Prefecture-level city in Shandong, People's Republic of China
About Zibo
Zibo is a prefecture-level city in central Shandong province, China. It borders the provincial capital Jinan to the west, Tai'an to the southwest, Linyi to the south, Weifang to the east, Dongying to the northeast, and Binzhou to the north.
History
The remains of three major Neolithic cultures in ancient China, Beixin culture, Dawenkou culture, and Longshan culture have been found in Zibo. Ancient Linzi, located in present-day Zibo, was the capital of the ancient State of Qi, a powerful state during the Spring and Autumn and the Warring States periods, over 2,000 years ago. In 7th century BC, Duke Huan of Qi, ruler of Qi, appointed Guan Zhong, thinker and economist, as his prime minister, and adopted Guan's thoughts and policies to administer his country, develop the economy and develop relations with other states. The measures greatly strengthened the country, making its capital one of the most prosperous in ancient China. Zibo is rich in cultural and historical sites, and is referred to as the "Underground Museum". …
Geography
Zibo is located near the center of Shandong Province, neighboring Mt. Tai in the south and backing the Yellow River in the north. Toward the east are the coastal cities of Qingdao, Yantai, and Weihai. The capital of Shandong, Jinan is to its west. Zibo is located in the transition zone between the mountainous area in central Shandong and the North China Plain. Its southern area is covered with mid-sized mountains, while the center is hilly. The city's northern territory descends into plains. The ratio among mountains, hills and plains are 42%, 29.9% and 28.1%, respectively. With the Yihe River originating itself in the southern mountain area, and Yellow River flowing across the northern area, the city has comparatively abundant water resources. The workable reserve of ground water is 1.24 tons/day. …
Culture
The Zibo dialect has classical features of Northern Chinese but also has specific characteristics of its own. In Zibo dialect, points of articulation of low vowel is particularly deep in the mouth, and most areas do not have a retroflex consonant except in parts of Linzi District. The Zibo dialect does not have many features that distinguish it from mandarin when it comes to sentence composition, while subtle differences may be found when people ask questions and their expressions to probability of actions. The Zibo dialect may be divided into three major sections according to the administrative districts: Huantai-Zhangdian-Zhoucun, being areas on the transport corridor between Jinan and Weifeng, have a mild mandarin accent closely resembling somewhere between Beijing, Jinan, Qingdao and Zichuan accents. …
Content from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA. Read the full article →