Hunan
Not to be confused with the unrelated provinces of Hainan, Henan, and Yunnan () is a
province of
China, located in the middle reaches of the
Yangtze River and south of
Lake Dongting (hence the name
Hunan, meaning "south of the lake"). Hunan is sometimes called 湘 (
pinyin: Xiāng) for short, after the
Xiang River which runs through the province.
Hunan borders
Hubei in the north,
Jiangxi to the east,
Guangdong to the south,
Guangxi to the southwest,
Guizhou to the west, and
Chongqing to the northwest. The capital is
Changsha.
Hunan entered the written history of
China around 350 BC, when under the kings of the
Zhou dynasty it became part of the
State of Chu. Until then Hunan was a land of primeval forests, occupied by the ancestors of the modern
Miao,
Tujia,
Dong and
Yao peoples, but starting at this time and for hundreds of years thereafter it was a magnet for migration of
Han Chinese from the north, who cleared most of the forests and began farming rice in the valleys and plains. To this day, many of the small villages in Hunan are named after the Han families which originally settled there. Migration from the north was especially prevalent during the
Eastern Jin Dynasty and the
Southern and Northern Dynasties Periods, when nomadic invaders overran the north.
During the
Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, Hunan was home to its own independent regime,
Ma Chu.
Hunan, was, together with
Hubei, a part of the province of
Huguang (湖廣) till the
Qing dynasty.
Hunan became an important communications center from its position on the Yangzi River (Changjiang) and on the Imperial Highway constructed between northern and southern China. Its land produced grain so abundantly that it fed many parts of China with its surpluses. The population continued to climb until, by the 19th century, Hunan was overcrowded and prone to peasant uprisings.
The
Taiping Rebellion which began to the south in
Guangxi Province in
1850 spread into Hunan and then further eastward along the Yangzi River valley, but ultimately it was a Hunanese army under
Zeng Guofan which marched to
Nanjing and put down the uprising in 1864.
Hunan was relatively quiet until 1910 when there were uprisings against the crumbling Qing dynasty, which were followed by the Communist's
Autumn Harvest Uprising of 1927 led by Hunanese native
Mao Zedong, which established a short-lived
Hunan soviet in 1927. The Communists maintained a guerilla army in the mountains along the Hunan-
Jiangxi border until 1934, when under pressure from the Nationalist (
Kuomintang, KMT) forces they began the famous
Long March to bases in
Shaanxi Province. After the departure of the Communists, the KMT army fought against the Japanese in the
second Sino-Japanese war, defending the capital Changsha until it fell in 1944, when Japan launched
Operation Ichigo to control the railroad from
Wuchang to
Guangzhou (
Yuehan Railway). Hunan was relatively unscathed by the civil war that followed the defeat of the Japanese in 1945, and in 1949 the Communists returned once more as the Nationalists retreated southward.
Being
Mao Zedong's home province, Hunan supported the
Cultural Revolution of 1966-1976, and was slower than most provinces in adopting the reforms implemented by
Deng Xiaoping in the years that followed Mao's death in 1976.
Former Chinese Premier
Zhu Rongji is also Hunanese.
Hunan Province is located on the south bank at mid-stream of the Yangtze River (Changjiang, 长江), it is 1000 km away from
Shanghai, 1200 km away from
Beijing, and 500 km away from
Guangzhou.
Hunan is situated between 109°-114° east
longitude and 20°-30° north
latitude. The east, south and west sides of the province are surrounded by mountains and hills, such as the
Wuling Mountains to the northwest, the
Xuefeng Mountains to the west, the
Nanling Mountains to the south, and the
Luoxiao Mountains to the east. The mountains and hills occupy more than 80% of the area and the plain comprises less than 20% of the whole province.
The
Xiangjiang, the
Zijiang, the
Yuanjiang and the
Lishui Rivers converge on the
Yangtze River at
Lake Dongting (Dongting Hu, 洞庭湖) in the north of Hunan. The center and northern parts are somewhat low and a U-shaped basin, open in the north and with Lake Dongting as its center. Most of Hunan Province lies in the basins of four major tributaries of the Yangtze River.
Lake Dongting is the largest lake in the province and the second largest freshwater lake of China. Due to the reclamation of land for agriculture, Lake Dongting has been subdivided into many smaller lakes, though there is now a trend to reverse some of the reclamation, which had damaged
wetland habitats surrounding the lake.
Hunan's climate is
subtropical, with mild winters and plenty of precipitation. January temperatures average at 3-8 °C while July temperatures average at 27-30 °C. Average annual precipitation is 1200 - 1700 mm.
Hunan is divided into 14
prefecture-level divisions, of which there are 13
prefecture-level cities and 1
autonomous prefecture.
 |
Division of Hunan Province |
The prefecture-level cities:
*
Changsha ()
*
Zhangjiajie (张家界市 Zhāngjiājiè Shì)
*
Changde (常德市 Chángdé Shì)
*
Yiyang (益阳市 Yìyáng Shì)
*
Yueyang (岳阳市 Yuèyáng Shì)
*
Zhuzhou (株洲市 Zhūzhōu Shì)
*
Xiangtan (湘潭市 Xiāngtán Shì)
*
Hengyang (衡阳市 Héngyáng Shì)
*
Chenzhou (郴州市 Chénzhōu Shì)
*
Yongzhou (永州市 Y'ngzhōu Shì)
*
Shaoyang (邵阳市 Shàoyáng Shì)
*
Huaihua (怀化市 Huáihuà Shì)
*
Loudi (娄底市 Lóudǐ Shì)
The autonomous prefecture:
*
Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture (湘西土家族苗族自治州 Xiāngxī T"jiāzú Miáozú Zìzhìzhōu)
The 14
prefecture-level divisions of Hunan are subdivided into 122
county-level divisions (34
districts, 16
county-level cities, 65
counties, 7
autonomous counties). Those are in turn divided into 2587
township-level divisions (1098
towns, 1158
townships, 98
ethnic townships, 225
subdistricts, and 8
district public offices).
See
List of administrative divisions of Hunan for a complete list of
county-level divisions.
Hunan's traditional crop is
rice. The
Lake Dongting area is an important center of
ramie production, and Hunan is also an important center of
tea cultivation.
The
Lengshuijiang area is noted for its
stibnite mines, and is one of the major centers of
antimony extraction in China.
Its nominal GDP for 2004 was 561.2 billion yuan (US$69.62 billion). In 2004, its per capita GDP was 8,423 yuan (US$1,040). [
1]
As of the
2000 census, the population of Hunan is 64,400,700 consisting of 41
ethnic groups. Its population grew 6.17% (3,742,700) from its
1990 levels. According to the census, 89.79% (57,825,400) identified themselves as
Han people, 10.21% (6,575,300) as
minority groups. The minority groups are
Tujia,
Miao,
Dong,
Yao,
Hui,
Bai,
Zhuang,
Uyghurs and so on.
*
List of Chinese ethnic groupsXiang, a subdivision of
spoken Chinese, is spoken over most of Hunan, except the north.
Hunan cuisine is noted for its use of
chili peppers.
Nü shu is a writing system that was used exclusively among women in
Jiangyong County.
 |
Wulingyuan |
*
Shaoshan chong, the village where
Mao Zedong was born.
*
Wulingyuan Scenic and Historic Interest Area (
World Heritage Site)
*
Yueyang Pagoda in
Yueyang.
*
Hengshan in
Hengyang.
*
Zhangjiajie.
Professional sports teams in Hunan include:
*
Chinese Basketball Association** None
*
Chinese Football Association Jia League**
Hunan XiangjunColleges and universities
*
Central South University*
Changsha University*
Hunan University*
Xiangtan University*
Yuelu Academy of Classical Learning*
Xiangnan University Xiangnan University Official Web Site*
The Provincial Government of Hunan*
Large map of Hunan
