Zibo (Chinese: 淄博; pinyin: Zībó) is a prefecture-level city in central Shandong province, China.

It borders the provincial capital Jinan to the west, Tai'an to the southwest, Linyi to the south, Weifang to the east, Dongying to the northeast, and Binzhou to the north.

As of the 2020 cenus, Zibo's population was 4,704,138,[2][3] of which 4.41 million lived in the metro area comprising five urban districts—Zhangdian, Zichuan, Boshan, Zhoucun and Linzi–and parts of neighboring counties Huantai, Gaoqing, and Yiyuan.

The Zibo area was the centre of the ancient State of Qi, whose capital Linzi was the most populous city in China at its peak.

In 7th century BC, Duke Huan of Qi, ruler of Qi, appointed Guan Zhong, thinker and economist, as his prime minister, and adopted Guan's thoughts and policies to administer his country, develop the economy and develop relations with other states.

In Linzi, the ruins of the ancient Qi city, as well as other famous cultural relics and historic sites, have been discovered and unearthed.

The ancient city of Qi was one of the first places in China that was assigned to be a "cultural relics site" and protected.

Zibo is located in the transition zone between the mountainous area in central Shandong and the North China Plain.

Zibo is located in a warm, temperate zone, and bears a semi-humid and semi-dry continental climate.

In Zibo dialect, points of articulation of low vowel is particularly deep in the mouth, and most areas do not have a retroflex consonant except in parts of Linzi District.

[citation needed] The Zibo dialect does not have many features that distinguish it from mandarin when it comes to sentence composition, while subtle differences may be found when people ask questions and their expressions to probability of actions.

Featured local snacks, include Zhou Cun Pancake, Shi Ha Ma Dumpling, Vegetable Pancake, Sauced Mutton, pork feet stew with kelp lotus root and Chinese cabbage, pork intestine hotpot with fried beancurd, and Bean-curd Case (fried bean-curd stuffed with vegetables and meat).

[citation needed] In early 2023 Zibo's outdoor BBQ restaurants went viral on social media, attracting millions of visitors.

In the years of Hong Wu of Ming dynasty, the emperor's servants set up "Out Factory" to produce colored glaze for imperial family's use such as "blue and green curtain".

In the year of Jingtai there were four big stoves in Xi Yejie Street to produce enamel material.

The colored glaze products returned the transportation and sale to Beijing and the southern parts of China besides selling in locality.

Yuanshan National Forest Park, situated southwest of Baoshan District in Zibo, is a spot worth visiting.

It consists of the Great Wall of the Qi State, the grass skiing field, Dinosaur Valley and a folk garden.

[20] The Silk Road, prosperous from the Han to the Tang dynasty, is famous for economic and cultural exchanges between the East and the West.

At present, Zibo remains an important a producer of silk and light textile products in China.

Currently, Zibo has three municipal sewage treatment plants that comply with China's Grade-A1 Integrated wastewater discharge standard (GB 8978–1996).

In the same year, its GDP was 231.7 billion yuan RMB, ranking just below Qingdao, Yantai, Jinan and Weifang within the province.

In 2017, Zibo's GDP reached 478.13 billion yuan RMB, ranking just below Qingdao, Yantai, Jinan and Weifang within the province.

[22] In 2023, Zibo's successful policy of encouraging street food vendors became a role model for such cities as Beijing, Moscow, Ottawa and Shenzhen.

Now Zibo is undergoing restructuring of its public transit system, aiming at intensive management of higher efficiency and more professional service.

The education system of Zibo offers more than 30 key majors, including mechanics, electronics and informatics, biological pharmacological science, textile and clothes and logistics, and can provide local enterprises with 30,000 specialized technical personnel every year.

5The claimed province of Taiwan no longer have any internal division announced by Ministry of Civil Affairs of PRC, due to lack of actual jurisdiction.