Hunan


Hunan is an inland province in Central China. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to the east, Guangdong and Guangxi to the south, and Guizhou and Chongqing to the northwest. Its capital and largest city is Changsha, which abuts the Xiang River. Hengyang, Zhuzhou, and Yueyang are among its most populous urban cities.
With a population of just over 66 million as of 2020 residing in an area of approximately, it is China's 7th-most populous province, the third-most populous among landlocked provinces, the third-most populous in South Central China, and the second-most populous province in Central China. It is the largest province in South Central China and the fourth-largest landlocked province.
Hunan's nominal GDP was US$747 billion as of 2024, appearing in the world's top 20 largest sub-national economies, with its GDP being over US$1.55 trillion. Hunan is the 9th-largest provincial economy in China, the fourth-largest in South Central China, the third-largest in Central China, and the fourth-largest among landlocked provinces. Its nominal GDP per capita exceeded US$11,405, making it the third-richest province in South Central China, after Guangdong and Hubei. As of 2020, Hunan's nominal GDP reached $605 billion, exceeding that of Poland, with a GDP of US$596 billion, and Thailand, with a GDP of US$501 billion, the 22nd- and 25th-largest in the world, respectively.
The name Hunan literally means "south of the lake". The lake in question is Dongting Lake, in the northeast of the province. Vehicle license plates from Hunan are marked , after the Xiang River, which runs from south to north through Hunan and forms part of the province's largest drainage system. The area of Hunan was under Chinese rule as far back as 350 BC. Hunan was the birthplace of communist revolutionary Mao Zedong, who became the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and the founding father of the People's Republic of China. Hunan today is home to some ethnic minorities, including the Tujia and Miao, along with the Han Chinese, who make up a majority of the population. Varieties of Chinese spoken include Xiang, Gan, and Southwestern Mandarin.
Wulingyuan was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992. Changsha, the capital, is in the eastern part of the province and is an important commercial, manufacturing, and transportation center. The busiest airports serve domestic and international flights for Hunan, including Changsha Huanghua International Airport, Zhangjiajie Hehua International Airport, and Changde Taohuayuan Airport.
Hunan is the seat of the Yuelu Academy, one of the four major academies over the last 1,000 years in ancient China. As of 2023, Hunan hosted 137 institutions of higher education, ranking fifth among all province-level divisions of China, and it houses five Double First-Class Universities of Hunan, Defense Technology, Central South, Hunan Normal and Xiangtan. As of 2024, two major cities in Hunan ranked in the world's top 200 cities by scientific research outputs.

History

were first occupied by the ancestors of the modern Miao, Tujia, Dong and Yao peoples. The province entered written Chinese history around 350 BC, when it became part of the Zhou dynasty. After Qin conquered the Chu in 278 BC, the region came under the control of Qin, and then the Changsha Kingdom during the Han dynasty. At this time, and for hundreds of years thereafter, the province was a magnet for settlement of Han Chinese from the north, who displaced and assimilated the original indigenous inhabitants, cleared forests and began farming rice in the valleys and plains. The agricultural colonization of the lowlands was carried out in part by the Han people, who managed river dikes to protect farmland from floods. To this day, many of Hunan's small villages are named after Han families who settled there. Migration from the north was especially prevalent during the Eastern Jin dynasty, Sixteen Kingdoms and the Northern and Southern dynasties periods, when the north was mostly ruled by non-Han ethnic groups and in perpetual disorder.
During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, Hunan was home to its own independent regime, Ma Chu.
Hunan and Hubei became a part of the province of Huguang until the Qing dynasty. Hunan province was created in 1664 from Huguang and renamed in 1723.
Hunan became an important communications center due to its position on the Yangzi River. It was an important centre of scholarly activity and Confucian thought, particularly in the Yuelu Academy in Changsha. It was also on the Imperial Highway between northern and southern China. The 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 became overcrowded and prone to peasant uprisings. Some of the uprisings, such as the ten-year Miao Rebellion of 1795–1806, were caused by ethnic tensions. The Taiping Rebellion began in Guangxi Province in 1850, then spread into Hunan and further eastward along the Yangzi River valley. A Hunanese army under Zeng Guofan marched into Nanjing to put down the uprising in 1864. File:Type 92 Heavy Machine Gun2.jpg|thumb|Invading Japanese soldiers firing across the Miluo River during the Battle of Changsha in World War II|222x222px
In 1920, a famine raged throughout Hunan and killed an estimated 2 million Hunanese civilians. This sparked the Autumn Harvest Uprising of 1927. It was led by Hunanese native Mao Zedong, and established a short-lived Hunan Soviet in 1927. The Communists maintained a guerrilla army in the mountains along the Hunan-Jiangxi border until 1934. Under pressure from the Nationalist Kuomintang forces, they began the Long March to bases in Shaanxi Province. After the Communists departed, the KMT fought the Japanese in the second Sino-Japanese war. It defended Changsha until it fell in 1944. Japan launched Operation Ichigo, a plan to control the railroad from Wuchang to Guangzhou. Hunan was relatively unscathed by the civil war that followed the Japanese defeat in 1945. In 1949, the Communists returned as the Nationalists retreated southward.
As Mao's home province, Hunan supported the Cultural Revolution of 1966–1976, but it was slower than most provinces to adopt the reforms Deng Xiaoping implemented in the years after Mao's death in 1976.
In addition to Mao, several other first-generation communist leaders were from Hunan: Chinese President Liu Shaoqi; CCP Secretaries-General Ren Bishi and Hu Yaobang; Marshals Peng Dehuai, He Long, and Luo Ronghuan; Wang Zhen, one of the Eight Elders; Xiang Jingyu, the first female member of the CCP's central committee; Senior General Huang Kecheng; and veteran diplomat Lin Boqu. A more recent leader from Hunan is former Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji.

Geography

Hunan is on the south bank of the Yangtze River, about halfway along its length, situated between 108° 47'–114° 16' east longitude and 24° 37'–30° 08' north latitude. Hunan covers an area of, making it the 10th largest provincial-level division. 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. Mountains and hills occupy more than 80% of the province, and plains less than 20%. At 2,115.2 meters above sea level, Hunan's highest point is Lingfeng.
The Xiang, the Zi, the Yuan, and the Lishui Rivers converge on the Yangtze River at Lake Dongting 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 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.
The Xiaoxiang area and Lake Dongting figure prominently in Chinese poetry and paintings, particularly during the Song dynasty when they were associated with officials who had been unjustly dismissed.
Changsha was an active ceramics district during the Tang dynasty, its tea bowls, ewers and other products mass-produced and shipped to China's coastal cities for export abroad. An Arab dhow dated to the 830s and today known as the Belitung Shipwreck was discovered off the small island of Belitung, Indonesia with more than 60,000 pieces in its cargo. The salvaged cargo is today housed in Singapore.
Hunan's climate is subtropical; under the Köppen climate classification, it is classified as humid subtropical, with short, cool, damp winters, very hot and humid summers, and plenty of rain. January temperatures average, while July temperatures average around. Average annual precipitation is. The Furongian Epoch in the Cambrian Period of geological time is named for Hunan; Furong means "lotus" in Mandarin and refers to Hunan, which is known as the "lotus state".

Administrative divisions

Hunan is divided into fourteen prefecture-level divisions: thirteen prefecture-level cities and an autonomous prefecture:
The fourteen prefecture-level divisions of Hunan are subdivided into 122 county-level divisions. Those are in turn divided into 2587 township-level divisions. At the year end of 2017, the total population is 68.6 million.
#CityUrban areaDistrict areaCity properCensus date
1Changsha2,963,2183,092,2137,040,9522010-11-01
Changsha 230,136523,660see Changsha2010-11-01
2Hengyang1,115,6451,133,9677,148,3442010-11-01
3Zhuzhou999,4041,055,1503,857,1002010-11-01
Zhuzhou 94,326383,598see Zhuzhou2010-11-01
4Yueyang924,0991,231,5095,476,0842010-11-01
5Xiangtan903,287960,3032,752,1712010-11-01
6Changde846,3081,457,4195,714,6232010-11-01
7Yiyang697,6071,245,5174,307,9332010-11-01
8Liuyang588,0811,279,469see Changsha2010-11-01
9Chenzhou582,971822,5344,583,5312010-11-01
10Shaoyang574,527753,1947,071,7352010-11-01
11Yongzhou540,9301,020,7155,194,2752010-11-01
Ningxiang498,0551,166,138see Changsha2010-11-01
13Leiyang476,1731,151,554see Hengyang2010-11-01
14Huaihua472,687552,6224,741,6732010-11-01
15Liling449,067947,387see Zhuzhou2010-11-01
16Loudi425,037496,7443,784,6342010-11-01
17Changning332,927810,447see Hengyang2010-11-01
18Miluo321,074692,080see Yueyang2010-11-01
19Yuanjiang281,097666,270see Yiyang2010-11-01
20Zhangjiajie250,489494,5281,478,1492010-11-01
21Lianyuan245,360995,515see Loudi2010-11-01
22Lengshuijiang238,275327,146see Loudi2010-11-01
23Linxiang225,054498,319see Yueyang2010-11-01
24Zixing215,707337,294see Chenzhou2010-11-01
25Jishou212,328302,065part of Xiangxi Prefecture2010-11-01
26Xiangxiang210,799788,216see Xiangtan2010-11-01
27Hongjiang197,753477,996see Huaihua2010-11-01
28Wugang187,436734,870see Shaoyang2010-11-01
29Jinshi156,230250,898see Changde2010-11-01
30Shaoshan27,61386,036see Xiangtan2010-11-01