Changguo county The earliest civilization flourished in Zhangdian area four to five thousand years ago, which were categorized as
Longshan and
Dawenkou culture. In Shang dynasty, it was the fief of Duke of Pang (逄伯), after
King Wu of Zhou defeated Shang, he enfeoff
Jiang Ziya to this region, and then it was inherited by
State of Qi, whose rulers were descents of Jiang Ziya. In 284 BC,
Yue Yi, a general of
Yan led the army to attack State of Qi and took control of Zhangdian. He then built the city of Changguo (昌國) in this area. After
Qin unified China, a county called Changguo was established here, under the
Qi Commandery. In 556, Changguo County was abolished and replaced with Pangshan County (逄山縣).
Flourished as a trading town At the end of
Jin Dynasty and the beginning of
Yuan dynasty, Zhangdian became famous as a trading center. It had always been administered under
Jinan Prefecture, and was a city of significance for
Yuan,
Ming and
Qing dynasty.
Industrialization Large coal deposits in the Zibo region, particularly around Zhangdian,
Zhoucun, and
Boshan, began to be exploited on a significant scale in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The emergence of coal mining created one of the earliest industrial concentrations in central Shandong. Coal extraction brought an influx of miners, merchants, and laborers, stimulating the growth of surrounding support industries such as machinery repair, transport services, and general commerce. The availability of abundant fuel also supported the expansion of local industries, including ceramics, glassmaking, metallurgy, and mechanical manufacturing, especially in neighboring Boshan. Coal thus provided the material foundation for Zhangdian’s transformation into an industrial center. The opening of the
Jiaoji Railway (Jinan-Qingdao) between 1897 and 1904 fundamentally reshaped Zhangdian’s economic position; Jiaoji Railway also operated a branch line Zhang-Bo Railway (張博鐵路) from Boshan to Zhangdian. With its position, Zhangdian quickly developed into a key distribution node for coal and industrial goods.
PRC era On March 1, 1947, during the
Second Chinese Civil War, Zhangdian was taken by the
People's Liberation Army, and the Zhangdian City government was established, under the jurisdiction of the Bohai Administrative Office. In July 1949, the Central-South Shandong Zibo Special Region merged with the Mining Department of the East China Finance and Economics Office, and they formed the Zibo Industrial and Mining Special Region (淄博工礦特區), by which Zhangdian City became the administrative center of this new region. In April 1955, Zhangdian was officially established as one of the districts of Zibo city. == Administrative divisions ==