Heze is a prefecture-level city under the jurisdiction of Shandong Province, the peony capital of China, which was called Cao Zhou in ancient times. Located in the southwest of Shandong Province, at the junction of Shandong, Jiangsu, Henan and Anhui provinces, it is adjacent to Jining City in the east, Xuzhou City in Jiangsu Province and Suzhou City in Anhui Province in the southeast, Shangqiu City in Henan Province in the south, Kaifeng City and Xinxiang City in Henan Province in the west and Puyang City in Henan Province in the north. With a total area of 12239 square kilometers, it governs 2 municipal districts and 7 counties.

The origin of place names

"Heze" was originally a natural ancient ze, which was collected by Jishui and has been blocked for a long time. The site is located in the southeast of Heze City15km. Naming a county after water began in the 13th year of Yongzheng (1735), and it was promoted to a government, taking Guo Jun as its name. Since then, "Heze" has been used as the proper name of a county, city and district. 1August, 949, Pingyuan province was established, and the northwest region was designated as Heze District, which governs Heze County. Since then, "Heze" has become a district-level or district-level local name.