Heze, a prefecture-level city under the jurisdiction of Shandong Province and the capital of Peony in China, was called Caozhou in ancient times. It is located in the southwest of Shandong Province, bordering on Jining in the east, Xuzhou in Jiangsu Province and Suzhou in Anhui Province in the southeast, Shangqiu in Henan Province in the south, Kaifeng and Xinxiang in Henan Province in the west, and Puyang in Henan Province in the north. It is between 34°39 '-- 35°52' north latitude and 114°45 '-- 116°25' east longitude. It is 157 kilometers long from north to south and 140 kilometers wide from east to west. The total area is 12,239 square kilometers. It has jurisdiction over 2 municipal districts and 7 counties.

Heze was originally a natural ancient ze, combining Jishui and Heishui, connecting the ancient Jishui and Sishui water systems. It was renamed Longchi in Tang Dynasty and Xiayue Lake in Qing Dynasty. In the thirteenth year of Yongzheng in the Qing Dynasty (1735), Caozhou was raised as the government, with Guo setting up a county. Because there were "Heze Mountain" in the south and "Lei Ze" in the north, it was named Heze. Heze has a long history and enjoys the reputation of "among the world". Heze, Leize, Dayeze and Mengzhuze of Jiuze in Yugong are all in the territory. Fuxi, the founder of humanity, Shaohao, the emperor of Dongyi, Emperor Shun, the wise emperor of Ming Dynasty, Chiyou, the reformer Wu Qi, the strategist Sun Bin, the agrarian Pan Shengzhi, the economist Liu Yan, and the writer Wen Zisheng were all born in Heze. Liu Bang became emperor, Cao Cao became the hegemon, the Huangchao Uprising, and the Song River gathered in Heze. There are 40 ethnic minorities in Heze, such as Hui, Manchu, Yao, Mongolian, Tibetan, Yi, Korean, Zhuang, Tujia, Miao, Uygur, Hani and Kazak.

By the end of 2021, Heze has a permanent population of 8,732,400. In 2021, Heze achieved regional gross product (GDP) of 397.667 billion yuan, among which, the added value of the primary industry was 390.92 billion yuan, the secondary industry 165.326 billion yuan and the tertiary industry 193.249 billion yuan, and the three industrial structure adjustment was 9.8:41.6:48.6.