Maoming

Maoming, alternately romanized as Mowming, is a prefecture-level city located in southwestern Guangdong province, China. Facing the South China Sea to the city's south, Maoming city borders Zhanjiang to the west, Yangjiang to the east, and Yunfu to the northeast, and is from Guangzhou and from Zhanjiang. The Maoming Port is a Grade I port that handled 16.8 million tons of cargo in 2007. Refined oil and aquatic products are the major export products from the city. Major export destinations include Hong Kong, Macao and ASEAN member nations. As of the 2020 census, Maoming had a population of 6,174,050 inhabitants, 2,539,148 of whom live in the built-up (or metro) area, which includes 2 urban districts (Maonan and Dianbai) largely being conurbated. The city's birth rate is 11.04‰, and its GDP (2012) was RMB 195.118 billion (US$31.81billion), up by 10.6% over the previous year. According to government sources, Maoming's GDP ranked 7th among Guangdong's 21 cities, and ranked 79th of China's 656 cities in 2012. The city is named after Jin dynasty Taoist scholar and doctor Pan Maoming (290–371), born in Gaozhou. The local area was renamed by imperial decree in honour of Pan in 598 A.D. during the Sui dynasty. During the early development of Chinese civilization in the Wei and Yellow River valleys and across the North China Plain, the area around Maoming was held by the Baiyue. After the Qin invaded in the late 3rd century BC, the area was divided into Nanhai, Xiang, and Guilin. Maoming County was established 600 under the Sui. Under the Qing, it comprised part of Gaozhou Prefecture. Following the Chinese Civil War, Maoming became the primary community in the area and was raised to county-level city status in 1959. In 2014, the city was the site of popular protests against p-Xylene, a chemical based on benzene that was being produced by local industry. Since the 18th Party Congress and the ascension of Party general secretary Xi Jinping, Maoming has been one of the "hardest hit" areas of the anti-corruption campaign.