A Long History of Chenzhou

Chenzhou has a centuries-old history. The line-carved bone of later Paleolithic period discovered within the boundaries of Guiyang County indicated that, as early as in more than 10,000 years ago, there were primitive people living on this land. the character "chen" belonged only to Chenzhou. It has a history of more than 2000 years from as early as Qin Dynasty. The  characters "chen", is consisted of the forest and the Yi, which means "the city in the forest". The character "chen" can be found in history record books the Grand Historian written by Sima Qian in Han Dynasty. It recorded (Xiang Yu) "made the Yidi Emperor move to Chenxian in changsha ". From then time, the character "chen" began to appear impressively on paper, enjoying great popularity. Chenzhou has the history records more than 2,000 years. In 221 B.C., Qin Shihuang Emperor unified the China. He divided the country into 36 counties and set Guizhou County and Changsha County in Hunan, with Chenxian of Chenzhou governed under Changsha County. In Western Han Dynasty, Changsha South County was setup as Guiyang County governing 11 counties; In Southern and Northern Dynasties, Song, Qi, Liang, it was called Guiyang State. In Chen it was called Guiyang County again. Sui Wendi abandoned the Guiyang County, and set up Chenzhou; Emperor Xuanzong in Tang dynasty in first year of Tianbao, named it Guiyang County. Song called Chenzhou the Guiyang County, and set up the armed force there. The Yuan dynasty and Ming dynasty changed the Chenzhou in to Road unit, and set up administration or government office there. In Qing dynasty it was called Zhili Zhou (Directly Governed Administration). Republic of China changed it into a county. All previous dynasties set up administrations in Chenzhou.

Advantageous Geographical Position

Chenzhou enjoys unique geographical advantages. Chenzhou is located southeast of Hunan Province, where the Nanling Cordillera and the Luoxiao Cordillera interlock, and where the Yangtze River system and the Pearl River system diverge. It's "pharynx and larynx" leading to the coastal South China from central China since the ancient times. It is not only is important military site, but also a birthplace of many men of letters. Jiangxi Ganzhou is to the east; Guangdong Shaoguan is to the south, Hunan Yongzhou is to the west; Hunan Hengyang, Zhuzhou are to the north. It is known to be Hunan South Gate.

Within the boundary, landforms are complex and diverse. It is characterized by massifs primarily, equal amount of hillocks and plains, and less water surface. The mountainous region area approximately composes nearly 3/4 of the total area. The southeast topography is high and northwest is low. The southeast area is the main body of the mountainous region. Knolls, Hillocks, plains mainly form the northeast part.

In the end of 2001 the total population reached 4.5596 million. The urban population accounts for 26% of the total population, the rural population 74%. Presently it governs two districts (Beihu, Suxian), a city (Zixing), eight counties (Guiyang, Yongxing, Yizhang, Jiahe, Linwu, Lucheng, Anren, Guidong) with the total area of 19,400 square kilometers, 9.2%of the entire province. The land area per person is 7.09 Chinese acres, 1.7 Chinese acres more than province average, ranking third among entire province.

Chenzhou downtown, called Linyi in ancient times, located in central Chenzhou, had been administration center for all previous dynasties. It is now also the city's politics, economy, culture, science and technology and the education center. In November, 1959, Chenzhou Town under Chenxian County was separated as a city-governed place. In 1963 it was changed back to Chenzhou Town. In 1977, it restored the county-level city. In 1995, it established municipality.

Chenzhou is located between the north latitude 24¡ã53 ' and 26¡ã50 ', belonging to the central Asia tropics monsoon moist climatic region. Because the north and south air current is affected by the Nanling Cordillera¡¯s integrated conditions (landforms, soils, vegetations, elevations), the solar radiation forms many kinds of types the three-dimensional distribution. Vertical and regional difference is great. It has four distinct seasons, spring early and changeable, summer hot and long, fall clear and dry, winter cold and short. The annual average temperature is 17.4 ¡æ, the annual average precipitation 1452.1 millimeters, 19.7 millimeters more than province average, 2.22 times of national precipitation, 1.3 times of world mainland annual level of precipitation. Thanks to its warm and moist climate, clear water and green hills, beautiful sceneries, it has always enjoyed high reputations. Just like the character "³»" consisting of Lin and Yi, (the city in the forest), the forest and the city comprise a harmonious whole.

Convenient Transportation and Communication

Chenzhou has always been called small "passageway of the Chu and Yue countries". At present is has expressways and national highways running through from north to south, and first-class highways and provincial highways running through from east to west, forming horizontal and vertical transportation pattern extending in all directions.

National transportation artery Beijing-Guangzhou multiple tracks electric railways, the 107 national highway, 106 national highway, run through north and south, providing unimpeded channels for travelers and goods. Trains going north to Changsha, or going south to Guangzhou can start in the morning and arrive at noon. Entering 21st century, Beijing-Zhuzhou expressway makes Chenzhou's convenient transportation "even more powerful", the north and south transportation more convenient.

The provincial highway 1806 and 1803 connect east of Jiangxi and west of Guangxi, thus constituting "three vertical and three horizontal" for three-dimension transportation network. By the end of 2001, the total length came to 16,152 kilometers, with the village road rate 99.19%, occupying first in the province. Among them, the city's first-class highways amount to 232 kilometers; 6 of 11 counties (cities, districts) center had the first-class highways, being leading in the province. The telecommunication network proliferates to cities and country sides, and electric wave transmission communicates everywhere. Chenzhou had built the modern telecommunication network of large capacity, high velocity, wide extension, such as telecommunication transmission exchange network, wide band network, multimedia synthetic information service network, the seventh information network, the digital synchronization network, the digital data network, central surveillance and monitoring network, and so on. The telecommunication optical cables cover most villages and towns. The city's program controlled switch total capacity reaches 620,000; the telephone master line users household amount to 462,000 households. Computers amount to more than 20,000, 20 times of 1995. Chenzhou Mobile and Chenzhou Unicom had built the air communication network, providing the mobile phone voice communication service for the customers, and successively the voice mailbox, stored-card, mobile IP telephone, the short message service, the mobile internet service, mobile secretary, mobile information and news, 126/127/198/199 wireless service, 193 long-distance telephone calls, 165 internets. These form three-dimensional wired and wireless communication network.