[Photo/WeChat account: sd_photo]

Zaozhuang, located in the south of Shandong province, borders Yimeng Mountain to the east, Weishan Lake to the west, Xuzhou, the famous cultural spot of the Han Dynasty to the south, and Qufu and Zoucheng, the hometowns of Confucian and Mengzi, to the north.

The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal flows for 1,776 km and has a history of more than 2,500 years. The Taierzhuang section of the canal flows through a 68.5 kilometers long river in Zaozhuang's south. 

The prefecture-level city has a total area of around 4,550 square kilometers, and administers five districts – Shizhong district, Xuecheng district, Yicheng district, Taierzhuang district, Shanting district - and Tengzhou city. 

Ancient town of Taierzhuang in East China's Shandong province. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Long-known for the saying "one mountain, one water, two Han Dynasty, three Confucian", it is an energetic and charming tourism focused city. With both the boldness of the north and the beauty of the south, it is known as the "bright pearl of south Shandong".

Ancient town of Taierzhuang in East China's Shandong province. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

With its beautiful scenery, encompassing mountains, rivers, and lakes, Zaozhuang has rich tourism resources including many scenic interests, and assembled cultural relics. Baodugu National Forest Park, "the No 1 Gu all over the world" has a steep and elegant mountain, and rich forest vegetation. 

With a forest cover rate of 97 percent, it is a desirable place to be. The ancient canal that has a history of more than one thousand years is magnificent. 

The ancient canal town has strong traditions and is named as having "the only canal culture relics of Jing Hang Grand Canal in Qing dynasty". 

Additionally, Weishan Lake in Tengzhou, which has red lotus of over 120,000 mu (8,000 hectacres), has the fame of being "the top wet land to the north Yangzi River" and is the "locus capital" of China.

[Photo/WeChat account: sd_photo]

Zaozhuang has a long history and splendid culture. The explored Beixin culture exhibits Zaozhuang's civilization history of more than seven thousand years. 

In the history of Zaozhuang, there were many celebrities, such as the grand philosopher Mozi of the Zhanguo Period, Kuang Heng a prime minister of the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC – AD 24) and the famous Confucian classics expert, Jia Sanjin the great litterateur of the Ming Dynasty.

Due to abundant mine and ample energy, Zaozhuang has four industries - coal, construction materials, textile and machinery - as support industries. Meanwhile it also has a complete industry system including metallurgy, cigarette, paper making, rubber, food, and medicine.