Chongzuo produces about a fifth of China’s sugar, 84 percent of its people are Zhuang, a jawbone from one of its caves is about 100,000 years old, and in 1907 Sun Yat-sen fired a cannon from its border pass.
崇左的蔗糖产量约占全国的五分之一,全市百分之八十四的人口是壮族,城里一处洞穴出土的下颌骨约有十万年历史,一九零七年孙中山还从这里的边关上发过炮。
Chongzuo was set up as a prefecture-level city in August 2003, the youngest in Guangxi, and it borders Vietnam on its west and south.
崇左二零零三年八月挂牌成立,是广西最年轻的设区市,西面和南面与越南接壤。
The Zuo River and its tributary the Ming run through it, and on their cliffs the Luoyue, ancestors of the Zhuang, left some of the largest rock paintings in the world.
左江及其支流明江流经全市,壮族先民骆越人在两岸崖壁上留下了世界上规模最大的岩画之一。
Paintings on the Cliffs
崖壁上的画
The Zuojiang Huashan Rock Art Cultural Landscape was inscribed as a World Heritage site on 15 July 2016, Guangxi’s first and China’s first rock-art site, according to China Daily. It includes 38 painting sites along the Zuo and Ming rivers, according to the same source.
据中国日报网报道,左江花山岩画文化景观二零一六年七月十五日列入世界文化遗产名录,是广西第一处世界文化遗产,也是中国第一处岩画类世界文化遗产,包含沿左江及其支流明江分布的三十八个岩画点。
The cliff at Huashan, in Ningming, is 221 metres long and nearly 40 metres high and carries more than 1,950 images, according to CCTV. Most show many side-on figures around a large, squatting central one, among bronze drums, which experts read as a ritual song and dance of the Luoyue, according to China Youth Daily.
据央视网介绍,宁明花山崖壁长二百二十一米、高近四十米,遗存图像一千九百五十多个。据《中国青年报》报道,画面多为众多侧身人像围绕一个高大的蹲式正身人像,周围有铜鼓,专家认为这是骆越人祭祀时的集体歌舞场面。
Experts date the paintings to between the Warring States period and the Eastern Han, roughly 2,500 to 1,800 years BP (before present, conventionally measured from 1 January 1950), though their precise dating remains unsettled, according to Kemingbaike.
据可名百科介绍,专家推测岩画创作于战国至东汉时期,距今约二千五百至一千八百年(BP,即以一九五零年一月一日为基准的”距今”年代),但成画年代尚无定论。
Sugar, Fruit and Fewer People
蔗糖、水果与不断减少的人口
According to Chongzuo’s 2025 statistical communiqué, GDP reached ¥135.86 billion, up 6.0 percent, with farming at 17.2 percent of output, the secondary sector at 41.7 percent and services at 41.1 percent. Sugarcane output was 24.86 million tonnes, up 3.4 percent, from 4.15 million mu, or about 277,000 hectares, of cane.
据崇左市二零二五年统计公报,全年生产总值一千三百五十八点六四亿元,增长百分之六点零,第一产业占百分之十七点二,第二产业占百分之四十一点七,第三产业占百分之四十一点一;甘蔗产量二千四百八十六点四七万吨,增长百分之三点四,种植面积四百一十五点三一万亩,约合二十七点七万公顷。
In the 2025/26 crushing season the city’s mills crushed 19.60 million tonnes of cane and made 2.45 million tonnes of sugar, marking its 23rd consecutive year as China’s leading prefecture-level city for sugar production, and growers earned ¥10.5 billion, according to Chongzuo’s media centre. The city government says its sugar makes up a fifth of China’s output, and that it has the country’s largest manganese reserves, the largest redwood market and nearly half of China’s fruit imports.
据崇左市融媒体中心报道,二零二五/二零二六年榨季全市入榨甘蔗一千九百六十点二九万吨,产糖二百四十五点四六万吨,连续二十三年是全国产糖量最大的地级市,蔗农收入一百零五亿元。崇左市人民政府称,全市蔗糖产量占全国五分之一,锰矿储量居全国首位,拥有中国最大的红木市场,进口水果总量占中国水果进口总量近一半。
The Zhuang numbered 1,756,280, or 84.09 percent of residents, at the 2020 census, according to Chongzuo’s census bulletin. The resident population was 2.0324 million at the end of 2025, down 13,700, with 12,100 births and 19,600 deaths, according to the 2025 communiqué.
据崇左市第七次人口普查公报,二零二零年全市壮族人口为一百七十五万六千二百八十人,占常住人口的百分之八十四点零九。据二零二五年统计公报,二零二五年末常住人口二百零三点二四万人,比上年末减少一点三七万人,全年出生一点二一万人、死亡一点九六万人。
A jawbone and two teeth found in 2007 and 2008 in Zhiren Cave on Mulan Hill were assigned an age of 113,000 to 100,000 years BP using uranium-series dating, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The jaw shows modern features such as a chin, alongside primitive ones, and the finding was among China’s top ten scientific advances of 2010, according to the same source.
据中国科学院介绍,二零零七年和二零零八年在木榄山智人洞发现的一件下颌骨和两枚牙齿,经铀系测年确定为距今十一万三千至十万年(BP);该下颌骨既有颏部等现代人特征,又保留一些原始特征,相关研究入选二零一零年度”中国科学十大进展”。
Before it, the earliest early modern humans in East Asia were thought to be those of Tianyuan Cave, near Beijing, about 40,000 years old, according to the same source. The Liujiang skeleton from Liuzhou, once controversially dated to 139,000–111,000 years BP, was placed at 33,000 to 23,000 years BP by a 2024 study, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
据同一来源介绍,此前国际古人类学界普遍认为东亚最早的早期现代人是北京周口店田园洞约四万年前的人类。柳州出土的柳江人骨架,年代曾有争议、一度被定为距今十三万九千至十一万一千年(BP);据中国科学院介绍,二零二四年的一项研究将其定为距今三万三千至二万三千年(BP)。
A Cannon at the Pass
关上的一门炮
Huang Mingtang’s men seized three forts at Zhennan Pass, today’s Friendship Pass in Pingxiang, on 2 December 1907, and Sun Yat-sen arrived on the night of 3 December. On 4 December he fired the guns himself, hitting the Qing headquarters and killing 62 soldiers, according to a former director of the Pingxiang museum quoted by China News Service. The fighting lasted seven days and the rebels withdrew into Vietnam on 8 December, according to Baidu Baike.
一九零七年十二月二日,黄明堂率部夺取了镇南关(今凭祥友谊关)的三座炮台,孙中山十二月三日夜抵达。据中新社采访的凭祥市博物馆原馆长介绍,十二月四日他亲自发炮,击中清军大本营,打死六十二人。据百度百科介绍,战斗持续七昼夜,起义军十二月八日退入越南境内。
Chongzuo has four international ports and one bilateral port, the most of any Chinese city, according to the city government. Its goods trade was ¥266.97 billion in 2025, down 2.1 percent, of which ¥227.93 billion were exports, according to the 2025 communiqué.
据崇左市人民政府介绍,全市拥有四个国际性口岸和一个双边性口岸,是中国边境口岸最多的城市。据二零二五年统计公报,全年外贸进出口总额二千六百六十九点六五亿元,下降百分之二点一,其中出口二千二百七十九点二七亿元。
The Nanning–Pingxiang high-speed line opened in full on 5 December 2025, with a station at Chongzuo South, and the fastest trains take 1 hour 15 minutes from Nanning to Pingxiang, according to China Railway.
据中国铁路报道,南宁至凭祥高铁二零二五年十二月五日全线贯通运营,设崇左南站,南宁至凭祥最快一小时十五分钟。
On the Zhenbei fort on Jinji Hill, above the Friendship Pass, a slightly rusted Krupp cannon stands where Sun fired, according to China News Service.
据中新社报道,在友谊关上方金鸡山的镇北炮台上,孙中山当年发炮的位置,一门略带锈迹的克虏伯大炮至今仍立在那里。
