Chaoyang, Liaoning

Chaoyang 朝阳市
Prefecture-level city
An ancient street in Chaoyang.
Location of Chaoyang City jurisdiction in Liaoning
Chaoyang Location of the city centre in Liaoning
Coordinates: 41°34′N 120°27′E / 41.567°N 120.450°E / 41.567; 120.450Coordinates: 41°34′N 120°27′E / 41.567°N 120.450°E / 41.567; 120.450
Country	People's Republic of China
Province	Liaoning
Municipal seat	Shuangta District
Districts and Counties	List Shuangta District Longcheng District Beipiao City Lingyuan City Chaoyang County Jianping County Harqin Left Mongol Autonomous County
Government
• CPC Chief	Chen Tiexin
• Mayor	Zhang Tiemin
Area
• Prefecture-level city	19,698 km2 (7,605 sq mi)
Elevation	170 m (560 ft)
Population (2010)
• Prefecture-level city	3,044,641
• Density	150/km2 (400/sq mi)
• Urban	428,000
Time zone	China Standard (UTC+8)
Postal code	122000
Area code(s)	0421
Licence plate prefixes	辽N
Administrative division code	211300
ISO 3166-2	cn-21-13
Website	zgcy.gov.cn

Chaoyang (Chinese: 朝阳) is a prefecture-level city of Liaoning province, People's Republic of China.

With a vast land area of almost 20,000 square kilometres (7,700 sq mi), it is by area the largest prefecture-level city in Liaoning, and borders on Hebei province and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to the west.

The area under Chaoyang's jurisdictional control is split up into two counties (Jianping, Chaoyang), two urban districts (Longcheng, Shuangta), two county-level cities (Beipiao, Lingyuan), and the Harqin Left Wing Mongolian Autonomous County. The total regional population is 3 million, while the urban centre where the government office is located has a population of 430,000 and forms the core of Chaoyang.

Known as China's 'fossil city', many important paleontological discoveries have been made in Chaoyang, and the Harqin region is the oldest currently known prehistoric site in northern China. Two of the most remarkable Early Cretaceous birds known to date were recovered in the vicinity of the Jiufotang Formation rocks and named Longipteryx chaoyangensis and Sapeornis chaoyangensis in reference to the city.

The name "Chaoyang" originates from a poem found in one of the oldest collections of Chinese poetry, the Shijing. "A wutong tree grew on a mountain. A fenghuang bird perched at the top and sang towards the morning sun" (Chaoyang’s name means "morning sun" in Chinese). The eastern part of Chaoyang is home to a mountain that has been called Fenghuang Mountain since ancient times. In 1778, this mountain was connected with the poem from the Shijing and Chaoyang was given its current name.

Chaoyang has a long and rich history. The discovery of the over five-thousand-year-old Niuheliang Hongshan Cultural Ruins in the region has drawn attention to Chaoyang as one of the birthplaces of ancient Chinese culture. The area first appears in Chinese historical records as “Liucheng County” in the Early Han period of the 3rd century B.C. In 342 AD, King of the Former Yan, Murong Huang, made Chaoyang his capital under the name Longcheng, and the city remained the capital through the Later Yan and Northern Yan periods. Since this time, Chaoyang has functioned as a center of Buddhism in Northeast China, with the construction of Longxiang temple in 345 AD forming the beginning of Buddhist culture in the Northeast.