Heze (Shandong)

Heze is a prefecture-level city in southwestern Shandong, China. It is home to 8,287,693 inhabitants, of whom 1,346,717 live in the built-up (or metro) area comprising Mudan District. The westernmost prefecture-level city in Shandong, it borders Jining to the east and the provinces of Henan and Anhui to the west and south respectively. The old name of Heze was Caozhou (曹州; Cáozhōu) and now a part of the city bears this name. The first character in the city's name is sometimes incorrectly written as "" instead.HistoryQing & RepublicThe city's name in postal romanization is Tsaochow.People's RepublicIn August 1949 Heze was detached from Shandong and given to the experimental province of Pingyuan. It returned to Shandong just over three years later.In April 1953 Heze and Jining shared the counties of Huxi, which is no more.GeographyHeze has a monsoon-influenced climate that lies between the humid subtropical and humid continental zones (Köppen Cwa/Dwa), with four well-defined seasons. The city is warm and nearly rainless in spring, hot and humid in summer, crisp in autumn and cold and dry in winter. The mean annual temperature is 13.74°C, with the monthly 24-hour average temperature ranging from −0.9°C in January to 26.8°C in July. Nearly 70% of the annual precipitation occurs from June to September. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 48% in July to 60% in May, the city receives 2,411 hours of bright sunshine annually.