Heze City, the peony capital of China, is a prefecture-level city under the jurisdiction of Shandong Province, located in the southwest of Shandong Province, the junction of Lu, Su, Yu and Anhui provinces, bordering Jining City in the east, Xuzhou City in Jiangsu Province and Suzhou City in Anhui Province in the southeast, Shangqiu City in Henan Province in the south, Kaifeng City and Xinxiang City in Henan Province in the west, and Puyang City in Henan Province in the north, with a total area of 12,239 square kilometers. As of June 2023, Heze City has 2 city districts and 7 counties under its jurisdiction, and another Heze Luxi New District (a provincial-level new district). As of the end of 2022, Heze City had a total resident population of 8,683,200 people.
The city of Heze, known as Caozhou in ancient times, was originally a natural ancient swamp, where the Jishui River meets and the Heshui River comes out, connecting the two major water systems of ancient Jishui and Surabaya, which was renamed Longchi in Tang, and Xiayue Lake in Qing Dynasty. Qing Yongzheng thirteen years (1735) rise Caozhou for the prefecture, attached to Guo set up counties, because of the south of the "He Mountain", north of the "Lei Ze", given the name Heze. Heze has a long history and enjoys the reputation of "the center of the world", and the nine zones of "Yugong", namely, Heze, Leize, Dainoze and Mengzhuze, are all located in the territory. Humanities ancestor Fu Xi, the emperor of the East Barbarians Shao Hao, the wise monarch Emperor Shun, the Lord of War Chiyu, reformer Wu Qi, military Sun Bin, agronomist Flood Shengzhi, economist Liu Yan, Wen Zisheng and other literati were born here, Liu Bang ascended to the throne of Emperor Cao Cao's achievements in the hegemony of Fan Li, business, the Yellow Nest Uprising, Song Jiang, and so on, all took place in Heze.
In 2023, the gross domestic product (GDP) was 446.449 billion yuan, an increase of 6.8% over the previous year. Among them, the added value of the primary industry was 42.213 billion yuan, an increase of 4.2% over the previous year; the added value of the secondary industry was 179.952 billion yuan, an increase of 7.3%; and the added value of the tertiary industry was 224.284 billion yuan, an increase of 6.8%.
