Meizhou

關於Meizhou

Meizhou is a prefecture-level city in eastern Guangdong province, China. It has an area of 15,864.51 km2 (6,125.32 sq mi), and a population of 3,873,239 as of the 2020 census. It comprises Meijiang District, Meixian District, Xingning City and five counties. Its built-up or metro area made up of two urban districts was home to 992,351 inhabitants.

Neolithic age stone tools and pottery have been discovered in dozens of places in the Meixian district of Meizhou. Ancient kiln sites from the Western Zhou dynasty and bells from the Warring States period were also found. Before the Qin dynasty, Meizhou was under Nanyue rule. After Qin unified the Nanyue, Meizhou was belonged to Nanhai Commandery.

Meizhou was historically known as Chengxiang (程鄉) and Jiaying (嘉應), and the local saying — "Before there was Meizhou, there was Jiaying; before there was Jiaying, there was Chengxiang" (未有梅州，先有嘉應；未有嘉應，先有程鄉) — summarizes the evolution of its place names.

From the Southern Qi empire through the early Republic, the region was called Chengxiang, because in the first year of Yongming (483 CE) the Southern Qi court carved out part of Haiyang County to...

Overview adapted from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA. Photography via Wikimedia Commons.