Tongzhou District

Tongzhou District is a district of Beijing, the capital of People's Republic of China. It is located in southeast Beijing and considered the eastern gateway to the Chinese capital. Downtown Tongzhou itself lies twelve miles from central Beijing, at the northern end of the Grand Canal (on the junction between the Tonghui Canal and the Northern Canal) and at the easternmost end of Chang'an Avenue. The entire district covers an area of 906 square kilometers, or 6% of Beijing's total area. It had a population of 673,952 at the 2000 Census, and has seen significant growth and development since then. The district is subdivided into 4 subdistricts of the city of Tongzhou, 10 towns, and 1 ethnic rural township.

Tongzhou has a long history of more than 220 years since its foundation in Xihan Dynasty. Relics unearthed in Tongzhou indicates that human beings had lived here as early as the Neolithic Age; In 195 BC, Liu Bang, the first Emperor of Xihan dynasty, set up the county here; In 25 AD, the first year of Donghan dynasty, the emperor Liu Xiu renamed it as Lu County; In 1151 AD, when the ruling power was the Jin dynasty, the emperor--King Hai Ling set up a new feudal province and renamed County Lu as Tongzhou since the Chinese character Tong could fully describe the importance of the Great Canal in transportation; In 1914, Tongzhou was renamed Tong County; In 1997, it was, by the State Councilis confirmation, renamed Tongzhou and became one of the districts in Beijing.