TZU-PO

also called Chang-tien, Pinyin Zibo, or Zhangdian industrial city and municipality (shih), central Shantung Province (sheng), China. The core of the present 1,135-sq-mi (2,935-sq km) autonomous subprovincial-level municipality was formed under the People's Republic by amalgamating the two counties (hsien) of Tzu-ch'eng (Tzu-ch'uan) and Po-shan, which together form the richest coal field and mining area in the province. Tzu-ch'eng was an old-established city and administrative centre. Pan-yang County (hsien) was established there in the 2nd century BC; it subsequently fell into abeyance in the 3rd century AD but was revived in the 6th century under the name Pei-ch'iu County. In 596 it became the seat of a prefecture, Tzu-chou, and in 598 received the name Tzu-ch'uan, by which it was long known. It remained an important administrative centre and was also a focus of routes, being situated on the route skirting the northern edge of the T'ai Shan (mountains), at the mouth of the valley leading up to Po-shan and to a pass over the mountains. Po-shan itself was a later development, originally comprising two townsPo-shan proper, which was first walled in 1558, and Yen-chen-chen. The centre of an important ceramic and glass industry, in the 16th century it was rich enough to warrant having its own tax bureau. In 1734 the city had developed enough to become an independent county. Its 20th-century development into a major industrial complex began with the completion in 1904 of the railway linking Tsingtao to Chi-nan, passing to the north of Tzu-ch'eng town, through the important market towns of Chang-tien (now the seat of Tzu-po municipality) and Chou-ts'un. A branch line was built by the Germans from Chang-tien to Po-shan, however, after they acquired coal-mining rights in a zone along the railway and began mining in the area around Tzu-ch'eng. During World War I the Japanese controlled both the railway and the mines; in 1921 the mines came under the control of a Sino-Japanese company, the Lu-ta Colliery Company. The Po-shan mines, which were developed later, in 1924, also passed into the control of a Sino-Japanese firm, the Po-tung Company. By the time of the Japanese invasion in 1937, Po-shan had outstripped Tzu-ch'eng in production, producing 1,000,000 tons annually to Tzu-ch'eng's 600,000 tons. The local iron industry was also established before World War II. In 1919 the Japanese had founded the Chin-ling-chen Ironworks on the main railway line a few miles east of Chang-tien, using supplies of local iron ore and coking coal from Tzu-ch'eng. After 1949, when the whole area was merged into a single municipality, it was developed into a major industrial base. During the 1950s and 1960s, when Po-shan was the seat of the municipality, it took the administrative name of the municipality, Tzu-po; subsequently, when the seat was removed to Chang-tien, it took the name of Tzu-po, and Po-shan resumed its former name. By 1963 the city of Tzu-po (Po-shan) had outstripped Tsingtao as Shantung's greatest industrial city. Between 1953 and 1958 the municipality's population rose from 259,000 to 875,000. Within the enlarged municipality, growth was concentrated at Po-shan and Tzu-po (the former Chang-tien), each of which in the early 1970s was considerably bigger than Tzu-ch'eng; the municipality then had a total population of more than 1,200,000. Mining and heavy industry, machine building, and the manufacture of electrical equipment and batteries were all major enterprises. In addition to the traditional ceramic and glass industries, firebrick, refractory materials, and industrial ceramics are also manufactured. There is also an important chemical industry. While heavy industry is concentrated in Tzu-ch'eng and Po-shan, Tzu-po (Chang-tien) and Chou-t'unin addition to their growing roles as transportation centreshave developed as centres of textile manufacturing and food processing. Pop. (1983 est.) mun. 2,234,000.