Cenxi () is a

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 ...

under the administration of

Wuzhou Wuzhou ( zh, s= , p=Wúzhōu, j=Ng⁴zau¹, postal: Wuchow; ), formerly Ngchow, is a prefecture-level city in the east of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China. Geography and climate Wuzhou is located in eastern Guangxi ...

City, in the east of

Guangxi Guangxi,; officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China, located in South China and bordering Vietnam (Hà Giang Province, Hà Giang, Cao Bằn ...

, China.

History

The first state that governed the current area of Cenxi was the Nanyue Kingdom, which was succeeded by the

Han dynasty The Han dynasty was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC9 AD, 25–220 AD) established by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 BC ...

, which established Mengling

County 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 ...

(猛陵縣) on current area of Cenxi. During the

Southern dynasties The Northern and Southern dynasties () was a period of political division in the history of China that lasted from 420 to 589, following the tumultuous era of the Sixteen Kingdoms and the Eastern Jin dynasty. It is sometimes considered as ...

on A.D. 524, Yongye

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 ...

(永業縣) was established on current area of Cenxi, whereas during the

Sui dynasty The Sui dynasty ( ) was a short-lived Dynasties of China, Chinese imperial dynasty that ruled from 581 to 618. The re-unification of China proper under the Sui brought the Northern and Southern dynasties era to a close, ending a prolonged peri ...

on A.D. 583, its administrative level was changed to County. Later in the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...

on A.D. 622, it was restructured to Nanyi Zhou (南義州), which was subdivided into 3 counties: Anyi (安義), Longcheng (龍城) and Yicheng (義城). On A.D. 757, Longcheng County was renamed to Cenxi County, which became the precursor of current name. During the

Northern Song dynasty The Song dynasty ( ) was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Ten Kingdoms, endin ...

on A.D. 973, the aforementioned 3 counties were reintegrated into Cenxi County, and then this name was retained during subsequent dynasties and states.

Geography

Cenxi borders with

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 and its downtown is 32 kilometres west of the boundary. It situates on

Lingnan Lingnan (; ) is a geographic area referring to the lands in the south of the Nanling Mountains. The region covers the modern China, Chinese subdivisions of Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Hong Kong & Macau and Northern Vietnam. Background The ar ...

hügelland, featured with mostly mountains, and its climate is characterised as

humid subtropical 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 la ...

. The municipality comprises a downtown core, several rural town hubs, and hundreds of rural villages.

Agricultural Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created f ...

fields and

forests A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense community of 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 functio ...

account for most of the landmasses. The region contains massive and diverse natural occurrence of granite resources.

Administrative divisions

Cenxi administers 14 towns: Towns: * Cencheng (岑城镇), Malu (马路镇), Nandu (南渡镇), Shuiwen (水汶镇), Dalong (大隆镇), Limu (黎木镇), Daye (大业镇), Jinzhu (筋竹镇), Chengjian (城谏镇), Guiyi (归义镇), Nuodong (糯垌镇), Anping (安平镇), Sanbao (三堡镇), Botang (波塘镇)

Demographics

The total population at the point of 2006 was approximately 0.78 million, of which ethnic Han people account for 99.6% of the total population. By the records of household registration, 15.8% of the population are non-agricultural, and 84.2% are agricultural.

Language

Cenxi situates close to the westernmost edge of Cantonese-speaking area, and the great majority of local population speak a

vernacular Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken language, spoken form of language, particularly when perceptual dialectology, perceived as having lower social status or less Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige than standard language, which is mor ...

that is classified under the Goulou dialect (勾漏片), a Cantonese variety that is moderately related to

standard Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While the ...

(i.e.

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 ...

dialect) in terms of vocabulary, grammar and phonetics, and remains largely mutually intelligible with most of the Cantonese varieties. Unlike other Cantonese-speaking major cities (e.g.

and

Nanning Nanning; is the capital of the Guangxi, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in South China, southern China. It is known as the "Green City (绿城) " because of its abundance of lush subtropical foliage. Located in the South of Guangxi, Nanning ...

), Cenxi dialect continues to be the

mother tongue A first language (L1), native language, native tongue, or mother tongue is the first language a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongue'' refers ...

of the majority of local residents and widely spoken on a daily basis, thanks to its low immigration and relatively isolated geography.

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

is the medium of instruction at schools, but only used when communicating with non-Cantonese aliens.

Notable people

* Liang Fangwu (梁方伍/梁天桂/梁天柱).

Kungfu Chinese martial arts, commonly referred to with umbrella terms Kung fu (term), kung fu (; ), kuoshu () or wushu (sport), wushu (), are Styles of Chinese martial arts, multiple fighting styles that have developed over the centuries in Greater Ch ...

master in Faat Ga Family of martial arts. * Chen Jihuan (陈济桓). Military general in

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War was fought between the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the Empire of Japan between 1937 and 1945, following a period of war localized to Manchuria that started in 1931. It is considered part ...

History

Geography

Administrative divisions

Demographics

Language

Notable people

Climate

References

External links