Place:Zhanjiang, Guangdong, People's Republic of China

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Zhanjiang, historically spelled Tsamkong, is a prefecture-level city at the southwestern end of Guangdong province, People's Republic of China, facing Haikou city to the south.

As of the 2020 census, its population was 6,981,236 (6,994,832 in 2010) whom 1,931,455 lived in the built-up (or metro) area consisting of four urban districts: Chikan, Xiashan, Potou and Mazhang. In 2007, the city was named China's top ten livable cities by Chinese Cities Brand Value Report, which was released at 2007 Beijing Summit of China Cities Forum.

History

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Imperial China era

During the Qin Dynasty (221–206 BC), the area belonged to Xiang Shire. The imperial government of the Han Dynasty (206 BC−220 AD) set Xuwen County as the administrator of the whole Leizhou Peninsula. It was one of the earliest departure points on the Maritime Silk Road. It was a city port soon after. Great numbers of Putian Colonists settled in the Leizhou peninsula, establishing colonies during the Song empire. They soon formed the Leizhou peninsula's linguistic and ethnic majority, while others like the Baiyue, Cantonese, Tanka, foreigners lived on the coast of the peninsula.

French occupation

The region served as a small fishing port when it was occupied by the French in 1898. The next year, the French forced the Chinese to lease a small enclave of Zhanjiang to them for 99 years (until 1997), as the British did in Hong Kong's New Territories and as the Germans did in the Kiautschou Bay Leased Territory, as the territory of Kouang-Tchéou-Wan. The local population fled before the arrival of French, so upon French invitation, Cantonese peasants from north of Leizhou came to repopulate the empty French possession, thus the local language of communication was changed to Yue Chinese. The French wanted to develop the port, which they called Fort-Bayard, to serve southern China, in parts where France had exclusive rights to railway and mineral development. Their efforts, however, were hindered by the poverty of the surrounding land. The French controlled the small enclave until 1943, when the Japanese occupied the area during World War II. At the end of the war, the enclave was briefly ceded to the French before being formally returned to China in 1945 after an agreement between representatives of the French Provisional Government and the Chinese nationalist government.

Return to China

Upon recovering the territory from the French, the Republic of China government decided to rename Kouang-Tchéou-Wan. The area was historically under the jurisdiction of Zhanchuan county, with a Zhanchuan customs post on the eastern island of the territory. As "Zhanjiang" was a historical variant of "Zhanchuan", it was decided to name the city "Zhanjiang".

Following the establishment of the People's Republic in 1949, Zhanjiang developed new importance. From 1957, Zhanjiang has developed into a major modern port serving southern China, usable by ships of up to 50,000 tons. In 1984 Zhanjiang was designated one of the "open" cities of China, where the central government invited foreign investment; this spurred the city's further industrial development. It has shipyards and engineering works; automobile, electrical-appliance, and textile plants; and sugar refineries, flour and rice mills, and chemical works.

In the early 1990s a new rail line was completed, linking Zhanjiang with Guangzhou, the provincial capital. The line was later extended to Hai'an, at the southernmost tip of Leizhou Peninsula, where trains could be transported by Guangdong–Hainan Ferry (part of the Guangdong–Hainan Railway) across the Hainan Strait to Haikou city.

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