Established in 1961, Zaozhuang was one of four cities under the direct administration of Shandong Provincial Government. Under her administration, there are five districts and one county-level city, such as Shizhong District, Xuecheng District, Shanting District, Yicheng District and Tengzhou City, covering an area of 4,563 square kilometers with a population of 3.82 million people. Located in the southern part of Shandong Province in, Zaozhuang is an important city on the Lunan Economic Belt and Huaihai Economic Zone, as is called “Watertown in the North of Yangtz River, Ancient City on the Grand Canal”.
Zaozhuang is a city with a rich and long history which can be presented by “4 figures”. The first is the culture of earliest ancestor that “Beixin Culture” was created splendidly 7,300 years ago and considered as the oldest culture of Huanghuai archaeological discovery. And it is also the resource of Dongyi Culture. The second is the culture of city-state 4,300 years ago which was proved by 7 dotted ancient towns in earlier period of Qin Dynasty, it is also one of the two areas in China for its density of ancient towns. The third one is the culture of the Canal 2,700 years ago, the Canal in our region was excavated in the Period of Spring and Autumn in Chinese history; Taierzhuang Ancient Town represents the culture of Canal due to its bright characteristic of culture-mixture between the South and North on the Canal from Beijing to Hangzhou, and also the culture-mixture of Chinese with Western. There still keeps the ancient waterway and dock of 1,000-year old. The fourth is the culture of industry. Zaozhuang is the cradle of culture for modern industry in China. The Zhongxing Company, established in 1878, was the first stock-limited enterprise which was the first modern Chinese national capital enterprise with the issuing of first stock in Chinese history.
With the natural and charming scenery, Zaozhuang has been considered as the rich place with elegant mountains, rivers, cultural and historic relics. It can be summed up by 4 of the most, the hugest and most beautiful Wetland Park at national level---Weishan Lake Wetland Park. The longest rift valley by earthquake in China--- Xiongershan National Geologic Park, the most popular mountain--- Baodugu National Forest Park and the largest pomegranate orchard in the world--- 120,000-Mu-Pomegarnate Orchard“
Zaozhuang enjoys the advantages of transportation network, located at the cross of Europe-Asia continental bridge and three Golden Channels for the past, today and future. The golden channel for the past was the Grand Canal from Beijing to Hangzhou, today’s is the railway from Beijing to Shanghai which carries largest value for cargo-transporting, the golden channel for future is the express railway from Beijing to Shanghai, especially after the completion of this express-railway, you may reach Beijing or Shanghai just in 2.5 hours from our city.
Zaozhuang is a typical city with resource-based economy. In the past few years, Zaozhuang Municipal Party Committee and Zaozhuang Municipal Government earnestly apply and implement the Scientific Outlook on Development, unshakeably implementing the strategy of transformation of resource-dependent city. Zaozhuang begins the “Three Battles” such as Coal-chemistry development, Tourism culture development and urban construction development and starts a new-sustainable-development way. In 2009, the GDP of the City, the added value of state-owned and large non-state industrial enterprise and total financial income of local government reached 120 billion Yuan, 60 billion Yuan and 60 billion Yuan respectively.
