Bozhou, China

Bozhou (Chinese: 亳州; pinyin: Bózhōu) is a city in northwestern Anhui, China (Bozhou-shi). It is in southern Huanghuai Plain.

• Population: 5.2 million (2001), 82,000 are minority nationalities
• Area: 8,394 km²

Administration

Bozhou City administers three counties and one district:

• Guoyang (涡阳县)
• Lixin (利辛县)
• Mengcheng (蒙城县)
• Qiaocheng (谯城区)

The four county-level entities encompass 107 towns, which are divided into 2625 villages.

History

Bozhou was, in addition to being a prefecture in the Tang Dynasty (Bo-zhou), once Qiao Commandry (谯郡) in the Sui Dynasty.

In 1355, during the Mongol Dynasty, Chao Lin'er (朝林兒) was proclaimed by Liu Futong (劉複通) to be the Emperor of Great Song (大宋, referring to the dead Song Empire) with the era name Longfeng (龍鳳 "Dragon and fenghuang"). Chao was nicknamed "The Little Ming King" (小明王).

In 1368, Bo Prefecture was lower in status to a district (县). In 1496, it was re-made a prefecture. And lowered to be a county in 1912: Bo County. In May 1986, it was upgraded to a county-level city administered by Fuyang Region (阜阳地区): Bozhou-shi. In 1996, Bozhou was upgraded to provincially directly administered city (省直辖市), administered by Fuyang City on behalf of the province. The province directly administered Bozhou since February 1998. In June 2000, Bozhou was made a regional city (地级市), or provincially administered city (省辖市).

Notable people

• Cao Cao, leader
• Hua Tuo, physician
• The fictional Hua Mulan