Zhengzhou, previously romanized as Chengchow, is the capital and the largest city of Henan Province, China. With a population of 12.6 million people in 2021, it is China's 11th largest city by population. Zhengzhou is situated in north-central Henan Province at the eastern foothills of the Xiong'er Mountains and on the southern bank of the Yellow River; where its valley widens into the North China Plain. Zhengzhou is a major city within the Zhongyuan region, an area that has been continuously inhabited for over 4,000 years, and is considered a cradle of Chinese civilization. It is one of China's nine national central cities, serving as a major political, economic and transport hub. The Zhengzhou metropolitan area, including Zhengzhou and Kaifeng, is the core area of the Central Plains Economic Zone.
Originally an early Shang dynasty urban center, the area that is now Zhengzhou was the site of the Shang capital Áo (隞) or Bó (亳) (c. 1600-1046 BC). Following the Shang dynasty, Zhengzhou remained an important regional city due to its strategic location on the North China Plains, and the city first became the seat of a prefectural administration in 587 CE in the Sui dynasty. In the Republican period, Nationalist forces breached the dikes at Huayuankou in June 1938, north of Zhengzhou, to hinder the Japanese advance during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The resulting flood inundated large areas of Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu provinces; the Yellow River did not return to its original course until 1947.
In the 1990s, following China's reform and opening up supported by Deng Xiaoping, Zhengzhou's economy expanded rapidly: its gross domestic product grew from ¥2.03 billion in 1978 to over ¥100 billion by 2003. As state monopoly reforms progressed throughout this decade, Zhengzhou pioneered commercial reforms among inland regions, with numerous wholesale markets forming near railway freight stations to facilitate the growth of private enterprises. The city had a total GDP of 1.524 trillion (RMB) in 2025. It is the home of the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange, the first futures exchange approved by the State Council of China in October 1990. The first Airport Economy Zone in China was established in Zhengzhou Airport Economy Zone. Zhengzhou has been classified as a Beta (global second-tier) city together with nine other cities in China, including Chongqing, Xiamen, Nanjing and Jinan by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Greater Zhengzhou was named as one of the 13 emerging megacities in China in a July 2012 report by the Economist Intelligence Unit, and was officially named as the eighth National Central City in 2017 by the central government in Beijing. The city holds the title of National Civilized City, and is also a National Famous Historical and Cultural City.
Zhengzhou is also a major city for scientific research, often appearing among the world's top 60 cities as tracked by the Nature Index. The city is home to multiple institutes of higher education, notably Zhengzhou University, Henan University, Henan Agricultural University, Henan University of Chinese Medicine, and Henan University of Technology. There are two World Heritage Sites in Zhengzhou and one UNESCO Global Geopark in Songshan, Dengfeng. The city is home to the headquarters of Yutong Bus, the largest bus manufacturer in the world by sales volume.
Etymology The settlement was originally known as "Guancheng", meaning "City of the Guan", named after the Guan family who held the area as a city-state.
In 583 AD, it became the seat of a prefecture and was renamed "Guanzhou", with "zhou" indicating a prefectural administrative division. The character Zheng (郑) refers to the Zheng state, which once governed the region.
History
Several city ruins dating back to the early Shang dynasty have been discovered in the Zhengzhou area, including candidate locations of the early Shang capitals Ao (), Bo () or Yan (). Since 1950, archaeological finds in the Zhengzhou Shang City, a Shang capital city located near the historical center of Zhengzhou, have provided evidence of Shang settlements in the area around 1600 BC.A H Dani (1992), Critical Assessment of Recent Evidence on Mohenjo-daro, Second International Symposium on Mohenjo-daro, 24–27 February. Outside of the city, remains of large public buildings and a complex of small settlements have been discovered at a site to the northwest. This site is identified by some as the Shang capital of Ao.
The Shang, who continually moved their capital, left the area around the 13th century BC. The Zhengzhou site, nevertheless, remained occupied; Zhou (post-1050 BC) tombs have also been discovered. After defeating the Shang, the King Wu of Zhou named three of his brothers as vassal rulers over territories around the core of the Shang kingdom. One of them was Shu Xian, who founded the city-state of Guan in what is now Zhengzhou. However, the three princes allied with Shang remnants and rebelled a few years later, although the rebellion was soon put down. From this derives the name borne by the county (xian) since the late 6th century BC—Guancheng (Guan City). The city first became the seat of a prefectural (zhou) administration in AD 587, when it was named Guanzhou.
The name Zhengzhou (Zheng Prefecture) dates back to the Sui dynasty (AD 582). During Sui times, the prefectural seat was located in Chenggao, another town. The prefecture moved to Guancheng during the Tang dynasty, and the city has been known as Zhengzhou ever since. It achieved great importance under the Sui (AD 581–618), Tang (618–907), and early Song (960–1127) dynasties, when it was the terminus of the New Bian Canal, which joined the Yellow River to the northwest. There, at a place called Heyin, a vast granary complex was established to supply the capitals at Luoyang and Chang'an to the west and the frontier armies to the north.
In 1903 the Beijing–Hankou Railway arrived at Zhengzhou, and in 1909 the first stage of the Longhai Railway gave it an east–west link to Kaifeng and Luoyang; it later was extended eastward to the coast at Lianyungang, Jiangsu, and westward to Xi'an (Chang'an), Shaanxi, as well as to western Shaanxi. Zhengzhou thus became a major rail junction and a regional center for cotton, grain, peanuts, and other agricultural produce. Early in 1923 a workers' strike began in Zhengzhou and spread along the rail line before it was suppressed; Erqi Memorial Tower, a 14-story double tower in the center of the city, commemorates the strike. On 10 June 1938, Chiang Kai-shek's National Revolutionary Army opened up the dikes retaining the Yellow River at Huayuankou between Zhengzhou and Kaifeng, in an effort to stem the tide of invading Japanese; however, the ensuing 1938 Yellow River flood also killed hundreds of thousands of Chinese.
Zhengzhou also has a locomotive and rolling-stock repair plant, a tractor-assembly plant, and a thermal generating station. The city's industrial growth has resulted in a large increase in the population, coming predominantly from industrial workers from the north. A water diversion project and pumping station, built in 1972, has provided irrigation for the surrounding countryside. The city has an agricultural university.
In 1954, the Henan Provincial Government relocated from Kaifeng to Zhengzhou, making Zhengzhou the provincial capital, as a result of its railway transportation importance.
Li Keqiang became the Communist Party Secretary of Henan province in 1998. As part of his advocacy for urbanisation, Li sought to position Zhengzhou as an engine for regional and national growth. During the 2010s, Zhengzhou's GDP averaged a 13.2% yearly increase. Between 2010 and 2018, its population doubled.
In July 2021, record breaking floods left over a million people displaced and at least 300 people dead.
Geography
Located just north of the province's centre and south of the Yellow River, Zhengzhou borders Luoyang to the west, Jiaozuo to the northwest, Xinxiang to the northeast, Kaifeng to the east, Xuchang to the southeast, and Pingdingshan to the southwest. With the land within its administrative borders generally sloping down from west to east, Zhengzhou is situated at the transitional zone between the North China Plain to the east and the Song Mountains and Xionger Mountains to the west, which are part of the greater Qinling range. The city centre is situated to the south of the middle reach of the Yellow River, where its valley broadens into the great plain. Zhengzhou is at the crossing point of the north–south route skirting the Taihang Mountains and the mountains of western Henan. The prefecture spans 34° 16' ~ 34° 58 N latitude and 112° 42' ~ 114° 14' E longitude, covering a total area of , including the metropolitan area, which covers , and the city centre, which occupies .
A section of the Yellow River passes by the northern edges of the urban area, extending within Zhengzhou prefecture. However, Jialu River, a secondary tributary of the Huai River, is Zhengzhou's main urban river and flood channel. The Jialu enters Zhengzhou from Xinmi to the southwest, and turns to the southeast within the city. Mountains loom over the western counties of Gongyi and Dengfeng while the easternmost county of Zhongmu is a vast, fertile floodplain, with the counties in between being hilly transitions.
Climate Zhengzhou experiences a monsoon-influenced, four-season humid subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification Cwa), with cool, dry winters and hot, humid summers. Spring and autumn are dry and somewhat abbreviated transition periods. The city has an annual mean temperature of , with the monthly 24-hour average temperature ranging from in January to in July. The frost-free period lasts on average 220 days. Extremes since 1951 have ranged from on 2 January 1955, 27 December 1971 and 1 February 1990 to on 19 July 1966.
Rainfall is primarily produced by the monsoonal low during summer; in winter, when the vast Siberian High dominates due to radiative cooling from further north, the area receives little precipitation. During the summer season, the city is also often affected by tropical depressions, which bring additional amounts of rain. The annual precipitation is about . With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 37 percent in January to 49 percent in April and May, the city receives 1,905 hours of sunshine per year, which is around 43% of the possible total.
In 2019, there were 177 good days in Zhengzhou, an increase of 9 days year-on-year, and 48.5% of the good days reached the standard. There were 24 days of heavy pollution, 9 days less than last year.
2021 flood On 20 July 2021, "The heaviest hour of rainfall ever reliably recorded in China crashed like a miles-wide waterfall over the city of Zhengzhou on 20 July, killing at least 300 people, including 14 who drowned in a subway tunnel." Although an emergency alert was issued the day before the flood, businesses and subways remained open. From 4pm to 5pm on 21 July, 7.95 inches of rain fell. A collapsed retaining wall allowed water to pour into subway tunnels. "The Chinese government now appears to be acknowledging missteps by local officials, as well as the possibility that severe weather events will become increasingly common."
Administration and demography
Zhengzhou is divided into 6 urban districts, 5 county-level cities and 1 county. These subdivisions are likely to undergo significant changes in the near future due to increasingly rapid urban expansion and urban planning.
The prefecture-level city is home to 12,600,574 inhabitants (2020 census), and 10,260,667 in its built up area made of 6 urban and suburban districts: Xingyang, Xinzheng and Zhongmu are largely being urbanized, making the city one of the main built-up areas of the province.