Product Code Database
Tangshan (p=Tángshān) is a coastal, industrial prefecture-level city in the northeast of Hebei province. It is located in the eastern part of Hebei Province and the northeastern part of the North China Plain. It is located in the central area of the Bohai Rim and serves as the main traffic corridor to the Northeast China. The city faces the Bohai Sea in the south, the Yan Mountains in the north, Qinhuangdao across the Luan River to the east, and Tianjin to the west.
Much of the city's development is thanks to the industrialization, beginning in 1870, when Kailuan Group established coal mines in the region. It is the birthplace of China's first standard-gauge railway, the first railway plant, the first steam locomotive, and the first cement factory. It was hailed as China's "cradle of industrialization". Even today, Tangshan is a hub of steel, energy, chemical, and ceramics production. Ping opera, which originated from the city's Luanzhou county, is one of the five most popular Chinese operas.
The city has also become known for an earthquake in 1976 which measured 7.8 on the Richter scale. It flattened much of the city and killed at least 255,000 residents according to official estimates. The city has since been rebuilt, has become a tourist attraction, and is among the 10 largest ports in China.
The city of Tangshan is approximately east by southeast of Beijing and northeast of Tianjin. Tangshan's prefecture population was 7,717,983 at the 2020 census, with 3,687,607 in the built-up ( or metro) area made of the 7 urban core districts. At the end of 2024, the city's resident population was 7,722,800, an increase of 3,300 over the end of the previous year, including 5,182 million urban population.
In A.D. 645, Li Shimin, an emperor of Tang dynasty, with his army, was stationed at Dacheng Hill on his way back from the Korean Peninsula. Unfortunately, Caofei, his beloved concubine, died there. In order to commemorate her, he named the mountain after the name of the empire, Tang. Later, the city took the name of the mountain.
During the Hundred Days' Reform in the late Qing dynasty, the Kaiping Mining Administration was established in the third year of the Guangxu Emperor (1877). In 1878, Qiaotun town was established at Tangshan and renamed Tangshan Town in 1889. In 1938, Tangshan City was formally founded. The administrative system of Tangshan during the Republic of China Republican era continued to follow the Qing system. In 1929, Zhili Province changed its name to Hebei Province. On January28, 1939, because of Tangshan's special economic and political position, the East Hebei Autonomous Government established Tangshan City which was initially called “Tangshan Municipal Government” and later changed to “Tangshan Municipal Office”. After Japan surrendered in 1945, the Chinese Nationalist Party in Peking (now known as Beijing) took over the political control of Tangshan from Japan and set up an Administration Inspectors Office. In April 1946, it was decided at the 132nd Meeting of the Chinese Communist Party Hebei Provincial Committee to set up Tangshan City and on May5 of the same year, the Tangshan Municipal government was founded.
On April28, 1958, the State Council approved the establishment of Tangshan prefecture. On August29, 1958, it was decided at the Seventh Session of the first People's Congress of Hebei Province to move the Tangshan Commissioner Office from Changli County to Tangshan City.
The CPC Central Committee decided to designate Tangshan city as one of the 45 cities open to the world on June3, 1959. On June 8, 1959, the CPC Hebei Provincial Committee and the Hebei Provincial People's Congress decided to combine the Tangshan Commissioners Office and the Tangshan People's Committee into the Tangshan People's Committee. On April2, 1960, the State Council officially approved the abolition of Tangshan prefecture. Qinhuangdao city, Qian'an, Changli, Laoting, Baodi, Yutian, Jixian County and Zunhua which were formerly administered by Tangshan Prefecture were incorporated into the Tangshan Municipality. Luanxian County, Fengrun County (formerly a district) and Baigezhuang Farm were also incorporated into Tangshan Municipality. Meanwhile, Tangshan became a provincially administered municipality.
On May23, 1961, the State Council approved the reinstatement of Tangshan prefecture, which was adopted at the 14th Meeting of the Hebei Provincial People's Committee on June3, 1959. Tangshan prefecture and Tangshan municipality were separated again and Tangshan turned into a specially administered municipality.
The Tangshan Municipal Revolutionary Committee affiliated to the Revolutionary Committee of Tangshan Region was set up on January6, 1968. On March 11, 1978, Tangshan turned to be a provincially administered municipality.
In October 1982, it was decided at the Seventh People's Congress of Tangshan city to abolish the Tangshan Municipal Revolutionary Committee and set up the Tangshan Municipal People's Government.
The State Council approved the move on March 3, 1983, and thereafter implemented the city-governing-county system. On May13, 1983, the Hebei Provincial People's Government announced the cancellation of the Civic Administration office of Tangshan region, which ceased operation on May15, 1983.
On December15, 1984, the State Council approved Tangshan city as one of 13 national “comparatively big” cities.
Modern industry in China first arose in Tangshan. The second railway in Chinaafter the abortive Woosung Railway in the six-mile track laid between Hsukochuang and Tangshan which opened in 1881;Huenemann, Ralph Wm. Harvard East Asian Monographs, No. 109. The Dragon and the Iron Horse: the Economics of Railroads in China, 1876−1937 , p. 254. Harvard Univ Asia Center, 1984. . Accessed 12 October 2011. this eventually grew into the Imperial Railroad of North China and China's modern Jingshan Railway and . The first fire-resistant material manufactory and the first and largest cement manufactory were constructed in Tangshan as well.
Tangshan has experienced near-constant GDP growth in recent years, but has slowed down in the latter-half of the 2010s. In 2008, the GDP of Tangshan was ¥353.747 billion, which nearly doubled to ¥612.121 billion by 2013, and grew further to ¥695.500 billion in 2018. Tangshan's GDP was ranked the 26th largest among Chinese cities according to data from 2017. The city's exports were valued at $7.109 billion in 2016. Government figures for 2017 show that the city's economy was largely dominated by the secondary industry, contributing ¥408.14 billion to the city's economy.
| +Tangshan ethnic composition (2017) !Ethnic group !Population (total) !Population (percent) | ||
| Han Chinese | 7,194,200 | 95.25% |
| Manchu people | 287,700 | 3.81% |
| Hui people | 32,800 | 0.43% |
| Mongols | 14,100 | 0.19% |
| Zhuang people | 12,900 | 0.17% |
| Other | 13,700 | 0.18% |
| ||||||
| Lubei District | 路北区 | 743,504 | 112 | 6,638 | Qiaotun Subdistrict | |
| Lunan District | 路南区 | 311,076 | 355 | 876 | South Xueyuan Road Subdistrict | |
| ↳ Hangu Administration Zone* | 汉沽管理区 | |||||
| ↳ Lutai Economic Development Zone* | 芦台经济技术开发区 | |||||
| Guye District | 古冶区 | 358,461 | 253 | 1,417 | Jinghua Subdistrict | |
| Kaiping District | 开平区 | 262,571 | 252 | 1,042 | Kaiping Subdistrict | |
| Fengrun District | 丰润区 | 916,092 | 1,334 | 687 | Taiping Road Subdistrict | |
| Fengnan District | 丰南区 | 595,467 | 1,568 | 380 | Qingnian Road Subdistrict | |
| Built-up area | 3,187,171 | 3,874 | 823 | |||
| Caofeidian District | 曹妃甸区 | 184,931 | 700 | 264 | Tanghai Town | |
| Zunhua | 遵化市 | 737,011 | 1,521 | 485 | Wenhua Road Subdistrict | |
| Qian'an City | 迁安市 | 728,160 | 1,208 | 603 | Yongshun Subdistrict | |
| Luanzhou | 滦州市 | 554,315 | 999 | 555 | Luanhe Subdistrict | |
| Luannan County | 滦南县 | 584,518 | 1,270 | 460 | Youyilu Subdistrict | |
| Laoting County | 乐亭县 | 526,222 | 1,308 | 402 | Lean Subdistrict | |
| Qianxi County | 迁西县 | 390,128 | 1,439 | 271 | Lixiang Subdistrict | |
| Yutian County | 玉田县 | 684,833 | 1,165 | 588 | Wuzhong Subdistrict | |
| * | ||||||
|
|
