Shandong Province is a coastal province in East my country. The province has a land area of 155,800 square kilometers and a permanent population of 101.6999 million. It is the only two provinces in the country with a population of over 100 million. Shandong Province is often known as "all-round" in terms of economic development, with no shortcomings in all aspects. It has become a major "guarantee" to promote Shandong's social progress.

Shandong Province actually governs a total of 42 cities, not 16, but also 26 county-level cities. According to the "2020 China Census County Data" compiled by the Seventh National Census Leading Group Office of the State Council this year, these 42 cities in Shandong Province include 10 large cities, 10 medium-sized cities and 22 small cities. Among the 10 major cities, Qingdao and Jinan are national metropolises and the dual cores of Shandong Province. Both of them are megacities.

Zaozhuang was shortlisted for big cities. This may be something that many people cannot believe. Zaozhuang is located in the southern part of Shandong Province, with a total area of only 4,564 square kilometers. It is a smaller prefecture-level city in Shandong Province, accounting for only 2.97% of the entire province. As early as a few decades ago, Zaozhuang, as a resource-based city, became an industrial town in Shandong Province because of coal. In 1992, Zaozhuang's GDP was 6.976 billion yuan, ranking 85th in the country.

Because of the depletion of coal resources, Zaozhuang's economic development is constantly falling behind, and it cannot support its Lu C status. In the past ten years, Zaozhuang has been upgrading and improving its industrial structure, focusing on tourism. Taierzhuang Ancient City is a good example. "Jinshan Bank is not as good as clear waters and green mountains." The environment in Zaozhuang is better. In the first three quarters of this year, Zaozhuang's GDP was only 160.362 billion yuan, ranking 16th in the province. We cannot ignore the fact that Zaozhuang has an urban population of over one million and is one of the largest cities.
