Chaozhou, China

This article is about the Chinese town; for the Zen monk Chao-chou, see Zhaozhou. For the township in the Republic of China see Chaojhou.

Chaozhou (Chinese: 潮州 lit. "Tide Prefecture"; pinyin: Cháozhōu; Wade-Giles: Ch'ao²-chou¹, Postal Romanization: Chiuchow, Teochew, Tiuchiu, Teochiu Minnan: Diō-jiu, Teō-chiu, ) is a prefecture-level city in Guangdong Province, China. Population 1.24 million.

Location

Chaozhou is located in the easternmost part of Guangdong Province, north of the coastal Shantou City. It is located in the north of the delta of the Hanjiang River (韓江), which flows through the city.

History

In 214 BC, Chaozhou was an undeveloped and unnamed part of Nanhai Commandry (南海郡) of the Qin Empire. In 331 during the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Haiyang (海陽縣) was established as a part of Dongguan Commandry (東官郡).

Dongguan Commandry was renamed to Yi'an Commandry (義安郡) in 413. The commandry became a prefecture in 590 in the early Sui Dynasty; first as Xun Prefecture (循州, Xunzhou), then as Chao Prefecture (潮州, Chaozhou) in the following year. In 1914, the Republic of China government combined Chao and Xun prefectures into Chaoxun Prefecture or Chaoxun Circuit (潮循道).

For a short while in the Sui Dynasty and early Tang, Haiyang District was called Yi'an District (義安縣). The district's name remained Haiyang until 1914, when it was renamed to Chao'an County (潮安縣) to avoid ambiguity with the Haiyang County of Shandong Province.

The seat of the 1951 Guangdong People's Government was at Chao'an County, a part of it was created as Chao'an City in 1953 and later that year renamed to Chaozhou City (county-level). In 1955, the provincial seat moved to Shantou. Chaozhou City was abolished five years later, and reestablished again in 1979. In 1983, the situation was reversed, with Chao'an abolished and made a part of Chaozhou City. Chaozhou was made a provincially-administered city in January 1989, and a vice-prefecture-level city in January 1990.

Together, Chaozhou and the nearby city Shantou are called "Chao-Shan" (潮汕); Chaoshan was used as the name of the joint political-administrative area which encompassed the two cities from 1958 until 1983. For the next five years, Shantou City was a higher-level city containg Chaozhou within it. Currently, Chaozhou and Shantou are equal in status.

Administration

In December 1991, Chaozhou expanded to include:

• The newly established county-level Xiangqiao District (湘桥区)
• The revived Chao'an County.
  • Chao'an's capital was Fengxi (枫溪), then Anbu (庵埠).
• Raoping County, formerly governed by Shantou City, came to be administered by Chaozhou.

Sights

There are ruins of Christian buildings.

Miscellanea

Ch'ao-chou Township (潮州鎮), or Chaochou, of Pingtung County, Taiwan is named after Chaozhou. The township is 42.4331 km².