Kaiping

This article is about the city in Guangdong. For the district of Tangshan, Hebei, see Kaiping District. For the ancient city in Inner Mongolia, see Shangdu. For former county in Liaoning, see Kaiping, Liaoning.
Kaiping
开平市
County-level city

Dixi Road in Chikan, Kaiping

Location of Kaiping City (pink) in Jiangmen City (yellow), Guangdong province, and the PRC
Kaiping

Location of the city centre in Guangdong

Coordinates: 22°22′N 112°41′E / 22.367°N 112.683°E / 22.367; 112.683Coordinates: 22°22′N 112°41′E / 22.367°N 112.683°E / 22.367; 112.683
Country People's Republic of China
Province Guangdong
Prefecture-level city Jiangmen
County seat Changsha Subdistrict (长沙街道)
Area
  Total 1,659 km2 (641 sq mi)
Population (2010 census)
  Total 699,242
  Density 420/km2 (1,100/sq mi)
Time zone China Standard (UTC+8)
Postal code 529300
Area code(s) 0750
Website www.kaiping.gov.cn
Kaiping
Simplified Chinese 开平
Traditional Chinese 開平
Taishanese Jyutping Hoi3-pen6 (local)
Hanyu Pinyin Kāipíng
Postal Hoiping

Kaiping, formerly romanized as Hoiping,[lower-alpha 1] is a county-level city in Guangdong Province, China. It is located in the Pearl River Delta and administered as part of the prefecture-level city of Jiangmen. The area is the ancestral homeland of many overseas Chinese, particularly in the United States. It has a population of 680,000 as of 2003 and an area of 1,659 square kilometres (641 sq mi).[2] The locals speak a variant of the Taishan dialect.

History

Under the Qing, Kaiping County made up part of the commandery of Zhaoqing.[1] It was promoted to county-level city status in 1993.

Administration

Administratively, Kaiping is administered as part of the prefecture-level city of Jiangmen.

Name Chinese (S) Hanyu Pinyin Population (2010)[3]
Sanbu Subdistrict 三埠街道 Sānbù Jiēdào 173,100
Changsha Subdistrict 长沙街道 Chángshā Jiēdào 124,829
Shatang Town 沙塘镇 Shātáng Zhèn 24,667
Chacheng Town 苍城镇 Cāngchéng Zhèn 26,750
Longsheng Town 龙胜镇 Lóngshèng Zhèn 26,161
Dasha Town 大沙镇 Dàshā Zhèn 22,298
Magang Town 马冈镇 Mǎgāng Zhèn 30,728
Tangkou Town 塘口镇 Tángkǒu Zhèn 22,626
Chikan Town 赤坎镇 Chìkǎn Zhèn 37,260
Baihe Town 百合镇 Bǎihé Zhèn 17,621
Xiangang Town 蚬冈镇 Xiǎngāng Zhèn 13,280
Jinji Town 金鸡镇 Jīnjī Zhèn 16,493
Yueshan Town 月山镇 Yuèshān Zhèn 46,700
Chishui Town 赤水镇 Chìshuǐ Zhèn 25,894
Shuikou Town 水口镇 Shuǐkǒu Zhèn 90,835

Geography

Kaiping City is located 140 kilometres (87 mi) away from Guangzhou, in the southwestern part of the Pearl River Delta. Kaiping consists of three port cities: Changsha, Xinchang, and Dihai.

Sights

Main article: Kaiping Diaolou

Kaiping Diaolous (碉楼) are fortified multi-storey towers which were constructed in the Kaiping area from the early Qing Dynasty, reaching a peak in the 1920s and 1930s, when there were more than three thousand of these structures. Today, approximately 1,800 diaolou are still standing. The diaolou served two purposes: housing and protecting against forays by bandits. The Kaiping diaolou and villages were added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2007.

Kaiping has traditionally been a region of major emigration abroad, and a melting pot of ideas and trends brought back by overseas Chinese made good. As a consequence, several watchtowers incorporate architectural features from China and the West.

Examples include:

Miscellaneous

Kaiping has been twinned with Mesa, Arizona, United States, since October 18, 1993.

Kaiping was a major source of emigrants at the turn of the 20th century. As a result, a large number of early Chinese Canadian and Chinese American communities had people who originated from Kaiping and its neighboring counties of Taishan, Enping and Xinhui. It is said that there are more Kaipingnese people living abroad today than there are Kaipingnese in Kaiping.

In 1973, various people originated from Kaiping started the Hoi Ping Chamber of Commerce Secondary School in Hong Kong.

Notes

  1. The Postal Map romanization is based on the local Cantonese pronunciation. Other romanizations include Kae Ping.[1]

References

Citations

  1. 1 2 Bolton & al. (1941), p. 262.
  2. "Profile of Kaiping" (in Chinese). Archived from the original on January 18, 2010. Retrieved 2008-07-12.
  3. shi, Guo wu yuan ren kou pu cha ban gong; council, Guo jia tong ji ju ren kou he jiu ye tong ji si bian = Tabulation on the 2010 population census of the people's republic of China by township / compiled by Population census office under the state; population, Department of; statistics, employment statistics national bureau of (2012). Zhongguo 2010 nian ren kou pu cha fen xiang, zhen, jie dao zi liao (Di 1 ban. ed.). Beijing Shi: Zhongguo tong ji chu ban she. ISBN 978-7-5037-6660-2.

Bibliography

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kaiping.

- http://english.kaiping.gov.cn/gover_affair.asp?InfoId=1205&ClassId=72 (Kaiping Press Release for future high speed rail station)

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/28/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.