Cangzhou is a prefecture-level city in China forming the southeastern extension of Hebei Province to the coast of the Bohai Sea between Tianjin and Shandong. At the 2020 census, Cangzhou's built-up (or metro) area made of Yunhe district, Xinhua district, and Cang County is largely conurbated with a population of 1,421,843 inhabitants, while the prefecture-level administrative unit in total has a population of 7,300,783. The resident population at the end of 2024 was 7,227,700, a decrease of 36,900 from the end of the previous year. It lies approximately from the major port city of Tianjin, and from Beijing.

History

Cangzhou is said to have been founded during the 5th- and 6th-century Southern and Northern Dynasties era of Chinese history. It is named for the former imperial Cang Prefecture. During the late Tang and following Five Dynasties era, it formed part of the territory of the independent of Yiwu Province.

Administrative divisions Cangzhou City comprises 2 districts, 4 county-level cities, 9 counties and 1 autonomous county.

Map Name Hanzi Hanyu Pinyin Population(2020) Area (km2) Density(/km2)Yunhe DistrictYùnhé Qū511,0861381,957Xinhua DistrictXīnhuá Qū284,746892,472Botou CityBótóu Shì573,842977563Renqiu CityRénqiū Shì816,4011,023753Huanghua CityHuánghuá Shì652,4011,545317Hejian CityHéjiān Shì795,1981,333578Cang CountyCāng Xiàn626,0111,527432Qing CountyQīng Xiàn420,878968403Dongguang CountyDōngguāng Xiàn340,288710493Haixing CountyHǎixīng Xiàn189,273836263Yanshan CountyYánshān Xiàn411,356795503Suning CountySùníng Xiàn341,919497664Nanpi CountyNánpí Xiàn347,473794441Wuqiao CountyWúqiáo Xiàn217,986603464Xian CountyXìàn Xiàn568,4181,191479Mengcun Hui Autonomous CountyMèngcūn HuízúZìzhìxiàn203,507393458

Economics Cangzhou's urban center is a heavily industrial city, but the city's administrative territory also includes strongly agricultural areas, and is well known in China for its Chinese jujubes (Chinese dates), apples and pear (widely known under the export name of Tianjin Ya Pear). The North China Oil Field is within Cangzhou City's jurisdiction. Cangzhou also encompasses a large fishing port and the coal-exporting Huanghua Harbour. Notable International Companies located in Cangzhou Hyundai (Japan), Hage Fittings und Flanschen GmbH (Germany) (Hage Fluid Control Technology (Hebei) Co., Ltd Joint Venture).

Geography and transportation

Cangzhou is located in eastern Hebei, immediately to the south of Tianjin, near the coast of the Bohai Sea of the Pacific Ocean. Bordering prefecture-level cities are Hengshui to the southwest, Baoding to the west, and Langfang to the north. It lies on the Beijing–Shanghai Railway.

The G1811 Huanghua–Shijiazhuang Expressway connects Cangzhou to Shijiazhuang, the provincial capital, and is linked to Beijing via both the G2 Beijing–Shanghai Expressway and G3 Beijing–Taipei Expressway, which are concurrent within the province, and to Shanghai via G2. Cangzhou's Huanghua Harbour is the end of a main Chinese coal shipping railway, the Shuohuang Railway. Other major highways serving Cangzhou's urban area are China National Highway 104 and 307.

Major airports located closest to Cangzhou include Beijing Capital Airport and Tianjin Airport.

The Grand Canal passes directly through Cangzhou, and a district of Cangzhou (Yunhe District) is named after it.

Climate Cangzhou has a four-season, monsoon-influenced humid continental climate/semi-arid climate (Köppen BSk/Dwa), with cold, dry winters, and hot, humid summers. The monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from in January to in July, while the annual mean is . A majority of the annual precipitation of occurs in July and August alone. With possible monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 49% in July to 65% in October, the city receives 2,663 hours of bright sunshine annually.

Culture

The city has historically been known in China for its wushu (Chinese martial arts) and acrobatics (specifically, the Wu Qiao school). Cangzhou is also famed for its historic thousand-year-old 40-ton sculpture, the Iron Lion of Cangzhou. The sculpture is reportedly the largest cast-iron sculpture in the world, cast in 953 in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. The famed lion has even given its name to a locally brewed beer (iron lion beer, 铁狮啤酒) and is a symbol of the city.Wagner, Donald B. "The cast iron lion of Cangzhou", Needham Research Institute newsletter, no. 10, June 1991, pp. 2-3.

Cangzhou is home to a traditional Chinese form of musical performing arts, Kuaiban Dagu.

The city hosts seven mosques for Muslim adherents (mostly Hui). One of them, the West Mosque, has collected at its museum one of China's best collections of Islamic manuscripts and artefacts.WEST MOSQUE MUSEUM, CANGZHOU, HEBEI PROVINCE CHINA HERITAGE NEWSLETTER, No. 5, March 2006. (China Heritage Project, The Australian National University. ).

Demographics and society Cangzhou, though predominated by the Han Chinese majority, is home to a sizable population of the Muslim Hui minority. Intermarriage occasionally occurs between the majority Han and the Hui, but stereotypes of Hui still exist among Cangzhou's Han residents, and some tensions remain. Migration to Hebei province and Cangzhou by Xinjiang Muslim minorities (generally ethnic Uighurs) is increasing.

Language The dominant first language of Cangzhou's population is a variety of the northeastern Mandarin dialect continuum termed Cangzhou, which is a variety of Ji Lu Mandarin. There are some similarities with the Tianjin variety and the Baoding variety of Mandarin, but both are considered distinct groups from that of Cangzhou . Dialects of the Cangzhou area vary between localities and counties, though are generally intelligible among each other.

Municipal government The city, like all other Chinese administrative divisions, has a party committee, the People's government, the People's Congress, and the Political consultative conference.

Military Cangzhou is home to the Cangzhou Airbase of the People's Liberation Army Air Force.

Sports Shijiazhuang Ever Bright moved to Cangzhou and changed their name to Cangzhou Mighty Lions, they play at the Cangzhou Stadium.The club withdrew from the Chinese professional football league system prior to the 2025 season and ceased operations

Education

Cangzhou Normal University (): now it has 871 teacher staff, including 607 full-time teachers, 233 people with the title of deputy senior or above, and 405 people with master's and doctor's degrees. The school motto is "knowing, morality, knowledge and behaviour, innovation" ().

There is one international school in Cangzhou, the Cangzhou Zhenhua Korean International School ()."Schools Approved by the Ministry of Education For Enrolling Children of Foreign Nationals" (Archive). Ministry of Education of China. Retrieved on 17 August 2015.

Notable residents Sun Yue (1985), fifth Chinese national to play in the NBA Wang Zi-Ping (1881–1973), Chinese martial arts grandmaster Jia Qinglin (1940), former member of Politburo Standing Committee and Chairman of CPPCC Zhang Lichang (1939–2008), former member of Politburo and Party Secretary of Tianjin.

Notes

References

DuBois, Thomas. The Sacred Village: Social Change and Religious Life in Rural North China. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2005.

External links Article about the Cangzhou Lion (in Chinese) "Chinese 'serial killer' arrested". BBC World Service. 15 November 2003. (Incident in Cangzhou) https://www.hyundai.news/eu/articles/press-releases/hyundai-motor-company-opens-new-plant-in-cangzhou-china.html https://www.hagetek.de/