Craftsmen cast Cangzhou’s great iron lion in 953, during the Later Zhou dynasty, covering its hollow belly with text from the Diamond Sutra. Why they made it remains uncertain; one enduring local tradition holds that the lion, later known as the Roar that Quells the Sea, was intended to hold back the floods that swept in from the nearby coast.
公元九五三年，后周时期，工匠铸成了沧州这尊铁狮子，其中空的腹腔内满铸《金刚经》经文。铸造此狮的确切用意，至今仍无定论；当地一则流传已久的说法称，这尊后来被称为”镇海吼”的铁狮，是为镇住从附近海岸涌来的水患而铸。
Originally weighing an estimated 40 tonnes and standing 5.78 metres tall, the lion was toppled by a storm in 1803 and not set upright again until 1893. It remains China’s oldest and largest surviving cast-iron artefact.
这尊铁狮子原本重约四十吨，高五点七八米，一八〇三年被一场风暴吹倒，直至一八九三年才重新扶正。它至今仍是中国现存年代最早、体量最大的铸铁文物。
According to the national martial arts authorities, who named Cangzhou the country’s first prefecture-level Hometown of Martial Arts in 1992, the city is associated with 53 distinct fighting styles, around 40 percent of all those formally recognised across China.
据国家武术主管部门介绍，沧州于一九九二年被命名为全国首个地级”武术之乡”；这座城市与五十三种不同拳种相关联，约占全国正式认定拳种总数的百分之四十。
Fifty-Three Fighting Styles in One City
一座城市，五十三种拳法
Imperial examination records credit Cangzhou with producing 1,937 successful candidates in the military examinations of the Ming and Qing dynasties, a scale of achievement that helped cement the city’s martial reputation centuries before the modern title was awarded.
据科举史料记载，明清两代，沧州共出过一千九百三十七名武进士、武举人，这一规模，早在现代”武术之乡”称号授予之前的数百年间，便已奠定了这座城市的尚武声誉。
A County Named for Its Hui Residents
一个以回族居民命名的县
Cangzhou is also home to one of Hebei province’s largest Hui Muslim populations, with roots tracing back to Yuan-dynasty soldiers and merchants who settled along what was then a major north-south trade route; one county, Mengcun, was established as a Hui autonomous county in recognition of that history, and older surveys of the area have recorded as many as 167 mosques across the wider city, several of them, including Botou’s Grand Mosque, dating to the Ming dynasty.
沧州同时也是河北省回族人口最多的地区之一，其渊源可追溯至元代沿南北商路定居于此的士兵与商贾；孟村县便因这段历史而设立为回族自治县，而据较早的调查统计，沧州全市一度拥有清真寺多达一百六十七座，其中包括泊头清真大寺在内的多座，始建于明代。
Cangzhou’s economic output reached ¥493.09 billion in 2025, up 5.9 percent on the year, with a resident population of 7.1796 million.
二零二五年，沧州地区生产总值达四千九百三十点九亿元，同比增长百分之五点九，常住人口七百一十七点九六万人。
The county of Yanshan has become known as China’s Capital of Pipeline Equipment, and the green chemical industry centred on the Bohai New Area is one of the city’s other main economic pillars; alongside them, the port of Huanghua, 220 kilometres from Beijing and 150 from Xiong’an, is connected to the national rail network by three dedicated lines and serves as Xiong’an New Area’s outlet to the sea.
盐山县已成为知名的”中国管道装备之都”，以渤海新区为核心的绿色化工产业，则是这座城市另一大经济支柱；与此同时，距北京二百二十公里、距雄安新区一百五十公里的黄骅港，通过三条专用铁路与国家铁路网相连，是雄安新区的出海口。
Cangzhou West station, a stop on the Beijing–Shanghai high-speed line, puts the capital under an hour away.
沧州西站是京沪高铁沿线的一座车站，前往北京最快不足一小时。
More than a thousand years after it was cast, the lion’s hollow belly still carries its lines from the Diamond Sutra.
铸成一千多年后，这尊铁狮中空的腹腔内，至今仍留有《金刚经》的经文。
