Paotow

P3A1O1T1O1W4

A form of Baotou — A prefecture-level city, the largest city in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, in northern China.

Scrabble 11

Meanings

proper noun
  1. datedDated form of Baotou.

    Paotow owes its chief prosperity to the coalfields of Shensi and Shansi, to iron ore at Paiyun-opo, ninety miles north towards the Gobi, together with the rail links eastwards to Peking and Manchuria.

    1966, Proceedings - Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, South Australian Branch, volumes 67-72, →OCLC, page 66
    5 more examples

    Much of the wool and camel’s hair produced in the Northwest is sent to Paotow, Suiyuan, to be shipped to Tientsin for export. Before hostilities about 15,000,000 catties were shipped annually from Paotow, of a total export of some 50,000,000 catties.

    1941, Nym Wales, China Builds for Democracy: A Story of Cooperative Industry, New York: Modern Age Books, Inc., page 255

    Between Paotow and Kweisui in the northeastern corner of the Ordos Desert, hundreds of miles of irrigation canals were dug during the 1920’s with the hope of irrigating several hundred thousand acres. Large amounts of government and famine relief money were invested, and modern engineering works were constructed. The project proved largely a failure and is now almost abandoned.

    1955, George B. Cressy, Land of the 500 Million; A Geography of China, McGraw-Hill Company, Inc., page 93

    Figures issued for production show that pig iron amounted to 20,500,000 tons in 1959 and steel to 15,000 tons, in 1961. The industry is concentrated in about 20 factories of varying capacity. The largest is at Ansham^([sic – meaning Anshan]) in Liaoning and other important centers are Wuhan in Hopeh^([sic – meaning Hupeh]) and Paotow in Mongolia.

    1965, “The Land”, in China (The World and Its Peoples), New York: Greystone Press, →LCCN, page 127, column 1

    Economic development of the Northwest required the creation of transportation facilities whereby settlers could reach virgin lands and their products could be brought out. Feng immediately attacked this problem by building a 400-mile motor road from Paotow, the western terminus of the Peking-Suiyuan Railway, to Ninghsia, where the Great Wall meets the western side of the Yellow River’s great loop.

    1966, James E. Sheridan, Chinese Warlord: The Career of Feng Yü-hsiang, Stanford University Press, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 153

    This section of the line opened up areas rich in minerals which have since contributed to Paotow’s industrial development. Coal comes to the city from Shihtsuishan in Ningsia Hui autonomous region, for example.

    1978, “Paotow”, in D. A. Girling, editor, Everyman's Encyclopaedia, 6th edition, volume 9, J M Dent & Sons Ltd, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 328, column 2

Origin

Borrowed from Mandarin 包頭/包头 (Bāotóu).

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

Paotow. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Paotow

MLA

“Paotow.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Paotow. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Paotow,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Paotow.

Source: Paotow on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.