Jinzhou

Jinzhou, city, western Liaoning sheng (province), China. It is strategically situated at the northern end of the narrow coastal plain between the Song Mountains and the Bo Hai (Gulf of Chihli).

A Chinese administration was first established there under the Han dynasty (206 bce–220 ce) in the 2nd century bce, when it became a county under the name Tuhe. During the Sui dynasty (581–618), it was a county under the administration of Liucheng prefecture. In Tang times (618–907), it formed the eastern border of Yingzhou, falling into the hands of the Khitan people at the end of the 9th century. Under the Liao dynasty (947–1125), founded by the Khitan, it first received the name Jinzhou, while the prefectural seat was called Yongle. The Liao policy of settling Chinese peasants in the area was discontinued during the Yuan (Mongol) period (1279–1368). At the beginning of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), two important military colonies and guard posts were set up in this area, which came under the jurisdiction of the military governor of Liaodong. At the end of the Ming period, Jinzhou was one of the principal obstacles to the advance of the Manchu forces, and it was taken in 1642 only after a lengthy siege. At the beginning of the Qing dynasty (1644–1911/12), founded by the Manchus, it formed part of Guangning prefecture, but it became independent as Jinzhou prefecture in 1665. In 1913 it became a county town, Jin. After Manchukuo, the Japanese puppet regime, was established in Manchuria (Northeast China), it was the capital of Jinzhou province from 1934 until 1945.

The city was already walled under the Han, but it was refortified in 1391, 1476, and again in 1504. In the early part of the 20th century, however, the population had already begun to spread out into the surrounding countryside. With the coming of railways, the city’s importance was greatly increased. A line between Beijing and Shenyang (Mukden) passed through Jinzhou, and later other lines were built, connecting it with Fuxin to the northeast in Liaoning and Chengde in Hebei province to the west. It then became an important transportation and textile-manufacturing centre as well as an agricultural market. In the late 1920s the Chinese government, in an effort to take away the trade of Dalian (Dairen), which was dominated by the Japanese, attempted to open up a new port at Huludao, on the coast southwest of Jinzhou. The port was still incomplete, however, when the Japanese seized Manchuria in 1931. Under Japanese rule, Huludao became a coal export port. The Japanese also discovered molybdenum in the area and constructed a refinery at Huludao in 1941–42, but the mines were wrecked by communist forces in 1947.

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Jinzhou was traditionally a market centre for local agricultural and pastoral products, with many small industries based on agriculture. There were also plants making cement, bricks and tiles, and ceramics. Since 1949 the city, together with Huludao, has been increasingly industrialized. The population almost trebled during the first decade of communist rule. A large engineering industry produces mining and electrical equipment; a papermaking plant and a large oil refinery have been brought into production; and the older light industries have been greatly expanded. There is a thermal generating plant using coal from Fuxin and Beipiao. Jinzhou is located on a significant rail corridor between Northeast China and Hebei and other provinces farther south and west. A modernized seaport has been built on the Bo Hai, near Jinzhou as a gateway for western Liaoning. Institutions of higher education in Jinzhou include Bohai University (1950) and medical and engineering universities. Pop. (2002 est.) city, 702,914; (2007 est.) urban agglom., 956,000.