Danzhou


Danzhou is a prefecture-level city in the northwest of the Chinese island province of Hainan. Although called a "city", Danzhou administers a large area which was called Dan County or Danxian until 1993. The administrative seat and urban center of Danzhou is Nada Town, which is often colloquially referred to as Danzhou city. Danzhou was upgraded from a county-level city into a prefecture-level city in February 2015.

History

What is now Danzhou was firstly named Danzhou during the Song Dynasty in the 12th century and only renamed to Danxian in 1912 after hundreds of years, but later re-obtained its name Danzhou after the Communist takeover in the 1950s.
During World War 2, Danzhou was among the top most devastated counties in Hainan as the Japanese had massacred more than 30,000 people in Danzhou, destroying over than 10,000 houses and 300 Danzhou villages.

Subdivisions

Danzhou is a prefecture-level city of the Hainan province. An uncommon administrative feature is that it has no county-level division. The city government directly administers over 17 towns, one state-run institute, and four state-run farms plus an economic development zone:

Demographics

The city's population was in 2010. The Han population is 857,342 and the minority population is 75,020.

Language

The Danzhou natives speak the Yue Danzhou dialect, unlike the Min Hainanese language that is spoken throughout most of eastern Hainan.

Transportation

The area will be served by Danzhou Airport, an under-construction airport approximately northeast of Nada. It will be international-class, built to handle the increasing number of tourists visiting the area. The airport is scheduled for completion in 2022.
The Hainan Western Ring High-Speed Railway also provides access.

Climate