Jiaozuo, city, northern Henan sheng (province), China. It lies in the foothills at the southern end of the Taihang Mountains, to the west of Xinxiang, in a mining district. Jiaozuo was originally two villages under the administration of Xiuwu county. Exploitation of the villages’ rich coal resources resulted in the establishment of the Jiaozuo township in 1910. Jiaozuo was made a city in 1945. In order to exploit its coal resources more efficiently, Jiaozuo has been a city directly under the provincial government since 1956.
Its modern development has been almost entirely based on the region’s rich coal deposits. The mining rights were originally obtained by an Anglo-Italian company in 1898. In the early 20th century a railway was constructed linking the mines at Jiaozuo with Xinxiang on the Beijing-Hankou main line and beyond to Huaxian (Daokou) on the Wei River northeast of Xinxiang. The syndicate that first developed the mines was later replaced by a Sino-British company, the Zhongfu Administration, which by 1937 was the second largest coal-mining concern in China. After 1949 the mines were extensively modernized and mechanized and by the early 1950s were producing more than half of Henan’s total production.
Jiaozuo has continued to be an important industrial city in Henan. Economic expansion based on the coal-mining industry has included a large thermal power station and basic chemical and synthetic rubber plants. The yields of soda ash and automotive tires produced by these industries account for a large portion of the total output produced not only in Henan, but also in China as a whole. Other industries, such as the manufacture of machinery, textiles, and construction materials, have also been developed. In addition to the railway completed earlier, a line was built leading northwestward to Taiyuan in Shanxi province and extending eastward to link with Xinxiang and Rizhao (Shijiusuo) in Shandong province. Another rail line extends southward to Hubei and Guangxi provinces. Mount Yuntai, some 19 miles (30 km) northeast of Jiaozuo, is a popular tourist destination. Pop. (2002 est.) city, 576,686; (2007 est.) urban agglom., 857,000.