Hefei
Hefei is the capital of Anhui province, China. A prefecture-level city, it is the political, economic, and cultural center of Anhui. Its population was 9,369,881 as of the 2020 census. Its built-up area is made up of four urban districts plus Feidong, Feixi and Changfeng counties being urbanized, and was home to 7,754,481 inhabitants. Located in the central portion of the province, it borders Huainan to the north, Chuzhou to the northeast, Wuhu to the southeast, Tongling to the south, Anqing to the southwest and Lu'an to the west. A natural hub of communications, Hefei is situated to the north of Chao Lake and stands on a low saddle crossing the northeastern extension of the Dabie Mountains, which forms the divide between the Huai and Yangtze rivers.
The present-day city dates from the Song dynasty. Before World War II, Hefei remained essentially an administrative centre and the regional market for the fertile plain to the south. It has gone through a growth in infrastructure in recent years. Hefei is the location of Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak, an experimental superconducting tokamak magnetic fusion energy reactor.
Hefei is a leading world city for scientific research, ranking at 12th globally, 8th in the Asia-Pacific, and 7th in China, as tracked by the Nature Index in 2025. The city is represented by several major universities, including the University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei University of Technology, Anhui University, Anhui Agricultural University and Anhui Medical University. Notably, the University of Science and Technology of China is one of the top 100 comprehensive public research universities in the world.
History
From the 8th to the 6th centuries BC, Hefei was the site of many small states, later a part of the Chu kingdom. Many archaeological finds dating from this period have been made. The name 'Hefei' was first given to the county set up in the area under the Han dynasty in the 2nd century BC.In the 3rd century AD, the Battle of Xiaoyao Ford was fought at Xiaoyao Ford in Hefei. Zhang Liao, a general of the Wei state, led 800 picked cavalry to defeat the 200,000-strong army from Wei's rival state Wu. Several decades of warring in Hefei between Wu and Wei followed this battle.
During the 4th to the 6th centuries AD, this crucial border region between northern and southern states was much fought over; its name and administrative status were consequently often changed. During the Sui and Tang periods, it became the seat of Lu prefecture—a title it kept until the 15th century, when it became a superior prefecture named Luzhou.
The present city dates from the Song dynasty, the earlier Hefei having been some distance farther north. In the 10th year of Xining, the taxes collected from the Luchow Prefecture were 50315 Guan, approximately 25 million today's Chinese Yuan, with a ranking of the amount of taxes was the 11th among all the prefectures of Song Dynasty. During the 10th century, it was for a while the capital of the independent Wu kingdom and was an important center of the Southern Tang state.
After 1127 it became a center of the defenses of the Southern Song dynasty against the Jin invaders in the Jin–Song wars, as well as a flourishing center of trade between the two states. When the Chinese Republic was founded in 1911, the superior prefecture was abolished, and the city took the name of Hefei. The city was known as Luchow or Liu-tcheou during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Hefei was the temporary capital for Anhui from 1853 to 1862. It was renamed as Hefei County in 1912. Following the Chinese victory in the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1945, Hefei was made the capital of Anhui.
Before World War II, Hefei remained essentially an administrative center and the regional market for the fertile plain to the south. It was a collecting center for grain, beans, cotton, and hemp, as well as a center for handicraft industries manufacturing cloth, leather, bamboo goods, and ironware.
The construction in 1912 of the Tianjin–Pukou railway, farther east, for a while made Hefei a provincial backwater, and much of its importance passed to Bengbu. In 1932–36, however, a Chinese company built a railway linking Hefei with Yuxikou to the southeast and with the Huai River at Huainan to the north. While this railway was built primarily to exploit the rich coalfield in northern Anhui, it also did much to revive the economy of the Hefei area by taking much of its produce to Wuhu and Nanjing.
Although Hefei was a quiet market town of only about 30,000 in the mid-1930s, its population grew more than tenfold in the following 20 years. The city's administrative role was strengthened by the transfer of the provincial government from Anqing in 1945, but much of its new growth derived from its development as an industrial city.
Hefei was designated the provincial capital in 1952.
A cotton mill was opened in 1958, and a thermal generating plant, using coal from Huainan, was established in the early 1950s. It also became the seat of an industry producing industrial chemicals and chemical fertilizers. In the late 1950s an iron and steel complex was built. In addition to a machine-tool works and engineering and agricultural machinery factories, the city has developed an aluminum industry and a variety of light industries.
Hefei's development was advanced by the Third Front construction. In 1970, the University of Science and Technology of China relocated to Hefei. It is one of the best technological universities in the country.
In 1978, the Chinese Academy of Sciences opened a Hefei branch. Several electronics institutes were moved from Beijing to Hefei in the early 1980s. The establishment of these educational and research and development institutions in Hefei were a foundations for its subsequent growth in innovation.
In 1991, Hefei was one of the first Chinese cities to establish a High-Tech Industrial Zone.
A period of rapid growth began in 2005, when Hefei party secretary Sun Jinlong initiated a strategy of industry-based city building. Sun prioritized the automobile, electric appliance, and equipment manufacturing sectors of the city's economy. The city government established a department for attracting investment and sent teams around the country to recruit businesses to Hefei. Sun also launched a construction program of neighborhood redevelopment, road system improvement, rail system, and a new international airport. Hefei's GDP grew at the highest rate of any Chinese provincial capital during Sun's tenure.
Since the 2010s, Hefei has developed high-tech industries and an innovation-driven economy, including semi-conductors and alternative energy economic sectors.
Geography
Hefei is located west of Nanjing in south-central Anhui. Chao Lake, a lake southeast of the city, is one of the largest fresh water lakes in China. Though the lake has unfortunately been polluted with nitrogen and phosphorus in recent decades, the situation is improving due to efforts by both the government and the people.Climate
Hefei features a humid subtropical climate with four distinct seasons. Hefei's annual average temperature is. Its annual precipitation is just slightly over, being heavier from May through August. Winters are damp and cold, with January lows dipping just below freezing and January averaging. The city sees irregular snowfalls that rarely turn significant. Occasional cold spells from Siberia that usually happen during winter months such as December, January, February. Sometimes November and March which can bring snow and heavier snowfall. (Springs are generally relatively pleasant if somewhat erratic. Summers are hot and humid, with a July average of. In the months of June, July, August, and often September, daily temperatures can reach or surpass with high humidity levels being the norm. Autumn in Hefei sees a gradual cooling and drying. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 35 percent in March to 50 percent in August, the city receives 1,868 hours of bright sunshine annually. Extremes since 1951 have ranged from on 6 January 1955, to on 27 July 2017.Air pollution
Air quality typically diminishes in May and June when the city is blanketed by smog caused by the smoke generated as farmers outside the city burn their fields in preparation for planting the next crop.Administrative divisions and demographics
Demographics
The majority of the population in Hefei are Han Chinese. There are a comparatively small number of Hui Chinese living in the city, for whom a few mosques have been constructed. Of the more than five million people in the city, some are migrant workers from other parts of Anhui.Administration
The prefecture-level city of Hefei administers nine county-level divisions, including four districts, one county-city and four counties.Hefei subdivisions area, population and population density.
Economy
As of 2021, the GDP of Hefei is CN¥1,141.28 billion. The GDP per capita of the city is ¥121,187, ranking within the top 20 of cities in China.As of 2023, the GDP of Hefei is CN¥1,267.38 billion.
Investments and state-owned enterprises
Hefei's city government is highly engaged in business, both through state-owned enterprises and investment. This approach has helped drive economic growth and re-structure the cities economic base.In 2008, the local government spent US$3.5 billion for a controlling ownership stake in BOE Technology. BOE Technology subsequently grew to be one of the world's leading manufacturers of semiconductor products for telecommunications. It is also the world's largest manufacturer of liquid crystal displays, organic light-emitting diodes, and flexible displays. As of at least 2024, BOE has three production lines in Hefei, and its presence has helped Hefei attract further business in the electronics supply chain and contributed to Hefei's development as one of the main centers for the optoelectronic industry in China.
In 2008, Hefei invested heavily in iFlytek, a voice-recognition technology firm spun off from USTC.
The local government invested heavily in NIO in order to integrate it with Hefei Changan Automobile, a legacy enterprise from the Third Front construction. NIO was on the brink of bankruptcy in 2020 when Hefei obtained a 25% stake in the company in exchange for RMB 7 billion. NIO moved its headquarters to Hefei, where the government helped it obtain loans from local banks to expand its supply chains. As of 2022, NIO is China's most successful electric vehicle manufacturer.