Tangshan

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唐山市
Tángshān Shì
Image:ChinaHebeiTangshan.png
Administration Type	Prefecture-level city
City Seat	39°7′N 118°5′E
Area - Total - Urban center	13,472 km² 3,874 km²
Population - Total - Urban center	7,100,000 (2003) 2,960,000 (2003)
GDP - Total - Per Capita	¥202.7 billion (2005) ¥10,488 (2005)
CPC Committee Secretary	Zhang, He (张和)
Mayor	Zhang, Yaohua (张耀华)
Area code	315
Postal Code	063000
License Plate Prefix	冀B

Tangshan (Chinese: 唐山市; pinyin: Tángshān shì) is a prefecture-level city in Hebei province, People's Republic of China.

1 Geography
2 Administration
3 History
4 Economy and Industry
5 Traditional Arts
6 Education
7 Sights
8 Notable People
9 See Also
10 Footnotes

[edit] Geography

Tangshan is located in the central section of circum-Bohai Sea Gulf region, face the Bohai Sea in the south , depends on Yanshan mountain in the north, border Luanhe with Qinhuangdao city in the east , the west adjoin with Beijing, Tianjin. It is a throat strategic area and corridor linking two major regions of North China and Northeast China.

Tangshan is part of North China Plain, with Yanshan Mountian lying its north. The greatest river in Tangshan is Luanhe, which ranks No.2 in North China.

[edit] Administration

The prefecture-level city of Tangshan administers 16 county-level divisions including 6 districts, 6 counties, 2 county-level cities and 2 county-level farms.

Districts

Lunan District (路南区)
Lubei District (路北区)
Fengrun District (丰润区)
Fengnan District (丰南区)
Kaiping District (开平区)
Guye District (古冶区)

Counties

Tanghai (唐海县)
Luannan (滦南县)
Luan Xian (滦县)
Laoting (乐亭县)
Qianxi (迁西县)
Yutian (玉田县)

County-level Cities

Zunhua (遵化市)
Qian'an (迁安市)

County-level Farms

Lutai Farm (芦台农场)
Hangu Farm (汉沽农场)

[edit] History

Tangshan city has a history of over one hundred years. Its name derives from Tangshan Mountain( now known as Dachengshan Montain) in the urban city, where Tang Taizong's army settled during the war with now North Korea .

Tangshan suffered an earthquake of magnitude 8.2 (7.8 from official report) at 3:42 a.m. on July 28, 1976, the Tangshan earthquake, which resulted in a tragically colossal number of casualties. The official death toll was 255,000, but many experts believe that the actual number of fatalities was two to three times that number, making it the most destructive earthquake in modern history. As a result of the earthquake, most of the town had to be rebuilt.

Image:Tangshan-City.jpg

Image:Tangshan-Seaport.jpg

Image:South Lake.jpg

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Image:Tangshan-City2.jpg

[edit] Economy and Industry

Tangshan is an important heavy industry city in North China. Its manufactures include machinery, motor vehicles, chemicals, textiles, glass, petroleum products, and cement. It is a coal-mining center since late Qing Dynasty, as Cantonese merchant Tong King-sing opened the first coal mine using modern techniques in Kaiping in 1877.<ref>Ellsworth C.Carlson, The Kaiping Mines, 1877-1912 2d ed (Cambridge, MA: East Asian Research Center, Harvard University, 1971.</ref> . With the construction of Caifeidian Project, it launches large iron and steel plants, chemical projects, and electricity works. Tangshan is also called "the capital of porcelain in north China".

Historically, the Chinese modern industry started in this city. The first railway in China was built from Xugezhuang（胥各庄) to Tangshan in 1877 and the first fire-resistant material manufactory, and the first and largest cement manufactory were constructed in Tangshan as well.

In 2005, the GDP of Tangshan was ¥202.7 billion, ranked No.1 in all the prefecture-level cities in Hebei Province, and No.19 in China.