Chaozhou is a prefecture-level city in Guangdong Province, located in the east of Guangdong Province, bordering Meizhou to the north, the South China Sea to the south, Zhangzhou to the east, and Jieyang and Shantou to the west. It administers a total of 2 districts and 1 county in Xiangqiao District, Chao'an District and Raoping County, with a total area of 3146 square kilometers, and famous tourist attractions such as Archway Street, Guangji Bridge and Kaiyuan Temple.
Chaozhou has a long history, is a cultural ancient city with a history of more than 1600 years, Chaozhou began in the eleventh year of the Sui Kai Emperor (591), because of the new state-level administrative agency in the former Nghe An County, taking the meaning of the trend back and forth, and named Chaozhou. Yuanhe County Chronicle, Vol. 34: Chaozhou "reciprocates with the tide, because of its name".
During the Sui and Tang dynasties, Chaozhou had a considerable jurisdiction, reaching Xunwu in Jiangxi in the north, Yunxiao in Fujian in the east, the South China Sea in the south, and the present-day Shanwei in the west. During the Sui and Tang dynasties, Chaozhou's jurisdiction was equivalent to most of present-day Meizhou and all of Chaozhou, Shantou, and Jieyang.
The jurisdiction of Chaozhou basically did not change much during a long historical period, until the two Song Dynasties, as the Hakka continued to move south, the northern Guangdong region bordering Jiangxi in the north of Chaozhou was divided into Chaozhou and established Meizhou, which was on the same level as Chaozhou. At this time, Chaozhou still governed most of the eastern region of Guangdong.
During the Ming Dynasty, in order to consolidate coastal defense, Meizhou briefly returned to the Chaozhou capital at that time, and the jurisdiction of Chaozhou Capital was restored to Chaozhou in the Sui and Tang dynasties. In the Qing Dynasty, the population of the Chaoshan region expanded rapidly, while the Hakka population in northern Guangdong grew sharply, and under such circumstances, the division of Chaozhou was adjusted again, and the Chaozhou capital during the Qing Dynasty was divided and ruled by Jiaying Prefecture across the Guiren Mountain and the Tonggu Ridge.
Judging from the division of the eastern region of Guangdong in the above historical periods, Meizhou sometimes has access to chaozhou jurisdiction, but there is no doubt that the chaoshan area composed of Shantou, Jieyang, Chaozhou, etc. has been under the jurisdiction of Chaozhou for thousands of years. The wheel of history rolled forward, after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, warlords were in scuffles, the people were not happy, and the regional divisions in eastern Guangdong were changed quite frequently.
After the founding of New China, Guangdong Province established the Guangdong East Administrative Office, which was located in Chao'an County, and soon after the establishment of Shantou Special District in the mid-to-late 1950s, shantou Special District had jurisdiction over Chao'an, Jieyang, Chenghai, Raoping, Meixian, Zijin, Wuhua and other counties and cities. The historical jurisdiction of Chaozhou and Chaozhou Prefecture was inherited by Shantou Prefecture, and the seat of Chaozhou Prefecture became Chao'an County under the jurisdiction of Shantou Prefecture.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the administrative structure of the special district was replaced by the administrative functions of the prefecture-level city, and the Shantou Special District separated two district-level administrative units from the Shantou region and the Meixian district. At this time, shantou city was basically equivalent to the jurisdiction of Chaozhou Prefecture in the Ming and Qing dynasties.
With the comprehensive development of society, the administrative framework at the district level could not meet the needs of the continuous development of society, and the administrative framework at the district level was gradually abolished in the late 1990s and replaced by the administrative level of prefecture-level cities.
In the process of the transformation of shantou area into Shantou City, Chaozhou and Jieyang in Chaoshan Area were upgraded from county-level units to prefecture-level city level, and the very old name of Chaozhou was also restored. The Chaoshan prefecture-level forms the framework of the three prefecture-level cities of Chaozhou, Shantou and Jieyang.
This administrative framework has continued without major adjustments, but changes have been made to the district and county settings within the prefecture-level cities. The Chaoshan area has also formed a pattern of three giants of Chaozhou, Shantou and Jieyang juxtaposed. Today's Chaozhou City only has jurisdiction over two districts and one county, although it is far from the historical jurisdiction of Chaozhou and Chaozhou Prefecture, but it is also quite good to restore Chaozhou as a prefecture-level city.
Overall, the jurisdiction of Chaozhou is a process from large to small, and from small to large, but the historical Chaozhou and Chaozhou capital is now divided into Chaozhou City, Shantou City and Jieyang City three prefecture-level cities, Chaozhou Shantou three places have the same language, similar culture, industrial structure complementarity, in today's increasingly fierce economic and social development, there are many people proposed that the three places should be merged, restore the historical Chaozhou capital to better interact with Guangzhou and Shenzhen in the Pearl River Delta, and drive the chaoshan region to develop better.
Do you think it is possible for Chaozhou, Shantou and Jieyang to merge and restore the historical Chaozhou capital? Welcome to leave a comment, thank you!