proposed economic development zone for the economic region in Henan Province and radiating to the surrounding areas by the Henan Provincial Government and the Chinese Central Governme ...

, an economic region of central

province, and borders the

Zhengzhou Airport Economy Zone Zhengzhou Airport Economy Zone (), abbreviated as ZAEZ, is an airport-based economy zone developed around Zhengzhou Xinzheng International Airport in Henan, People's Republic of China. It is located about to the southeast of Zhengzhou, and cov ...

Agriculture

Crops used in

are grown in large quantities in Yuzhou, and a 2021 government publication estimates that about 400,000 mu of cropland are used to grow plants for use in traditional Chinese medicine. The same report estimated that 170,000 mu of cropland in Yuzhou is used to grow

sweet potato The sweet potato or sweetpotato ('' Ipomoea batatas'') is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the bindweed or morning glory family, Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting tuberous roots are used as a root vegetable. The young ...

es.

Grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit ( caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legum ...

s are also grown in large quantities throughout the city, and a large number of pigs are raised Yuzhou.

Natural resources

The area of Yuzhou is home to significant deposits of

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms w ...

bauxite Bauxite is a sedimentary rock with a relatively high aluminium content. It is the world's main source of aluminium and gallium. Bauxite consists mostly of the aluminium minerals gibbsite (Al(OH)3), boehmite (γ-AlO(OH)) and diaspore (α-AlO ...

, and

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay pa ...

Electricity generation

The city is home to thermal power plants with a capacity of 2.02 million

kilowatts The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James W ...

Transportation

Rail

The Beijing–Guangzhou railway passes through east of Yuzhou. The Yuzhou–Dengfeng railway () runs through the western portion of Yuzhou, connecting the city to nearby

Dengfeng Dengfeng (; postal: Tengfeng) is a county-level city of Henan Province, South Central China, it is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Zhengzhou. Dengfeng has an area of and a population of 630,000. It occupies the so ...

. The begins in the city, linking it to the

of Bozhou in northwestern Anhui province.

Major roads

passes through east of Yuzhou. Major roads which run through Yuzhou include the , the S88 Zhengzhou–Xixia Expressway, and

provincial highways S103, S237, and S325.

References

{{County-level divisions of Henan
Cities in Henan County-level divisions of Henan Xuchang Late Neolithic