Shantung

Shantung: see Shandong, China.

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Shandong

 or Shan-tung conventional Shantung

Coastal province (pop., 2002 est.: 90,820,000), eastern China. It lies on the Yellow Sea and is bordered by Jiangsu, Anhui, Henan, and Hebei provinces. It has an area of 59,200 sq mi (153,300 sq km), and its capital is Jinan. It contains the Shandong Peninsula and an inland zone that includes a fertile, intensely cultivated area that forms part of the Huang He (Yellow River) basin. The peninsula has been occupied since the 3rd millennium BC, and by the 8th century BC it had become a centre of political and military activity. It became northern China's leading maritime centre in the 3rd century AD and retained that position for centuries. In the 19th century devastating floods resulted in substantial emigration. It came under German, British, and Japanese influence in the late 19th century. The Japanese occupied it in 1937–45; it came under communist control in 1948. Its products include wheat, corn, iron ore, gold, fish, and silk. Confucius and Mencius were born in Shandong.

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shantung

1. a heavy silk fabric with a knobbly surface

2. a cotton or rayon imitation of this

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shantung [shan′təŋ]

(geology)

A monadnock in the process of burial by huangho deposits.

(textiles)

A fabric with a plain silk weave characterized by a rough, nubbed surface.

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Shantung 

a province in East China, occupying the Shantung Peninsula and part of the North China Plain, along the lower Huang Ho. The province is washed by the Yellow Sea and the Pohai Wan. Area, 150,000 sq km. Population, 58 million (1975). The capital is the city of Tsinan.

The coast of the Shantung Peninsula, which is indented by numerous bays and inlets convenient for ships, is rocky. The coast of the North China Plain is flat and marshy. Part of the province is taken up by the T’ai Shan. Shantung has a temperate monsoon climate. The principal rivers in the province’s dense network of rivers are the Huang Ho and the Wei Ho. The lakes Tungp’ing Hu and Tushan Hu are connected by the Grand Canal system.

Shantung, an industrially developed province, is an important industrial region of the People’s Republic of China; in 1971 it accounted for 5.5 percent of the country’s gross industrial output. The highly developed mining industry includes the extraction of coal, petroleum, iron ore, bauxites, graphite, and salt (on the coast). The Tzupo Coalfield, in which 6–7 million tons were mined annually in the 1970’s, and the Shengli oil fields, which yielded an estimated 15 million tons in 1975, produce for the entire country. The petroleum-refining industry is undergoing development.

The province produces a substantial quantity of electric power at fossil-fuel-fired steam power plants. Ferrous metallurgy is represented by plants in Tsinan and Tsingtao, and nonferrous metallurgy by an aluminum plant in Tsingtao. The diversified machine-building industry manufactures locomotives and railroad cars at the Ssufang Plant in Tsingtao, as well as internal-combustion engines, machine tools, electrical equipment, and machinery for the textile industry and agriculture. There are shipyards in Tsingtao.

The chemical industry is highly developed in Tsinan (rubber goods and mineral fertilizers), Tsingtao (plastics, mineral fertilizers, toxic chemicals, and dyes), and Poshan (Tzupo). Tsingtao ranks second in the People’s Republic of China as a center of the cotton industry, with more than ten cotton mills, as well as knitwear and dye factories. The textile industry is also well developed in Tsinan, whose plants include a spinning mill, a textile mill, and a burlap plant. The porcelain and faience industry in Poshan produces for the entire country. The highly developed food-processing industry produces vegetable oil, flour, tobacco, and wine.

Shantung, an important agricultural region, ranks second among China’s provinces in the production of wheat; the other main food crops are soybeans, millet, rice, kaoliang, maize, and sweet potatotes. Shantung leads China’s provinces in the production of peanuts; other industrial crops are cotton, tobacco, and hemp. There is fruit growing and viticulture. Animal husbandry, which plays an auxiliary role, is devoted to the raising of cattle, donkeys, swine, sheep, goats, and horses and to poultry farming. Other economic activities include fishing and the hunting of marine animals.

There is navigation on the Huang Ho, the Hsiaoch’ing Ho, and the Grand Canal. The province’s main seaports are Tsingtao, Yant’ai, Weihai, Lungk’ou, and Shihtao. Tsingtao is a seaside resort.

I. M. FEDOROV

Numerous objects from a Neolithic culture known as the Lungshan have been discovered in Shantung, and settlements from the Shang period (16th–11th centuries B.C.) are known to have existed in the province. From the eighth to third centuries B.C. most of Shantung formed part of the Ch’i and Lu kingdoms; during this period the ancient Chinese thinkers Confucius and Mencius were born in the region. Shantung received its present name in the tenth century.

Shantung was on numerous occasions the scene of major popular uprisings, notably the Red Eyebrows Rebellion in the first century, the Rebellion of the Yellow Turbans in the second century, a peasant uprising under Tou Chien-te in the seventh century, a peasant war led by Huang Ch’ao in the ninth century, and an uprising led by Sung Chiang in the 12th century. Shantung was officially formed as a province in the mid-17th century.

Detachments taking part in the northern campaign of the Taiping rebels operated in Shantung in 1854 and 1855, and detachments of Nien rebels were active in the province from 1864 to 1868. In 1898, Chiaochou Wan and the port of Tsingtao were forcibly “leased” by Germany, and the port of Weihai by Great Britain. At this time Germany declared Shantung within its sphere of influence and was granted several concessions in the province. Shantung was a center of the anti-imperialist Boxer Rebellion (1899–1901).

At the beginning of World War I, the territory leased by Germany was taken over by Japan, which returned it to China in 1922 under pressure from its imperialist competitors. From 1937 to 1945 the province was occupied by the Japanese. Shantung was liberated from Kuomintang rule by the People’s Liberation Army of China in the summer of 1949.

V. P. ILIUSHECHKIN

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Shantung 

a peninsula in East China, extending 350 km into the Yellow Sea. The coast is indented by numerous bays and inlets. The hills are covered with shrubs; the coastal plains and the plains that lie between the hills are densely populated. Wheat, peanuts, and tobacco are cultivated, and there are fruit orchards. The seaports of Tsingtao, Yant’ai and Weihai are situated on the Shantung Peninsula.