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| 23rd | Top etymologies of country subdivision names: ç ShÄng (Provinces) |
| Hubei Province | |||||||||
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| Abbreviations: 鄂 (pinyin: È) | |||||||||
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| Origin of name | 湖 hú - lake 北 běi - north "north of Lake Dongting" |
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| Administration type | Province | ||||||||
| Capital (and largest city) |
Wuhan | ||||||||
| CPC Ctte Secretary | Luo Qingquan | ||||||||
| Governor | Li Hongzhong | ||||||||
| Area | 185,900 km2 (71,800 sq mi) (14th) | ||||||||
| Population (2004) - Density |
60,160,000 (9th) 324 /km2 (840 /sq mi) (12th) |
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| GDP (2008) - per capita |
CNY 1.13 trillion (10th) CNY 19,884 (16th) |
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| HDI (2006) | 0.767 (medium) (16th) | ||||||||
| Ethnic composition | Han - 95.6% Tujia - 3.7% Miao - 0.4% |
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| Prefecture-level | 13 divisions | ||||||||
| County-level | 102 divisions | ||||||||
| Township-level* | 1235 divisions | ||||||||
| ISO 3166-2 | CN-42 | ||||||||
| Official website http://www.hubei.gov.cn (Simplified Chinese) |
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| Source for population and GDP data:
《中国统计年鉴—2005》 China Statistical Yearbook 2005
Source for nationalities data:
ISBN 7503747382 《2000年人口普查中国民族人口资料》 Tabulation on nationalities of 2000 population census of China
*As at December 31, 2004ISBN 7105054255 |
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| Template ■ Discussion ■ WikiProject China | |||||||||
Hubei (help·info) (Chinese: 湖北; pinyin: Húběi; Wade-Giles: Hu-pei; Postal map spelling: Hupeh) is a central province of the People's Republic of China. Its abbreviation is 鄂 (pinyin: È), an ancient name associated with the eastern part of the province since the Qin Dynasty. The name Hubei means "north of the lake", referring to Hubei's position north of Lake Dongting.[1] The capital of Hubei is Wuhan.
Hubei borders Henan to the north, Anhui to the east, Jiangxi to the southeast, Hunan to the south, Chongqing to the west, and Shaanxi to the northwest. The high-profile Three Gorges Dam is located in Yichang, in western Hubei.
A popular unofficial name for Hubei is Chu (Chinese: 楚; pinyin: Chǔ), after the powerful state of Chu that existed here during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty.
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By the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC - 476 BC), Hubei was home to the powerful state of Chu. Chu was nominally a tributary state of the Zhou Dynasty, and it was itself an extension of the Chinese civilization that had emerged some centuries before in the north; but it was also culturally unique, and was a powerful state that held onto much of the middle and lower Yangtze River, with power extending northwards into the North China Plain.
During the Warring States Period (475 BC - 221 BC) Chu became the major adversary of the upstart state of Qin to the northwest (in what is now Shaanxi province), which began to assert itself by outward expansionism. As wars between Qin and Chu ensued, Chu lost more and more land: first its dominance over the Sichuan Basin, then (in 278 BC) its heartland, which correspond to modern Hubei. In 223 BC Qin chased down the remnants of the Chu regime, which had fled eastwards, as part of Qin's bid for the conquest of all China.
Qin founded the Qin Dynasty in 221 BC, the first unified state in China. Qin was succeeded by the Han Dynasty in 206 BC, which established the province (zhou) of Jingzhou in what is now Hubei and Hunan. Near the end of the Han Dynasty in the beginning of the 3rd century, Jingzhou was ruled by regional warlord Liu Biao. After his death, Liu Biao's realm was surrendered by his successors to Cao Cao, a powerful warlord who had conquered nearly all of north China; but in the Battle of Red Cliffs, warlords Liu Bei and Sun Quan drove Cao Cao out of Jingzhou. Liu Bei then took control of Jingzhou; he went on to conquer Yizhou (the Sichuan Basin), but lost Jingzhou to Sun Quan; for the next few decades Jingzhou was controlled by the Wu Kingdom, ruled by Sun Quan and his successors.
The incursion of northern nomadic peoples into northern China at the beginning of the 4th century began nearly three centuries of the division of China into a nomad-ruled (but increasingly Sinicized) north and a Han Chinese-ruled south. Hubei, which is in southern China, remained under southern rule for this entire period, until the reunification of China by the Sui Dynasty in 589. In 617 the Tang Dynasty replaced Sui, and later on the Tang Dynasty placed what is now Hubei under several circuits: Jiangnanxi Circuit in the south; Shannandong Circuit in the west, and Huainan Circuit in the east. After the Tang Dynasty disintegrated the 10th century, Hubei came under the control of several regional regimes: Jingnan in the center, Wu (later Southern Tang) to the east, and the Five Dynasties to the north.
The Song Dynasty reunified China in 982 and placed most of Hubei into Jinghubei Circuit, a longer version of Hubei's current name. Mongols conquered China fully in 1279, and under their rule the province of Huguang was established, covering Hubei, Hunan, and parts of Guangdong and Guangxi. During the Mongol rule, in 1334, Hubei was devastated by the world's first recorded outbreak of the Black Death, which spread during the following three centuries to decimate populations throughout Eurasia. (Citation needed, as most authorities say Central Asia, some say India, and at least one says Africa).
The Ming Dynasty drove out the Mongols in 1368, and their version of Huguang province was smaller, and corresponded almost entirely to the modern provinces of Hubei and Hunan combined. While Hubei was geographically removed from the centers of the Ming power,
During the last years of the Ming, today's Hubei was several times ravaged by the rebel armies of Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng. The Manchu Qing Dynasty which had conquered China in 1644, soon split Huguang into the modern provinces of Hubei and Hunan in 1664. The Qing Dynasty continued to maintain a viceroy of Huguang, however; one of the most famous was Zhang Zhidong, whose modernizing reforms made Hubei (especially Wuhan) into a prosperous center of commerce and industry. The Huangshi/Daye area, south-east of Wuhan, became an important center of mining and metallurgy.
In 1911 the Wuchang Uprising took place in modern-day Wuhan, overthrowing the Qing Dynasty and establishing the Republic of China. In 1927 Wuhan became the seat of a government established by left-wing elements of the Kuomintang, led by Wang Jingwei; this government was later merged into Chiang Kai-shek's government in Nanjing. During World War II the eastern parts of Hubei were conquered and occupied by Japan while the western parts remained under Chinese control.
During the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s, Wuhan saw fighting between rival Red Guard factions.
As the fears of a nuclear war increased during the time of Sino-Soviet border conflicts in the late 1969s, the Xianning prefecture of Hubei was chosen as the site of Project 131, an underground military command headquarters.
The province - and Wuhan in particular - suffered severely from the 1954 Yangtze River Floods. Large scale dam construction followed, with the Gezhouba Dam on the Yangtze River near Yichang started in 1970 and completed in 1988; the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, further upstream, began in 1993. In the following years, authorities resettled millions of people from western Hubei to make way for the construction of the dam. A number of smaller dams have been constructed on the Yangtze's tributaries as well.
The Jianghan Plain takes up most of central and eastern Hubei, while the west and the peripheries are more mountainous, with ranges such as the Wudang Mountains, the Jingshan Mountains, the Daba Mountains, and the Wushan Mountains (in rough north-to-south order). The Dabie Mountains lie to the northeast of the Janghan Plain, on the border with Henan and Anhui; the Tongbai Mountains lie to the north on the border with Henan; to the southeast, the Mufu Mountains form the border with Jiangxi. The highest peak in Hubei is Shennong Peak, found in the Daba Mountains and in the forestry area of Shennongjia; it has an altitude of 3105 m.
The two major river of Hubei are the Yangtze and its left tributary Hanshui; they give their name to the Jianghan Plain. The Yangtze River enters Hubei from the west via the Three Gorges; the eastern half of the Three Gorges (Xiling Gorge and part of Wu Gorge) lies in western Hubei, while the western half is in neighbouring Chongqing. The Hanshui enters the province from the northwest. After crossing most of the province, the two great rivers meet at Wuhan, the provincial capital.
Among the notable tributaries of the Yangtze within the province are the Shen Nong Stream (a small northern tributary, severely affected by the Three Gorges Dam project); the Qingjiang, a major waterway of southwestern Hubei; the Huangbo near Yichang; and the Fushui in the southeast.
Thousands of lakes dot the landscape of Hubei's Jianghan Plain, giving Hubei the name of: "Province of Lakes"; the largest of these lakes are Lake Liangzi and Lake Honghu. The numerous hydro dams created a number of large reservoirs, the largest of which is the Danjiangkou Reservoir on the Hanshui, on the border between Hubei and Henan.
Hubei has a subtropical climate with distinct seasons. Hubei has average temperatures of 1 - 6 °C in winter and of 24 - 30 °C in summer; punishing temperatures of 40 °C or above are famously associated with Wuhan, the provincial capital. The mountainous districts of western Hubei, in particular Shennongjia, with their cooler summers, attract numerous visitors from Wuhan and other lowland cities.
Besides the capital Wuhan, other important cities are Jingmen; Shiyan, the center of automotive industry and the gateway to Wudangshan; Yichang, the main base for the gigantic hydroelectric projects of southwestern Hubei; and Shashi.
Hubei is divided into thirteen prefecture-level divisions (of which there are twelve prefecture-level cities and one autonomous prefecture), as well as three directly administered county-level cities and one directly administered county-level forestry area.
The thirteen prefecture-level divisions and four directly administered county-level divisions of Hubei are subdivided into 102 county-level divisions (38 districts, 24 county-level cities, 37 counties, two autonomous counties, one forestry area; the directly administered county-level divisions are included here). Those are in turn divided into 1234 township-level divisions (737 towns, 215 townships, nine ethnic townships, and 273 subdistricts).
See List of administrative divisions of Hubei for a complete list of county-level divisions.
Secretaries of the CPC Hubei Committee:
Governors of Hubei:
Hubei is often called the "Land of Fish and Rice" (鱼米之乡). Important agricultural products in Hubei include cotton, rice, wheat, and tea, while industries include automobiles, metallurgy, machinery, power generation, textiles, foodstuffs and high-tech commodities.
Mineral resources that can be found in Hubei in significant quantities include borax, hongshiite, wollastonite, garnet, marlstone, iron, phosphorus, copper, gypsum, rutile, rock salt, gold amalgam, manganese and vanadium. The province's recoverable reserves of coal stand at 548 million tons, which is modest compared to other Chinese provinces. Hubei is also well known for its mines of fine turquoise and green faustite.
Once completed, the Three Gorges Dam in western Hubei will provide plentiful hydroelectricity, with an estimated annual power production of 84,700 Gwh. Existing hydroelectric stations include Gezhouba, Danjiangkou, Geheyan, Hanjiang, Duhe, Huanglongtan, Bailianhe, Lushui and Fushui.
Hubei's economy ranks 10th in the country and its nominal GDP for 2008 was 1.13 trillion yuan (163 billion USD) and a per capita of 19,884 RMB (2,863 USD).
Han Chinese form the dominant ethnic group in Hubei. A considerable Miao and Tujia population live in the southwestern part of the province, especially in Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture.
On October 18th, 2009, Chinese officials began to relocate 330,000 residents from the Hubei and Henan provinces that will be effected by the Danjiangkou Reservoir on the Han river. The reservoir is part of the larger South-North Water Transfer Project.[2]
People in Hubei speak Mandarin dialects; most of these dialects are classified as Southwestern Mandarin dialects, a group that also encompasses the Mandarin dialects of most of southwestern China.
Perhaps the most celebrated element of Hubei cuisine is the Wuchang fish, a freshwater bream that is commonly steamed.
Types of traditional Chinese opera popular in Hubei include Hanju and Chuju.
The Shennongjia area is the alleged home of the Yeren, a wild undiscovered hominid that lives in the forested hills.
The people of Hubei are given the uncomplimentary nickname "Nine Headed Birds" by other Chinese, from a mythological creature said to be very aggressive and hard to kill. "In the sky live nine-headed birds. On the earth live Hubei people." (天上九头鸟，地上湖北佬)
Wuhan is one of the major culture centers in China.
The premier Wuhan University (founded in 1893) and many other institutions in Wuhan makes it a hub of higher education and research in China.
Hubei plays an important role in China's transportation industry. Situated on the Yangtze and Hanshui Rivers, which are important waterways, Hubei also enjoys the convenience of railways linking Beijing to Guangzhou, Beijing to Kowloon, Shanghai to Wuhan, Wuhan to Chengdu, and Zhicheng to Liuzhou, and of the airports in Wuhan, Yichang, Sanxia, Xiangfan and Shashi. National and provincial highways also contribute to Hubei's economic development.
Hubei is home to the ancient state of Chu, a local state during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty that developed its own unique culture. Chu culture mixed with other influences, ancient and modern, endows Hubei richly with tourist resources. Famous attractions include:
In 1994, the ancient building complex of the Wudang Mountains was listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
The province also has historical sites connected with China's more recent history, such as the Wuchang Uprising Memorial in Wuhan, Project 131 site (a Cultural-Revolution-era underground military command center) in Xianning, and the National Mining Park (国家矿山公园) in Huangshi.[3]
Numerous tourist boats (as well as regular passenger boats) travel up the Yangtze from Yichang through the Three Gorges area and into the neighboring Chongqing municipality.
The mountains of western Hubei, in particular in Shennongjia District, offer a welcome respite from Wuhan's and Yichang's summer heat. The tourist facilities in that area concentrate around Muyu in the southern part of Shennongjia, the gateway to Shennongjia National Nature Reserve (神农架国家自然保护区).
Professional sports teams in Hubei include:
In 2005, Hubei province signed a twinning agreement with Telemark county of Norway. A "Norway-Hubei Week" was held in 2007.[4]
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Coordinates: 30°58′04″N 112°13′53″E / 30.96778°N 112.23139°E
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Hubei (湖北) is province the southern central region of China.
Hubei is a Central Chinese province. The name is derived from 'Hu' meaning lake and 'Bei' meaning North.
It is the home of many battles from the Three Kingdoms "San Guo" period of Chinese history. Many cities still retain parts of the history of this time, such as Jingzhou which boasts a wonderfully intact city wall dating back to this time.
Hubei is also home of Yichang, site of the world famous Three Gorges Dam "San Xia Da Ba" project, which is the world's largest hydro-electric dam. This damn has effectively dammed the mighty Yangtse River "Chang Jiang".
The capital city of Hubei is Wuhan, a sprawling city made up of three separate cities separated by the Yangtse and Han rivers. Wuhan gains its name from the name of the three major parts of the city, Wuchang, Hanyang and Hankou.
Wuchang is known as the educational capital of China boasting a myriad of different Universities and Colleges. Wuchang also has a high concentration of government offices and facilities.
Hankou is famous for its commercial and shopping districts with areas such as Jianghan Rd and Jiefang Rd being the most popular places to go for shopping.
Hanyang is the industrial heart of Wuhan boasting many heavy industries including car and steel manufacture.
Wuhan is one of the notorious '3 furnaces' of China, however it easily out-steams it's rivals Nanjing and Chongqing. During a typical summer temperatures soar above 40 degrees celcius and humidity rarely drops below 80%. It is because of this weather that the Chinese people believe the local population have gained their fiery reputation of being loud and easily riled up. In winter temperatures drop below 0 degrees celcius and a few of inches of snow is not uncommon occurrence.
The locals are known as "Jiu Tou Nao" or "nine headed bird" due to their talent for bending the truth. The moniker is both a source of pride and embarrassment.
Wuhan is one of the largest cities in China, however it is still developing, quite slowly, in comparison with the major centres such as Beijing, Shanghai or Shenzhen.
The population of Hubei (like all of China) has been taught to speak Beijing Standard Chinese "Putong Hua" for many years now and the ability to speak Mandarin will help you immensely.
However, like many places throughout China, many cities have developed their own particular dialect such as the capital city of Hubei's "Wuhan Hua". Many Chinese people do not like the accent of the Wuhan locals as they say it comes across as very unelegant and rude however this is purely a matter of opinion.
Hubei also has members of many minority groups, in particular the Uighers of Xinjiang, who speak a language known as Uigher that is similar to Turkish.
Wuhan has strong foreign invest, especially French and German so many expatriates from these countries live in China, stimulating an interest in foreign languages, especially French and English. Fortunately for Hubei the province has plenty of ESL teachers available to choose from to teach them these languages.
You can enter Hubei many ways!
You can fly into Wuhan Tianhe Airport from most major cities and some international locations such as Australia.
You can also catch a bus or a train from many of the cities in China quite easily thanks to Wuhan's central location, essentially making it 'the transport hub of China'.
One of the better ways to get into Hubei is to cruise the Yangtse River, either from Chongqing further West (passing through the Three Gorges Dam and it's massive 5-stage ship lock) or you can cruise in from the East.
Getting around in Hubei is fairly easy. Buses go to most cities or at least through them, just let the driver know where to stop. The same goes for getting on the bus, just put out your thumb and a bus will stop for you and tell you how much it costs to go where you want to go.
Hubei also has a decent train network, like the rest of China, however it won't go to quite so many places as the buses and often it is very busy.
Within Wuhan and many other cities in Hubei, bus is the best way to travel. The average fare is 1RMB for non-air conditioned/heated and 2RMB for air-conditioner/heater. Given the amount of people on buses and the fact that someone will always have a window open, often it's best just to save the extra 1RMB and go the cheap option.
Taxis are also relatively unexpensive. Flagfall is 3RMB for the first 1.5km
The Yangtze River crosses through the region, offering beautiful cruise options, but the scenery past Wuhan is not as great as in the neighbouring provinces of Sichuan and Chongqing
The main tourist attractions and sights in Hubei are located along the Yangtse River.
You can see the famous Ghost City of Feng Du with it's temples and statues, the Three Gorges Dam and it's 5-Stage Ship Lock in Yichang, the impressive city wall of Jingzhou, and the famous Yellow Crane Tower "Huang He Lou" and East Lake "Dong Hu" of Wuhan.
Being in the center of China, Hubei boasts a variety of gourmet delights from every corner of the Chinese nation. Whether it is the delicious kebabs or hand-pulled noodles "la mian" of Xinjiang in the West, the addictive pork and spring onion dumplings "jiao zi" of the North, the farmed sweet and sour "tang su" of the South or the myriad of seafood dishes of the East there is something to please everyone.
Like most food to be found in Central/Western China, the food of Hubei is liberally laden with chilli, exciting the taste buds of more adventurous gourmands. All of the famous Chinese 'whacky' foods can be found in Hubei, ranging from dog and cat, to snail and frog, to pig's blood and cow's stomach all the way through to the exotic stuff like BBQ scorpion kebabs.
Hubei is also famed for it's lotus root "ou" dishes, which you can get in a variety of forms from soups to french fried. The capital city, Wuhan, also has a famous noodle dish by the name of Hot and Dry Noodles "re gan mian". This interesting dish combines the dryness of sesame paste with the heat of chillis and pickled vegetables. Generally a breakfast staple, Hot and Dry Noodles can be found being cooked on every street of Wuhan and for around 1.70RMB it's an absolute bargain.
As has been the growing trend in China there has also been a growth in 'Western' style restaurants. You can go and eat at a Brazil BBQ restaurant, Italian, Portuguese and French restaurants, as well as the omnipresent American fast food outlets such as Pizza Hut, KFC and McDonalds.
Hubei generally consumes the same style of beverages as the rest of China. Tea and hot water being the most popular, followed by soft drinks, beer and white wine "bai jiu".
Every kind of tea is available, as are bottled teas and coffees, soft drinks, water and juices. One of the highlights of Hubei is the local beer, going by the name of Snow which generally comes in 500mL bottles, containes on average 3.6%alc/v and is very easy to drink chilled or not. The going rate for a bottle is 2.50RMB with a 0.5RMB refund when you return the bottle. The cheapness and high quality of Chinese beer has been the undoing of many an overzealous foreigner.
There are also many places in which to consume these drinks. The most abundant by far are the famous Chinese 'discos' and 'KTV' bars which charge drinks at a minimum of a 500% markup and often times exceed 1000%. There are a small amount of 'foreign bars', generally also expensive but with an environment which is catered more to foreign tastes.
In Wuhan itself there is the local institution 'Vox Bar' which is easily the cheapest and most diverse bar in the province, with beer starting from 5RMB and hosting a variety of different live bands ranging from Beijing heavy metal to Xinjiang folk music. The patrons of Vox come from every corner of the world, featuring strong contingencies of Africans, Arabians, Central Asians, Australian and New Zealander, American, Mexican, Canadian, Pacific Islander, Philippino, Nepalese, Europeans and of course the local Chinese.
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The name Hubei means "north of the lake", referring to Hubei's position north of Dongting Lake.
Its abbreviation is 鄂 (pinyin: È), an ancient name associated with the eastern part of the province since the Qin Dynasty.
Chinese Postal Map Romanization spelling: Hupeh
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