'' (;
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
Dongting Lake. 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, as is the
Three Gorges University.
A popular unofficial name for Hubei is ''Chu'' (), after the powerful
state of Chu that existed here during the
Eastern Zhou Dynasty.
History
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.
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. The
Manchu Qing Dynasty which had conquered China in
1644 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.
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.
The construction of the
Three Gorges Dam over the
Yangtze River began in
1993 near
Yichang. In the following years, authorities resettled millions of people from western Hubei to make way for the construction of the dam.
Geography
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, 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 eastern half of the
Three Gorges (
Xiling Gorge and part of
Wu Gorge) lies in western Hubei; the other half is in neighbouring
Chongqing. 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
Yangtze River enters Hubei from the west via the
Three Gorges; the
Hanshui enters from the northwest. These two rivers meet at Wuhan, the provincial capital. Thousands of lakes dot the landscape, giving Hubei the name of: "Province of Lakes"; the largest of these lakes are
Lake Liangzi and
Lake Honghu. The
Danjiangkou Reservoir lies 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.
Important cities are
Wuhan,
Jingmen,
Shiyan and
Shashi.
Administrative divisions
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 semi-province-level city:
★
Wuhan (
Simplified Chinese: 武汉市;
Hanyu pinyin: Wǔhàn Shì)
The prefecture-level cities:
★
Ezhou (鄂州市 Èzhōu Shì)
★
Huanggang (黄冈市 Huánggāng Shì)
★
Huangshi (黄石市 Huángshí Shì)
★
Jingmen (荆门市 Jīngmén Shì)
★
Jingzhou (荆州市 Jīngzhōu Shì)
★
Shiyan (十堰市 Shíyàn Shì)
★
Suizhou (随州市 Suízhōu Shì)
★
Xiangfan (襄樊市 Xiāngfán Shì)
★
Xianning (咸宁市 Xiánníng Shì)
★
Xiaogan (孝感市 Xiàogǎn Shì)
★
Yichang (宜昌市 Yíchāng Shì)
The autonomous prefecture:
★
Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture (恩施土家族苗族自治州 Ēnshī Tǔjiāzú Miáozú Zìzhìzhōu)
The three directly administered county-level cities are more accurately described as
sub-prefecture-level cities:
★
Tianmen (天门市 Tiānmén Shì)
★
Qianjiang (潜江市 Qiánjiāng Shì)
★
Xiantao (仙桃市 Xiāntáo Shì)
The county-level forestry area:
★
Shennongjia (神农架林区 Shénnóngjià Línqū)
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.
Economy
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.
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
2004 was 631.0 billion yuan (78.28 billion USD) and a per capita of 9000 RMB (1087 USD).
Demographics
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.
Culture
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 cunning Hubei people."''
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.
Transportation
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.
Tourism
Hubei is home to the ancient
state of Chu, a local state during the
Eastern Zhou Dynasty that developed its own unique culture. Chu (Hubei) culture mixed with other influences, ancient and modern, endows Hubei richly with tourist resources. Famous attractions include:
★
Jingzhou City
★
Mount Jiugong
★
Mount Wudang
★
Three Gorges
★
Yellow Crane Tower in
Wuhan
In 1994, the ancient building complex of the Wudang Mountains was listed by
UNESCO as a
World Heritage Site.
Miscellaneous topics
Professional sports teams in Hubei include:
★
Chinese Football Association Super League
★
★
Wuhan Huanghelou
★
Chinese Basketball Association
★
★ None
External links
★
China Internet Information Center
★
Official site, in English
★
Large map of Hubei
★
A trip to Lake Liangzi
★
The Ancient Building Complex in the Wudang Mountains at the Unesco World Heritage List
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