WU-CHOU

formerly (191346) Ts'ang-wu, Pinyin Wuzhou, or Cangwu, city on the eastern border of the Kwangsi Chuang autonomous ch' (district), southern China. Wu-chou is situated at the confluence of the Hsi River with its northern tributary, the Kuei River. The city occupies a location of strategic and economic importance because it dominates the principal route between Kwangsi and southwest China as well as the Canton area along the coast. The first hsien (county) administration was established there in the 1st century BC under the name of Kuang-hsin. This name was changed to Ts'ang-wu in 589, and the county retained that name until 1946, when it became a municipality under the name of Wu-chow, the name of the prefectural government first set up under the T'ang dynasty (618907). It continued as a superior prefecture (fu), Wu-chou, under the Ming (13681644) and Ch'ing (16441911/12) dynasties. At this time the county seat of Ts'ang-wu was transferred to Lung-y on the southern bank of the Hsi River and that town was thereafter called Ts'ang-wu. Until the 12th century, Wu-chou was primarily a garrison town controlling the non-Han peoples of Kwangsi. Chinese settlement in the area began on a large scale in the late 12th and 13th centuries, and the section of Kwangsi in which Wu-chou is situated is now almost entirely settled by Cantonese-speaking Chinese. Many of the town's large merchant population are from Kwangtung province, a large number of them from Chiang-men, a town with which Wu-chou has always traded by river. Wu-chou was opened to foreign commerce in 1897, after which a flourishing trade grew up with Germany and the United Kingdom. Industrial growth began in the 1920s and '30s, when chemical plants that manufactured pharmaceuticals and sulfuric acid were established; these plants were, however, almost entirely destroyed during the Sino-Japanese War (193745). Although Wu-chou remains an important commercial centre, it no longer has a monopoly of trade from the western areas of Kwangsi, since these areas have been served by railways connecting to the system in Hunan province since 1939. Since 1957, moreover, those areas have also had an outlet to the port of Chan-chiang. Wu-chou's commercial hinterland now mainly consists of the eastern and northeastern parts of the Kwangsi region that are served by its river. As a port, Wu-chou is accessible by small oceangoing ships of up to about 1,000 tons. Since 1949 industrialization has made further progress. There are various silk-textile factories, chemical works, a large pitch factory, rice mills, sugar refineries, and engineering works (producing agricultural machinery and seamless steel tubes). There is also a ship-repair yard. Wu-chou is the seat of Kwangsi Provincial University. Pop. (1985 est.) 190,300.