Shaoguan (; Hakka: Seukoan) is a prefecture-level city in northern Guangdong Province (Yuebei), South China, bordering Hunan to the northwest and Jiangxi to the northeast. It is home to the mummified remains of the sixth Zen Buddhist patriarch Huineng. Its built-up (or metro) area made up of Zhenjiang, Wujiang and Qujiang urban conurbated districts was home to 1,028,460 inhabitants as of the 2020 census. History Shaozhou was a prefecture under the Tang and Song. In 1589, Matteo Ricci relocated his mission housethe first ever Jesuit mission in mainland Chinato Shaoguan after a fallout with the authorities in Zhaoqing. He remained in Shaoguan for a few years, eventually benefiting from Shaoguan's location on the important north-south travel route to establish connections with traveling dignitaries that allowed him to move north, to Nanchang, Nanjing, and Beijing. During World War II the city, then called Kukong, was the temporary capital of Guangdong Province. In June 2009, Uyghurs and Han workers clashed at a toy factory in Shaoguan (Shaoguan incident), which was followed by the Ürümqi riots in July. Geography Shaoguan is the northernmost prefecture-level city of Guangdong, bordering Chenzhou (Hunan) to the northwest and north, Ganzhou (Jiangxi) to the northeast, Heyuan to the east, Guangzhou and Huizhou to the south, and Qingyuan to the west. It spans latitude 23° 05'−25° 31' N and longitude 112° 50'−114° 45' E. It is situated at the southern end of the Nan Mountains (Nan Ling), which primarily run east-west here, and is marked by numerous erosion-created valleys; within its borders lies the Mount Shikeng (), the highest point in the province. The city is located on the Jingguang Railway (Beijing−Guangzhou) about north of the provincial capital of Guangzhou. Shaoguan is also readily accessible by road as it is adjacent to the G4 Beijing–Hong Kong and Macau Expressway as well as numerous other National Highways. At Shaoguan, the Wu River from the northwest and the Zhen River from the northeast join up to create the North River (Bei Jiang) which flows south to Guangzhou. The downtown part of Shaoguan is located on a peninsula between the Wu and Zhen Rivers. The rivers are maintained at a constant level by a dam about downstream from the city. The city has about of tree-lined riverside esplanades along the banks of the rivers. There are seven bridges crossing the three rivers. Climate Shaoguan has a monsoon-influenced humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa),