Chenzhou boasts a long history. The line-carved bone of late Paleolithic period discovered within the boundaries of Guiyang County indicated that, as early as more than 10,000 years ago, there were primitive people living on this land. It has a history of more than 2000 years originating from Qin Dynasty.

 

The character "chen" in Chinese means it is "the city in the forest". The character can be found in The Records of the Grand Historian (Chinese name: Shiji) written by Sima Qian (the father of Chinese historiography) in Han Dynasty (202 B.C.-220 A.D.). It recorded that Xiang Yu (a prominent military leader and political figure from the late Qin Dynasty in Chinese history) "made the Yidi Emperor move to Chenxian in Changsha ". Since then, the character "chen" began to appear impressively on paper, enjoying great popularity.

 

Chenzhou possesses history records originating from more than 2,000 years ago. In 221 B.C., the Emperor of Qin (Qin Shihuang) unified the then China. He divided the country into 36 counties and mapped out Guizhou County and Changsha County in Hunan Province, with Chenxian of Chenzhou under the jurisdiction of Changsha County. In Western Han Dynasty (202 B.C. – 9 A.D.), Changsha South County was set up as Guiyang County governing 11 counties; in Southern and Northern Dynasties (420-589), Song (420-479) , Qi (479-502), and Liang (502-557) called it Guiyang Country, and Chen (557-589) Guiyang County. Emperor Wen of Sui Dynasty (581-618) abandoned the name of Guiyang, and adopted the name of Chenzhou; Emperor Xuanzong of Tang dynasty (618-907) in 742 A.D. named it Guiyang County. In Song Dynasty (960-1279) it was called Chenzhou, and the armed force was set up here. In Yuan Dynasty (1206-1368) and Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), an administration was set up here. In Qing Dynasty (1636-1911) it was called Zhili Zhou (a directly governed administration). The administration of the Republic of China (1912-1949) turned it into a county. All previous dynasties set up administrations in Chenzhou.

 

 

Chenzhou enjoys unique geographical advantages. It is located in southeast Hunan Province, where the Nanling Cordillera and the Luoxiao Cordillera interlock and 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 an important military site, but also a birthplace for men of letters. Ganzhou City of Jiangxi Province is to the east; Shaoguan City of Guangdong Province is to the south, Yongzhou City of Hunan Province is to the west; and Hengyang City as well as Zhuzhou City of Hunan Province are to the north. It is known as Hunan's 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 city's total area. The topography of its southeast part is high while that of northwest part is low. The southeast area is the main body of the mountainous region. Knolls, hillocks, plains jointly form the topography of Chenzhou's northeast part.

 

At the end of 2001, the total population of Chenzhou reached 4.5596 million. The urban population accounted for 26% and the rural population 74%. Presently it governs two districts (Beihu and Suxian), one city (Zixing), and eight counties (Guiyang, Yongxing, Yizhang, Jiahe, Linwu, Rucheng, Anren and Guidong) with a total area of 19,400 square kilometers, accounting for 9.2% of the total area of the province. Per capita land area is 0.211 hectares, which is 0.113 hectares more than the provincial average and ranking third within the province.

 

Chenzhou downtown, called Linyi in ancient times and located in central Chenzhou, was the administrative center in all previous dynasties. It is now also the city's political, economic, cultural, scientific, technological and educational center. In November 1959, Chenzhou Town under Chenxian County was identified as a county-level city. In 1963 it was changed back to a town and in 1977 it was recognized again as a county-level city. In 1995, Chenzhou established its prefecture-level city.

 

Chenzhou is located between 24°53 'N and 26°50 'N, featuring the humid subtropical climate. Because the north and south air currents are affected by the Nanling Cordillera's complex geographic conditions (landforms, soils, vegetations, and elevations), the four seasons are distinct here: spring early and changeable, summer hot and long, autumn clear and dry, and winter cold and short. The annual average temperature is 17.4℃, and the annual average precipitation is 1452.1 millimeters, which is 19.7 millimeters higher than that of the province, 2.22 times that of the nation, and 1.3 times that of the world’s continents. Thanks to its warm and moist climate, clear water, green hills and beautiful sceneries, it has always enjoyed a high reputation on environment. Just like the meaning of the Chinese character "chen", the forest and the urban area comprise a harmonious city.

 

 

Chenzhou was called the small "passageway of the Chu and Yue States (sovereign states in present-day central and southern China during the Spring and Autumn Period (722-481BC) and warring States Period (481-221BC))" in ancient time. At present it is facilitated with expressways and national highways running through from north to south, and first-class highways and provincial highways running through from east to west, forming transportation networks extending to all directions.

 

The national arteries of Beijing-Guangzhou multiple-track electric railway, the 106 and 107 National Highway run through the city in north-south direction, providing unimpeded channels for travelers. Trains stretch out towards north to Changsha City of Hunan Province, and south to Guangzhou City of Guangdong Province by departing in the morning and arriving at noon. Entering 21st century, Beijing-Zhuzhou expressway makes Chenzhou's transportation more convenient and even more powerful. The Provincial Highways 1806 and 1803 link east Jiangxi to west Guangxi, thus constitute a three-dimensional transportation network. By the end of 2001, the total length of the network reached 16,152 kilometers, with a village road covering rate of 99.19%, ranking first in the province. Among them, the length of the city's first-class highways amounted to 232 kilometers; 6 of 11 counties (cities, districts) had been covered by the first-class highways, leading in the province.

 

The covering rate of the telecommunication network soars in cities and countrysides, and electromagnetic wave transmission communicates through the municipality. Chenzhou has built a modern telecommunication network with large capacity, high velocity and wide extension, which contains 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 Chenzhou's most villages and towns. The city's total capacity of the program controlled switch reaches 620,000; and the telephone master line household users amount to 462,000. Computer coverage amounts to more than 20,000, 20 times that in 1995. Chenzhou Mobile and Chenzhou Unicom have jointly built up the air-ground communication network in the city, able to provide mobile phone services for the local customers as well as some supporting services such as 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, and so on. All these facilities have cooperatively formed three-dimensional wired and wireless communication networks.