Bordering Jiangsu, Shandong, Anhui and Henan
provinces, Bozhou lies in the northwest of Anhui Province and the center of the
Huanghuai Plain. It has under its jurisdiction three counties, namely Woyang,
Mengcheng and Lixin, and one district, Qiaocheng.
Being one of the birthplaces of the Chinese
people, Bozhou has a history of more than 3,700 years according to written
records. Even as early in the Shang Dynasty (17th- 11th
century BC), Bozhou was a relatively advanced city in economy and culture, and
one of the civilized cities in the world at that time.
The long history, splendid ancient culture
and the so many famous people left Bozhou plenty of valuable ancient relics.
Bozhou has 18 key cultural relics sites under state and provincial level
protection, 36 under municipal protection and 150 ordinary ones. Among them, the
famous ones are the Huaxi Building with marvelous carvings and colorful
paintings, the Yuchi Temple relics reputed as the first primitive village of
china, the Underground Pass way for Army Deployment in the Period of Cao Cao,
which was claimed as the oldest and most intact underground Great Wall; the
Huazu Buddhist Convent, which has 8 scenic spots as the sound of the hut, the
fragrance of the medicine garden, the cry for longevity by the five animals and
the convent has the name inscribed by Guo Moruo; the tombs of the Cao family
with fine architecture, the Tianjing Palace and the Zhuangzi Ancestral Hall with
grand buildings, the tombs of the hat and clothes of the respectable King of
Chengtang in the Shang Dynasty, the Baiyi Law School, the old temples of the
Muslims, the 72 old streets and 36 old roads with characteristics of the Ming
and Qing dynasties. A lot of famous persons were born in Bozhou, such as Laozi
-- the founder of the Taoism, Zhuangzi -- the sage, Cao Cao -- the King of the
Wei Kingdom, and Huatuo -- the highly skilled doctor. In 1995, the General
Secretary of CPC, Jiang Zemin inscribed Bozhou as Hometown of Huatuo, Village of
Medicine, far spreading the fame of the capital of medicine.
Bozhou is also famous for its wine.
Represented by the Gujing imperial wine, the wine of Bozhou weighs to some
extent in the wine industry of China.
As the gold triangle of ox, Bozhou has
created a new situation featuring ox husbandry in a large scale, professional
development and corporate management. Bozhou is a major producer of paulownia
and poplar; woods are exported to Japan and Southeast Asian
countries.
Bozhou was approved by the State Council as
a city directly under the jurisdiction of the provincial government in June
2000. It is a cultural and historical city at the state level and an excellent
tourist city of China.