BEIJING, Aug. 26 -- As the 10th Asian Art Festival will open on September 26 in Zhengzhou, local authorities expect it to also show the city's brilliant civilization and recent advancements in culture and other social and economic fields.

    Zhengzhou, capital of Henan province in the center of the country, covers 7,446 sq km and has a population of 7.36 million people.

(Xinhua Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    The 294 sq km central urban area of the city has 3.54 million residents.

    It has six districts, five cities, one county, two State-level development zones and one State-level export processing zone under its administration.

    It is one of China's most famed historic cities and a well-known tourism destination due to its ancient civilization and Songshan Mountain World Geopark.

    The city was a cradle of Chinese civilization, with unearthed relics indicating it was the center of human activity some 8,000 years ago.

    Ancient civilization     

A booming commercial hub by the Jinshui River.(Photo Source: China Daily) Photo Gallery>>>

    In 1977, a great number of relics like stone utensils, earthenware, seeds and the remains of humans and domesticated animals were discovered in Peiligang village in the suburbs of Zhengzhou. Archaeologists confirmed the Neolithic Age relics date back 7,000 to 8,000 years, the earliest evidence of human civilization in China.

    Other discoveries formed a continuous and complete chronological table of history in Zhengzhou, even before the age of written records. The Dahecun civilization dates to 6,000 years ago. The relics of the city wall of the Shang Dynasty capital about 3,600 years ago were also discovered in Zhengzhou.

    In the ensuing thousands of years of recorded history, Zhengzhen was the capitals of the Zheng Kingdom during the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC-476 BC) and the Han Kingdom during the Warring States Period (475 BC-221 BC).

    During the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), many emperors selected Zhengzhou as the site of their mausoleums.

    In addition to relic sites, Songshan Mountain is another destination popular with tourists.

    Some 90 km from the city center of Zhengzhou, Songshan is home to the famous Shaolin Temple, the birthplace of Chinese kungfu and the Zen sect of Buddhism still thriving in China, Japan and South Korea.

    The mountain is also a World Geopark because of its unique geological structure and landscape.

    Another noted tour is on the Yellow River in the city's northern suburbs.

    After ending its torrential journey in its upper and middle reaches, the muddy river flows calmly "above" the central plain in Zhengzhou.

    And the riverbank is literally above the surrounding land. Its embankment is more than 10 m higher in elevation as it stretches several hundred miles to its estuary.

    The embankment is the result of centuries of effort to tame the river's wildness and is a silent witness to Chinese history and civilization.

    The Yellow River is the mother river of China, creating a vast plain stretching from Henan to Beijing, perhaps one of the largest alluvial plains in the world. The river's floods have brought fertile soils onto the plain, benefiting the people and nurturing civilization for thousands of years.

    Yet it was so wild that it frequently destroyed lives and property and even led to the fall of several dynasties.

    For generation after generation, ceaseless effort to tame the river continued, resulting in the greatest embankment project in the world.

    A modern city

Zhengdong new district will be the central business district of Zhengzhou.(Photo Source: China Daily) Photo Gallery>>>

    A city with thousands of years of glory, Zhengzhou has now developed into a modern metropolis that presents new opportunities for business.

    In 2007, the city's gross domestic product reached 242.12 billion yuan, ranking 17th among China's large and medium-sized cities and ninth among the provincial capitals.

    It is the largest aluminum oxide producer in China, with its output accounting for about half of the country's total.

    Frozen food products made in Zhengzhou have more than 40 percent of the domestic market share.

    Zhengzhou-based Yutong is the largest and most advanced bus producer in Asia.

    In addition to Yutong, Zhengzhou is also home to such famed enterprises such as Zhengzhou Nissan Automotive Co and frozen food makers of Sanquan and Sinian.

    Last year, the city had six companies each with a sales revenue of more than 10 billion yuan.

    The Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange is one of the most important grain futures exchange markets in the world.

    Zhengzhou is also an important transportation hub, with many of the national transportation trunk lines meeting there.

    A converging point of the country's two most important railways - the north-south Beijing-Guangzhou and the east-west Lianyungang-Lanzhou railways - Zhengzhou has the largest railway switching station in Asia and the largest bulk cargo railway station in China. The Zhengzhou Airport has opened flight services to link with more than 30 cities in the world.

    With a comprehensive highway, expressway, railway and aviation network, the city has developed into one of the important logistics hubs in China.

    Today the city is planning to build itself into a modern internationalized metropolis.

    A recent move is the construction of the Zhengdong new district. With a planned area of 50 sq km and population of 220,000, this will be the central business district of Zhengzhou. To date, about 600 new enterprises have been registered there.

    (Source: China Daily)