Boshan

Boshan is the southernmost district of Zibo, 42 kilometres south of the city centre, and it sits in the mountains where Zibo itself lies in a flat valley. That geography decided its history: the rail line to Boshan was only a spur, so when Zibo became the commercial and administrative centre, Boshan stayed a small manufacturing town. Its major industries are ceramics, industrial pumps, vacuum pumps, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, and the town advertises itself as the Pump Capital of China. Around the turn of the century new tall buildings went up and the old one-storey houses came down, and many of the traditional factories have since closed.