Hunan

- Total - Contribution to PRC

210.8 thousand km ² 2.21%

- Total 2010 - Density

64.06 million inhabitants 306 inhabitants / km ²

Hunan (Chinese湖南省, Pinyin Hunan, dt "south of the lake " ) is an existing since the imperial era province in the People's Republic of China.

Geographical location

Hunan is situated on the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. In the south, Hunan is limited by the Nan Ling mountains of Guangdong said. Bears the name of the province due to its location south of the lakes region on the border with Hubei along the Yangtze River. Except in the northeastern Hunan is crossed by low ridges and disintegrates into several such singular basin. Approximately in the center of the province is the Hengshan, the southernmost of the previous five sacred mountains of China.

Administrative Divisions

The Hunan province is made up of 13 prefecture-level cities and one autonomous district.

• Changsha City (长沙 市);
• Zhuzhou City (株洲 市);
• Xiangtan City (湘潭 市);
• Hengyang City (衡阳 市);
• Shaoyang City (邵阳 市);
• Yueyang City (岳阳 市);
• Changde City (常德 市);
• Zhangjiajie City (张家界 市);
• Yiyang City (益阳 市);
• Chenzhou City (郴州 市);
• Yongzhou City (永 州市);
• Huaihua City (怀化 市);
• Loudi City (娄底 市);
• Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture of Tujia and Miao (湘西 土家族 苗族 自治州).

The largest rivers flowing to all the Yangtze River. The Xiangjiang River rises in Guangxi and passes below Quanzhou to Hunan, right from this flows the Luihe, to the left of the Zejiang. In Guizhou Yuánjiāng and the Lishui springs. All three rivers flow into the basin of Dongting Lake in the northeast of the province. This over 5,500 sq km lake is only during the great floods of the Yangtze River in the summer so great at other times it consists only of these three rivers and several smaller rivers.

Provincial capital

The provincial capital is Changsha. The province's name comes from the fact that Hunan south of Dongting Lake is located (湖Chinese, Pinyin hú, lake ' ;南Chinese, Pinyin nán, south '). Since the Yuan and Ming dynasties, as Hunan and Hubei province Huguang (Chinese湖广, Pinyin húguǎng ) were summarized, it plays an important role in the rice supply in the country. Hunan is one of the most fertile and best irrigated provinces of China. In addition to rice, the production of tea and cotton plays an important role.

The Chinese revolutionary leader and founder of the People's Republic of China, Mao Zedong was the provincial capital Changsha born a farmer's son in the village of Shaoshan south.

More cities

Major cities are: Changsha (capital), Changde, Chenzhou, Hengyang, Huaihua, Loudi, Shaoyang, Xiangtan, Yiyang, Yongzhou, Yueyang, Zhangjiajie and Zhuzhou.

Neighboring provinces

Guangdong, Guangxi ( autonomous region ), Guizhou, Chongqing, Hubei and Jiangxi (clockwise).