The diocese covers the prefectural city of Xuzhou with a territorial area of 11,258 square kilometer. It governs 3 urban districts, 2 county-level cities and 3 counties.
By the end of 2011, Xuzhou has a population of 9.77 million.
Official Mandarin and the Xuzhou dialect are in use.
Craved out from Nanjing, the apostolic prefecture of Xuzhou was erected in 1931 and entrusted to French-Canadian Jesuits. Four years later, it was elevated to an apostolic vicariate.
When the hierarchy was set up in the China Church in 1946, Xuzhou was elevated to a diocese.
Statistics show that in 1950, there was about 90,000 Catholics in the diocese. Religious activity was halted (during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76)) and the number of Catholics drastically dropped to 22,000 in recent years.
There are 5 national highways going through Xuzhou that connect Jiangsu with the neighboring Shandong, Henan and Anhui provinces. It is also an important rail hub of the country where the north-to-south Beijing-Shanghai (Jinghu) Railway and the east-to-west Longhai (Jiangsu to Gansu) Railway can interchange.
Xuzhou has a subtropical climate but it differs as the city extends from east to west longitudinally. The eastern part of the city is closer to the sea and has a stronger monsoon influence. The city has an average temperature of 14 degrees Celsius and an annual rainfall of 800 to 930mm.
Xuzhou’s economy depends on constructional machinery and equipment manufacturing industry, raw material and power supply, as well as agricultural and sideline products.
Xuzhou is the head-quarter of XCMG Group, the largest machinery manufacturer in China. ThyssenKrupp AG (Germany) and Caterpillar Inc. (USA) also set up bases here.
The manufacturing industry alone generated annual revenue of about US$41 billion in 2011.
Located at the southeastern tip of the alluvial North China Plain, Xuzhou is a flatland. Only 9.4% of the area is undulating land with an altitude ranging from 100 to 200 meters whilst the highest peak stands at 361meter above sea level.
