Dezhou City is known as “China Solar City”, “China Functional
Sugar City”, “China Central Air-Conditioning City”, “China Cereal, Oil and Food
City”, “China Auto Parts Industry City”, “China’s Outstanding Tourism City” and
“National Sanitary City”, and also named “Bio-Industry National Hi-tech
Industry Base”, “New Energy Industry Base of National Torch Program” and
“National Renewable Energy Building Application Demonstration City”. Besides,
Dezhou is a national main transportation hub city.
Location
Dezhou is located in the northwest of Shandong Province and at the
north side of lower reaches of the Yellow River between 115°45′—117°36′E and
36°24′25″—38°0′32″N. It is bordered by Zhangwei New River to its north and
close to the city of Cangzhou, Hebei; bordered by Wei Canal to its west and
adjacent to the city of Hengshui, Hebei; borders on the city of Liaocheng to
its southwest; and faces the city of Jinan to its south across the Yellow River
and the city of Binzhou to its east. Dezhou is 320 km away from Beijing, the
capital city of China. By spanning 200 km from east to west and 175 km from
north to south, Dezhou occupies a total area of 10,356 km² which accounts for
7.55% of the total area of Shandong Province. Located at the junction of
Beijing-Shanghai Railway and Dezhou-Shijiazhuang Railway, the city is cut
through by Beijing-Shanghai (Fujian) Expressway, Qingdao-Yinchuan Expressway,
Dezhou-Shijiazhuang Expressway and Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal as well as
national highways of No.104, No.308 and No.205. Besides, Beijing-Shanghai
High-speed Railway, Dezhou-Yantai Railway and Expressways of Dezhou-Shangqiu
and Dezhou-Binzhou are under construction. The regional transportation
advantages are therefore highlighted. In 2006, Dezhou was recognized as a
national main transportation hub city.
Landform
Dezhou is located in the alluvial plain of the Yellow River. In
history, there were two great migrations of the Yellow River taking place
within its territory, causing dam burst for over a thousand times and resulting
in the landform which inclines from southwest to northeast. The flooding and
flow speed together with wind deposit led to the landform features such as
rolling plain, alternating distribution of hills, hillside lands and low-lying
lands, etc. There are various landforms in the whole city which can be roughly
divided into three types: the first is highlands which were formed by fluvial
and river bed deposits, covering 34.3% of the total land area; the second is
hillside lands which were formed by Yellow River flooding and unconcentrated
flow deposits, covering 52.1% of the total land area; and the third is
low-lying lands, covering 13.6%.
Rivers
The city is cut through by large trans-province rivers mainly
including the Yellow River, Wei Canal and Zhangwei New River, and by backbone
trans-city drainage rivers including Tuhai River, Dehui New River and Majia
River. The above rivers, other than the Yellow River, all fall under the
southern Haihe River Basin. Besides the above large trans-province and
trans-city rivers, there are two large tributary rivers. each covering more
than 1000 square kilometers in the city: The first one is New Zhaoniu River
which is located in the south of Yucheng and the west of Qihe and falling under
Tuhai River Basin; and the second one is Liuwu River which is located on the
both sides of Chengong Dam, falling under Zhangwei New River Basin. There are
also 12 tributary rivers each covering 300-1000 square kilometers in the city,
including Wei River, Si New River, Guanshi River, Old Zhaoniu River and Dengjin
River falling under Tuhai River Basin, all of which are located in the south of
Tuhai River; Duma River, Song River, Ningjin River and Yuejin River falling
under Majia River Basin; and Yulin River, Linshang River and Yuejin River
falling under Dehui New River Basin. Other than the above major tributary
rivers, there are 53 tributary rivers each covering an area of 100-300 square
kilometers, and 114 tributary rivers each covering an area of 30-100 square
kilometers, all of they basically form a water conservancy system which makes
trunk rivers, tributary rivers and the basins connected with each other and is
capable of drainage and diversion as well. However, since the Yellow River has
fallen short of water resources in recent years and the rivers running within
the territory of the city all fall under rainfall source rivers whose water
volume is closely related to the climate characteristic of extremely uneven
distribution of rainfall between the upstream area and the city. In rainy
season, the rainfall surges and the water level rises, resulting in flood peak,
and even developing into flood disaster; while in drought period, most of the
rivers successively dry up.
Climate
Dezhou’s climate
basically features significant influence of monsoon, four distinctive seasons,
well-defined cold, hot, dry and wet seasons, drought, windiness and quick
warm-back in spring, torridity and raininess in summer, coolness and more
sunniness in autumn, and chilliness, less snow and more dryness in winter,
which is characterized by a typical continental climate. There is plenty of
sunshine resource with long hours of intense sunshine which are mostly
distributed in the early and mid-term stage of crop growth, beneficial to the
crop photosynthesis. The whole city enjoys an annual average of 2592 hours of
sunshine with the sunshine rate at 60%, and the total solar radiation of
124.8kcal/cm², both at the national and provincial high levels. In terms of
time distribution, the hours of sunshine peak in May and June with 280 hours of
monthly sunshine duration, a daily average of 9 hours and the solar radiation
up to 15kcal/cm². The annual average temperature in the city is 12.9℃. The extreme
maximum temperature was 43.4℃ (taking place in Decheng District on July 23, 1955),
while the extreme minimum temperature was -27℃ (taking place in Decheng District on January
15, 1958). The city enjoys a frost-free season of up to 208 days on average,
normally starting from March 29 until October 24. The duration varies greatly
from county to county with the longest season of 225 days in Wucheng County and
the gap between the east and the west is nearly up to a month. The annual
average rainfall in the city is 547.5mm with more rainfall in the east than in
the west and more in the south than in the north. In terms of rainfall time
distribution, the highest rainfall takes place in July and the average rainfall
in the city is 190mm with minimum rainfall of only 3.5mm in January. In terms
of rainfall distribution by seasons, 12.8% of the rainfall is distributed in
spring, up to 67.7% in summer, 16.9 in autumn and only 2.6% in winter, which is
characterized as a distinctive seasonal distribution with “less rain and more
drought in spring, less rain and more sunniness in autumn, more rain and
frequent waterlog in summer and less snow and more dryness in winter”.
Administrative Division
By the end of
2013, Dezhou governs Decheng District, Leling City, Yucheng City, Linyi County,
Pingyuan County, Xiajin County, Wucheng County, Qingyun County, Ningjin County,
Lingxian County, Qihe County, Dezhou Economic and Technical Development Zone
and Dezhou Yunhe Economic Development Zone. There are 88 towns, 19 counties and
27 subdistricts.