Zhucheng () 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 southeast of

Shandong Shandong ( , ; ; Chinese postal romanization, alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal Provinces of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region. Shandong has played a major role in His ...

province, People's Republic of China. It is under the administration of

Weifang Weifang () is a prefecture-level city in central Shandong province, People's Republic of China. The city borders Dongying to the northwest, Zibo to the west, Linyi to the southwest, Rizhao to the south, Qingdao to the east, and looks out to ...

city and had at the 2010 census a population of 1,086,222 even though its built-up (''or metro'') area is much smaller.

History

Zhucheng was originally known as Langya (). It was from here that Emperor

Qin Shi Huang Qin Shi Huang (, ; 259–210 BC) was the founder of the Qin dynasty and the first emperor of a unified China. Rather than maintain the title of " king" ( ''wáng'') borne by the previous Shang and Zhou rulers, he ruled as the First Empero ...

sent Xu Fu to sail towards Japan in 210 BC, in pursuit of the elixir of youth.

Song dynasty

During 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 ...

, Zhucheng was known as Dongwu. Major figures who hailed from the area during the Song Dynasty include painter Zhang Zeduan, , and Zhao Mingcheng.

Ming dynasty

Wan Zhen'er Imperial Noble Consort Wan () (1428－1487), born Wan Zhen'er (), was an imperial consort during the Ming dynasty. She is sometimes known as Consort Wan or Lady Wan and was the favorite consort of the Chenghua Emperor. She was approximately fifte ...

, a famous concubine to Hongzhi Emperor, was born in Zhucheng.

Qing dynasty

Major

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

figures from Zhucheng include Liu Tongxun, Liu Yong, and .

People's Republic of China

A number of Mao-era figures hailed from Zhucheng, including

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also Romanization of Chinese, romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the List of national founde ...

's last wife and leader of the

Gang of Four The Gang of Four () was a Maoist political faction composed of four Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials. They came to prominence during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) and were later charged with a series of treasonous crimes. The gang ...

, Jiang Qing, as well as

Kang Sheng Kang Sheng (; 4 November 1898 – 16 December 1975) was a Chinese Communist politician best known for having overseen the CCP's internal security and intelligence apparatus during the early 1940s and again at the height of the Cultural Revolu ...

. , former vice-governor of

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, is a native of Zhucheng. On January 31, 2021, the Zhucheng city government reported that a number of residents in experienced symptoms of gas poisoning due to illegal discharge of chemical waste in the city. On February 2, city authorities detained 16 suspects, and stated that the discharge had killed 4 people, and poisoned at least 37.

Administration

Zhucheng was upgraded to a

in 1987 and is administered as a provincial-level

economic development In the economics study of the public sector, economic and social development is the process by which the economic well-being and quality of life of a nation, region, local community, or an individual are improved according to targeted goals and ...

district, and had jurisdiction over 3 subdistricts and 10 towns.

Subdistricts

The city's 3 subdistricts are Mizhou Subdistrict, , and .

Towns

The city's 10 towns are , , , , , , , , , and .

Former divisions

Former Towns are merged to others include Lübiao (), Wanjiazhuang (), Qiankou (), Mengtuan (), Mazhuang (), Chenggezhuang (), Jiutai (), Guojiatun (), Zhujie (), Haogezhuang () and Wadian (). Wadian has been merged into Linjia Village and is now Wadian community. Former Townships are merged to others include Taolin (), Wujialou (), Taoyuan (), Shihetou (), Shimen (), and Shandongtou ().

Climate

Economy

In 2005, Zhucheng had a total output value of RMB 20.8 billion and an average annual growth rate of 16%. Zhucheng is projected to continue its 16% annual growth rate and attain a total output value of RMB 43.6 billion by 2010.

Economic Development Zone

The Zhucheng Industrial Park was approved by the Shandong Provincial Government in 1992. Its total area spans . The National Highway 206 which runs through it from south to north, and the city is linked by the Jiaoxin Railway Station, which connects it to

Qingdao Qingdao (, also spelled Tsingtao; , Mandarin: ) is a major city in eastern Shandong Province. The city's name in Chinese characters literally means " azure island". Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, it is a major nodal city of the One Belt ...

, east, Rizhao, south, and

city, north. As of 2001, industries based at the zone included

food processing Food processing is the transformation of agricultural products into food, or of one form of food into other forms. Food processing includes many forms of processing foods, from grinding grain to make raw flour to home cooking to complex in ...

chemicals A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., wit ...

building materials Building material is material used for construction. Many naturally occurring substances, such as clay, rocks, sand, wood, and even twigs and leaves, have been used to construct buildings. Apart from naturally occurring materials, many man- ...

, textiles and

electromechanic In engineering, electromechanics combines processes and procedures drawn from electrical engineering and mechanical engineering. Electromechanics focuses on the interaction of electrical and mechanical systems as a whole and how the two systems ...

al products, and 2001 annual total industrial output was 2 billion yuan, with the added industrial value of 350 million yuan. For 2001, exports were US$68.92 million, and revenue was 83.17 million yuan.

Transportation

Zhucheng is about an hour's drive from

city.

Dinosaur city

Zhucheng has been an important site for

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

excavation since 1960. The local community is known to use calcium rich fossils for traditional village remedies used to treat muscle cramps and other minor ailments. The world's largest

hadrosaurid Hadrosaurids (), or duck-billed dinosaurs, are members of the ornithischian family Hadrosauridae. This group is known as the duck-billed dinosaurs for the flat duck-bill appearance of the bones in their snouts. The ornithopod family, which inclu ...

fossil was found in Zhucheng in the 1980s and is on display in the local museum. Scientists have collected more than of fossils since 1960. The city has also been a place for smuggling of dinosaur bones; in January 2008, Australia returned hundreds of kilograms of Chinese dinosaur fossils, including dinosaur fossil eggs. These fossils were recovered during a

sting operation In law enforcement, a sting operation is a deceptive operation designed to catch a person attempting to commit a crime. A typical sting will have an undercover law enforcement officer, detective, or co-operative member of the public play a role ...

carried out on warehouses and cargo containers."One good fossil deserves another: China's gift to Australia"
''Brisbane Times'', 24 May 2008 The

ceratopsia Ceratopsia or Ceratopia ( or ; Greek: "horned faces") is a group of herbivorous, beaked dinosaurs that thrived in what are now North America, Europe, and Asia, during the Cretaceous Period, although ancestral forms lived earlier, in the Jurass ...

n '' Zhuchengceratops'' (2010),

sauropod Sauropoda (), whose members are known as sauropods (; from '' sauro-'' + '' -pod'', ' lizard-footed'), is a clade of saurischian ('lizard-hipped') dinosaurs. Sauropods had very long necks, long tails, small heads (relative to the rest of their ...

'' Zhuchengtitan'' (2017) and

theropod Theropoda (; ), whose members are known as theropods, is a dinosaur clade that is characterized by hollow bones and three toes and claws on each limb. Theropods are generally classed as a group of saurischian dinosaurs. They were ancestrally c ...

'' Zhuchengtyrannus'' (2011) have been described from deposits near and named after Zhucheng.

2008 discovery

On 31 December 2008,

palaeontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of foss ...

s from the

Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology The Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP; ) of China is a research institution and collections repository for fossils, including many dinosaur and pterosaur specimens (many from the Yixian Formation). As its name sugg ...

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); ), known by Academia Sinica in English until the 1980s, is the national academy of the People's Republic of China for natural sciences. It has historical origins in the Academia Sinica during the Republi ...

announced they have unearthed 7,600

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s since March 2008 around Zhucheng. The latest sites to be discovered are near the towns of Longdu, Shunwang, Jiayue and Zhigou. The palaeontologists believe they have found one of the biggest sites of

remains from a massive excavation pit. The fossilized bones date to the late

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', ...

just prior to the

Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event The Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event (also known as the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction) was a sudden mass extinction of three-quarters of the plant and animal species on Earth, approximately 66 million years ago. With the ...

. The findings also include the remains of a

, a record size for the duck-billed dinosaur. A fossilized skull of a large

n was also found along with bones which belong to club-tailed

ankylosaurs Ankylosauria is a group of herbivorous dinosaurs of the order Ornithischia. It includes the great majority of dinosaurs with armor in the form of bony osteoderms, similar to turtles. Ankylosaurs were bulky quadrupeds, with short, powerful limbs. ...

. According to Professor Zhao Xijin, a

in charge of the excavations from the

, "This group of fossilised dinosaurs is currently the largest ever discovered in the world... in terms of area." Such a high concentration of fossil bones in such a small area is significant for the theories of extinction of dinosaurs. A detailed scientific journal on the fossils is expected to be published later in 2009. Excavations are currently suspended for the winter but will resume when the weather gets warmer. Scientists believe a volcanic eruption may have killed the dinosaurs, and a subsequent flood carried the fossils to Zhucheng, which may have been a wetland covered in grass. The local authorities in

are making plans to set up a fossil park in the area.

Demographic and culture

Zhucheng is heavily industrialized and is one of the few dozen cities of China exceeding a million inhabitants. The major ethnic groups comprising the city include

Han Chinese The Han Chinese () or Han people (), are an East Asian ethnic group native to China. They constitute the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 18% of the global population and consisting of various subgroups speaking distinctive v ...

(99.7%),

Manchu The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) an ...

(0.1%), Korean (0.1%) and Hui (0.1%). The city has a Christian population of approximately of 19,000 (1.8%). Based on a census from the year 1990, the city had 523,425 males and 507,233 females with 260,678 households. Zhucheng's

sister city A sister city or a twin town relationship is a form of legal or social agreement between two geographically and politically distinct localities for the purpose of promoting cultural and commercial ties. While there are early examples of inter ...

is Belleville, Ontario,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

References

External links

Official website
{{County-level divisions of Shandong Cities in Shandong Paleontology in Shandong Weifang