Zhucheng 诸城市

Setting and landscape

The city lies on the upper Wei River (潍河). Its urban area is almost flat, ringed by hills such as Changshan (常山), Ma'er Mountain (马耳山) and Zhangri Mountain (障日山). Zhucheng borders Jiaozhou (胶州) and Huangdao (黄岛) to the east, Wulian (五莲) to the south, Ju County (莒县) and Yishui (沂水) to the west, and Anqiu (安丘) and Gaomi (高密) to the north.

History

Local tradition holds that the sage-king Shun (舜) was born in Zhufeng village (诸冯村) north of the town, and the city government ties the name to him. Wikipedia gives a different origin: the Zhucheng name, first used in 598 under the Sui, came from the Han-dynasty town of Zhu county to the west. Three Dawenkou and seven Longshan culture sites have been found. The Neolithic Qianzhai site (前寨遗址) at Zhigou (枳沟), where a Dawenkou jade tube was found, became a Shandong provincial protected site in 2006.

From the Sui to the Yuan the town was usually the seat of Mizhou, until the Ming abolished the prefecture in 1369. The poet Su Shi (苏轼) was ordered to Mizhou in 1074, and the city still quotes the line "试上超然台上看，半壕春水一城花" ("climb the Chaoran Terrace and look: spring water fills half the moat, and flowers the whole town"). Zhucheng became a county-level city on 1 July 1987.

What to see

Since the 1960s more than 30 fossil burial sites have been found around Zhucheng, including Kugou (库沟) and Zangjiazhuang (臧家庄), yielding more than 25,000 pieces; over 90 per cent are from hadrosaurs, the duck-billed dinosaurs. Bones, eggs and footprints have all been found here. The giant hadrosaur Shantungosaurus (山东龙), found in Zhucheng in 1964, is known from a type skeleton 14.72 metres long, and Wikipedia lists it among the largest known duck-billed dinosaurs. The horned dinosaur Zhuchengceratops (诸城角龙) was described in 2010 and the tyrannosaur Zhuchengtyrannus (诸城暴龙) in 2011. In October 2008 the Ministry of Land and Resources named Zhucheng "China's Dragon City" (中国龙城).

Getting oriented

National highways 206 and 341, the Qingdao–Lanzhou (青兰高速) and Weifang–Rizhao (潍日高速) expressways and the Jiaozhou–Xinyi railway (胶新铁路) all pass through Zhucheng. Qingdao lies to the east and Rizhao to the west.

Highlights

• Zhucheng dinosaur fossil sites 诸城恐龙化石: More than 30 burial sites and over 25,000 fossil pieces, mostly hadrosaurs, with bones, eggs and footprints.
• Shantungosaurus 山东龙: Giant duck-billed dinosaur found in Zhucheng in 1964; type skeleton 14.72 m long.
• Qianzhai site 前寨遗址: Neolithic site at Zhigou, provincial protected site since 2006.