CHIN-CHOU

also spelled Kinchow, or Chinchow, formerly Chin-hsien, Pinyin Jinzhou, or Jinxian, Japanese Kinshu, town in southern Liaoning sheng (province), China. It is situated on Chin-chou Bay, a part of the Gulf of Chihli, and on the neck of the Liaotung Peninsula immediately above L-ta (Dairen). Chin-chou is an important transportation centre, where the rail and highway routes from L-ta to Shen-yang (Mukden) and to Tan-tung converge. One of the most ancient towns in Manchuria (now known as the Northeast), it was the principal administrative and commercial centre of the Liaotung Peninsula before the 20th century. The meteoric rise of nearby L-ta, however, formerly a fishing village, led to its decline. It remains a local market town and has in recent years developed industrially as a satellite of L-ta, having large textile mills, a large paper plant, and heavy-machine manufacturing works. Pop. (mid-1970s est.) 50,000-100,000. also spelled Chinchow, Pinyin Jinzhou city in western Liaoning sheng (province), China. It is strategically situated at the northern end of the narrow coastal plain between the Sung Mountains and the sea. A Chinese administration was first established there under the Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 220) in the 2nd century BC, when it became a county under the name T'u-ho. Under the Sui (581-618) and T'ang (618-907) dynasties, it formed the eastern border of Ying-chou, 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 Chin-chou, while the prefectural seat was called Yung-lo. The Liao policy of settling Chinese peasants in the area was discontinued under the Mongols (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 Liao-tung. At the end of the Ming period, Chin-chou 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 Ch'ing dynasty (1644-1911/12), founded by the Manchus, it formed part of Kuang-ning prefecture, but it became independent as Chin-chou prefecture in 1665. In 1913 it became a county town, Chin. When Manchukuo, the Japanese puppet regime, was established in Manchuria, it was the capital of Chin-chou 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. The Peking-Shen-yang (Mukden) line passed through Chin-chou, and later other lines were built, connecting it with Fu-hsin to the northeast and Ch'eng-te in Hopeh 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 L-ta (Dairen), which was dominated by the Japanese, attempted to open up a new port at Hu-lu-tao, on the coast south of Chin-chou. The port was still incomplete, however, when the Japanese seized Manchuria in 1931. Under Japanese rule, Hu-lu-tao became a coal export port. The Japanese also discovered molybdenum in the area and constructed a refinery at Hu-lu-tao in 1941-42, but the mines were wrecked by communist forces in 1947. Chin-chou 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 Chin-hsi to the south, has been increasingly industrialized. A large engineering industry produces mining and electrical equipment, a papermaking plant has been brought into production, and the older light industries have been greatly expanded. There is a thermal generating plant using coal from Fu-hsin and Pei-p'iao. The population almost trebled during the first decade of communist rule. Pop. (1990) 569,518.