Maoming, city in western Guangdong sheng (province), China. Maoming is situated some 16 miles (25 km) inland, 50 miles (80 km) northeast of Zhanjiang city. Little more than a small market town and minor administrative centre until the 1950s, the whole area has undergone rapid growth since then; Maoming itself was transformed into an industrial city on the basis of rich deposits of oil shale, the exploitation of which began in the late 1950s. A refinery was constructed to produce gasoline, diesel oil, and kerosene. In association with it there are chemical plants recovering sulfur and producing large quantities of ammonium sulfate. With the gradual exhaustion of local oil shale deposits, the refinery has depended more and more on piped-in crude oil. Nonethless, the city has remained one of China’s oil-refining bases. Along the coastline southeast of the city there are large oil tank seaports.
Maoming was linked by rail with a line constructed from Zhanjiang to Guangxi province in 1957. By the early 1990s another rail line was completed from Maoming to Shanshui, enhancing the importance of the city by linking both the east railway artery (the Beijing-Guangzhou [Canton] and Hunan-Guangxi lines) and the west passageway (the Litang-Zhanjiang and Hunan-Guangxi lines). The nearby area is an important base for fruit output in the province. Pop. (2002 est.) 455,140.