Zaozhuang is a prefecture-level city in the south of Shandong Province in Eastern China. Its population is 3,729,300 at the 2010 census whom 868,445 in the built up area made of Shizhong and Yicheng districts. Zaozhuang belonged to the Chu State in the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC-476 BC). During the following dynasties, it was divided into several parts belonging to different states. In the Three Kingdom Period (220-280), it was combined and controlled by the Wei State. After 550, Zaozhuang was divided into two counties in the north and south which were finally called Tengxian and Yixian after the new Republic of China was established.