Shangqiu

Shangqiu, also romanized as Shangkiu, sits in eastern Henan province, in central China. It shares borders with Kaifeng to the northwest, Zhoukou to the southwest, and touches Shandong and Anhui provinces to the northeast and southeast. According to the 2020 Chinese census, its population was 7,816,831. Within that, 2,831,814 people lived in the built-up metro area, which includes the two urban districts of Liangyuan and Suiyang, plus Yucheng county, now connected as a conurbation.

The area around Shangqiu was a key base for the Shang dynasty, which lasted from about 1600 to 1046 BC. The city itself was founded over three thousand years ago. In recent years, Shangqiu has expanded considerably. Its position at the crossroads of several major railway lines makes it an important regional transportation hub.

The name Shangqiu means "Hills of Shang," and its history reaches back to the earliest chapters of Chinese civilization. Legendary figures from the era of the Three August Ones and Five Emperors, around the 25th century BC—including Emperors Shennong, Zhuanxu, and Ku—are said to have lived in what is now Shangqiu. The son of Emperor Ku, a man named Qi, helped Yu the Great control floods and was granted the area of Shang as a fief. Qi became the ancestor of the predynastic Shang. Shangqiu was also reportedly one of the capitals defended by the Xia emperor Xiang during a period of rebellion. Thirteen generations later, Qi’s descendant Tang overthrew the Xia and founded the Shang dynasty, placing its first capital at Nanbo, south of present-day Shangqiu. Around the 11th century BC, the Zhou dynasty replaced the Shang, and the Shang royal descendants were given the area of Shangqiu, which later became the state of Song.

The Song capital, called Suiyang, was located at what is now Nanguan, south of Shangqiu’s urban center. Song was a major power during the Spring and Autumn period but declined in the Warring States era, eventually falling to the states of Qi and Wei in 286 BC. During the Han dynasty, Suiyang served as the capital of the Liang Kingdom. King Xiao of Liang, who ruled from 169 to 144 BC, remained loyal to Emperor Jing of Han during the Rebellion of the Seven States. A failed siege of Suiyang caused the main rebel army to collapse. The king was also a noted patron of the arts, hosting famous Han poets like Zhuang Ji and Sima Xiangru at his court.

From the Cao Wei dynasty through the early Sui dynasty, Suiyang was the seat of Liang Commandery. In 596 AD, it became the seat of Song Prefecture, known as Songzhou. During the An Lushan rebellion in the Tang dynasty, a ten-month siege of Suiyang in 757 turned the war in the Tang’s favor. Before Zhao Kuangyin became Emperor Taizu of Song, he served as the military governor of Guidejun, a region centered on Songzhou. He chose "Song" as the name for the new dynasty he founded in 960. The city became the southern capital of the Northern Song dynasty under the name Nanjing. During the Jin–Song wars, after the Jurchens captured Kaifeng in the Jingkang Incident of 1127, the Song court retreated south to Shangqiu. The court moved there because of the city’s historical ties to Emperor Taizu; the symbolism was meant to bolster the legitimacy of the new Emperor Gaozong, who was crowned in Shangqiu on June 12, 1127. The capital moved again to Yangzhou in 1128 and finally to Hangzhou in 1129. During the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, Shangqiu was governed as Guide Prefecture. The current name appeared in 1545, when a new Shangqiu County was created to administer the city and its surroundings.

Under the Republic of China, Shangqiu was considered a key city in eastern Henan because of its position along the Lunghai Railway, which ran from the port of Haizhou on the East China Sea to Lanzhou in central China. At the time, it was known as Kweiteh, Kwei-teh, or Kuei-te (Guīdé). It had both a Catholic diocese and an Anglican mission, the latter running St Paul’s Hospital. The city changed hands frequently during the warlord fighting of 1927. After the Manchurian Incident, Gui’de Airbase was established. It served as an auxiliary and forward airbase for the Nationalist Air Force during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), supporting aerial attacks against Japanese positions on the northern front. The 4th Fighter-Attack Group of the Chinese Air Force flew from Gui’de Airbase in March and April 1938, supporting Chinese ground forces at the Battle of Taierzhuang. That airbase is now known as Shangqiu Airport.

Shangqiu is the easternmost prefecture in Henan. Its administrative area spans from 114°49′ E to 116°39′ E in longitude and from 33°43′ N to 34°52′ N in latitude, covering 10,704 square kilometers. The city lies on the North China Plain and is mostly flat, with elevations between 30 and 70 meters, though the northwest part is slightly higher than the southeast. Shangqiu has a monsoon-influenced humid subtropical climate, with four distinct seasons. Winters are cool and mostly dry; summers are hot and humid; spring is warm with some rain; autumn is crisp and drier. The average monthly temperature ranges from around freezing in January to 27.0°C in July, with an annual mean of 14.4°C. Nearly two-thirds of the annual precipitation falls between June and September.