Cityscape of Jiaxiang county. [Photo/WeChat account: jnwhlyj]

Name: Jiaxiang

Title: The hometown of Zengzi

Population: 683,000

Area: 975 square kilometers

Geography

Jiaxiang county is in the southwest of Shandong province, next to the main urban area of Jining, and is part of the Yellow River alluvial plain. It borders on Shandong, Jiangsu, Henan and Anhui provinces.

Jiaxiang county has a specific three-dimensional traffic system. Xinshi (Xinxiang-Rizhao) Railway, Rihe (Rizhao-Heze) branch of Jingfu (Beijing-Fuzhou) Expressway, Ridong (Rizhao-Dongming) and Jihe (Jinan-Heze) expressways, and National Road 327 pass through the county. The newly opened Lunan High-speed Railway has a station in Jiaxiang county. Jiaxiang has the largest rail-water terminal north of the Yangtze River with an annual throughput of 12 million metric tons. The railway is connected to the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and has become an important shipping hub connecting North China and Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai.

Administrative divisions

The county consists of 15 towns and subdistricts – Liangbaosi, Macun, Dazhanglou, Zhifang, Jintun, Mengguji, Zhongshan, Laosengtang, Mandong, Huanggai, Tuanli, Maji, Jiaxiang, Wolongshan, and Wanzhang – one provincial economic development zone, and 559 administrative villages.

Economy

Jiaxiang county has formed an industrial structure dominated by industries such as bio-medicine, fine chemicals, textiles and garments, machining, modern building materials, crop processing, culture and tourism, and modern logistics. It has obvious advantages in traditional industries. It is a famous glove city, the hometown of stone carving and Lu brocade in China. Jiaxiang county is the main production area for Luxi cattle, and a breeding base of small-tailed Han sheep. Emerging industries have risen rapidly in the county and Jiaxiang is a prefabricated housing demonstration base, part of the first batch of e-commerce demonstration counties, and one of 29 county-level logistics node cities in Shandong province. In 2023, the county's GDP reached 27.7 billion yuan($3.83 billion).

History and culture

Jiaxiang county has a long history. It is said that Duke Lu Ai hunted in the west and captured a unicorn during the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476BC), so the place was named Jiaxiang, which means beautiful and auspicious. Jiaxiang was established as a county in 1147. Archaeological evidence suggests that there were human activities in Jiaxiang county in the Neolithic Age. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period (475-221BC), the county developed agricultural and cultural prosperity and became the political, economic, and cultural center of the state of Lu. Jiaxiang county is also the hometown of Zeng Zi, one of the four ancient sages (Confucius, Mencius, Zeng Zi, Yan Zi).