After the founding of the People's Republic of China, today's Zaozhuang area was still divided into Teng and Yi counties, under the leadership of the Jining Special Administrative Office.

In 1960, Yixian County was changed into county-level Zaozhuang City.

On September 12, 1961, Zaozhuang was established as a prefecture-level city directly under the jurisdiction of the province, with jurisdiction over four districts, Qicun, Taierzhuang, Yicheng, Xuecheng, and Zaozhuang Town, and 56 people's communes. It was one of the four prefecture-level cities in Shandong Province at that time.

On July 12, 1976, Shizhong District was established, and the part under the jurisdiction of Qicun District was placed under the jurisdiction of Shizhong District.

In 1979, Teng County was placed under the jurisdiction of Zaozhuang. By 1988, the city had jurisdiction over five districts and one city.