Zhaotong, which used to be the venue of an important conference held in February of 1935 during Chinese Red Army's Long March, was announced to become a city as of Saturday.

Zhaotong was originally a prefecture in Yunnan Province. Situated at the juncture of Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou provinces and among the Wumeng Mountains, Zhaotong used to be an important gateway to Sichuan and Guizhou provinces, and one of the major economic and cultural center on the "Silk Road" in south China.

Human activities began at Zhaotong as early as 100,000 years ago. It is also considered as one of the three major birthplaces of the Yunnan culture.

The newly founded city has a territory of 23,000 sq. km where live 4.96 million people including Han, Yi, Miao and Hui people. It administers one district and ten counties.

Zhaotong has witnessed great improvement in both infrastructure and people's living standards since the founding of New China in 1949, said local sources.

(Eastday.com.cn 08/12/2001)