- Wade-Giles romanization:
- Ho-fei
- Formerly (until 1912):
- Luzhou
Hefei
-
What is Hefei?
Hefei is the capital city of Anhui province in China, a role it has held since 1952. Situated north of Chao Lake, its location on a low saddle crossing the Dabie Mountains makes it a natural hub for transportation. Water transport connects it to the Yangtze River, and important land routes run through it.
Hefei has a rich history, serving as the site of the small state of Shu (8th to 6th century BCE) and later becoming a county under the Han dynasty. Today's city dates back to the Song dynasty (960–1279). Hefei has grown from an administrative center and regional market into a diversified industrial city with institutions of higher learning such as the University of Science and Technology of China.
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Where is Hefei located in China?
Hefei is the capital city of Anhui province in China, a role it has held since 1952. Situated in central Anhui, north of Chao Lake, Hefei serves as a natural transportation hub. The city benefits from its location on a low saddle that crosses the northeastern extension of the Dabie Mountains, which divides the Huai and Yangtze rivers. Water transport via the lake provides easy access to the Yangtze River. Important land routes also pass through Hefei, running east to west from Pukou to Xi’an, and north to south from Xuzhou and Bengbu to Anqing. Hefei stands at the center of Anhui's highway system, with main roads running to Nanjing, Bengbu, and Wuhan. Air travel is also focused on Hefei, with airports in several other cities.
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What is Hefei known for?
Hefei is the capital of the Anhui province in China and has been since 1952. Because of its location north of Chao Lake and on a saddle crossing the Dabie Mountains, it is a natural hub for communications and transport. Easy water transport is available via the lake to the Yangtze River. Important land routes also run through Hefei.
Before World War II, Hefei was an administrative center and regional market for the southern fertile plain. Today, Hefei is the political, economic, cultural, and communication center of the Anhui province, with higher learning institutions such as the University of Science and Technology of China.
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How is Hefei important to China's economy?
Hefei is vital to China's economy as the political, economic, cultural, and communication center of Anhui province. It stands at the center of the province’s highway system and has become a diversified industrial city since the 1950s. Industries include a thermal-power-generating plant using coal from Huainan, factories producing industrial chemicals and chemical fertilizers, and an iron and steel complex. Hefei is a regional hub for coal and steel production with an industrial network covering machinery, electronics, building materials, and textiles.
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What educational and scientific institutions are found in Hefei?
Hefei is home to multiple educational and scientific institutions. These include Anhui University, which was founded in 1928. The University of Science and Technology of China, originally established in Beijing in 1958, relocated to Hefei in the early 1970s. Additionally, Hefei is noted for its science and technology institutions such as Hefei University of Technology (1945) and the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science. The Hefei Institutes of Physical Science were formed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences through the consolidation of multiple research facilities in 2001.
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How has Hefei changed and grown in recent years?
Hefei, the capital of Anhui province since 1952, has transformed from an administrative and regional market center to a diversified industrial city. Its population grew more than tenfold between the mid-1930s and the mid-1950s.
The city's economy was revived in 1932–36 by a railway linking Hefei with Yuxikou and Huainan. Industries producing industrial chemicals, chemical fertilizers, iron, steel, machinery, aluminum, and electronics were established. Hefei is now Anhui province's political, economic, cultural, and communication center. Institutions of higher learning, such as Anhui University, Hefei University of Technology, and the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, are located in the city.
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Hefei, city and capital of Anhui sheng (province), China. It has been the provincial capital since 1952. Hefei, in central Anhui, is a natural hub of communications, being situated to the north of Chao Lake and standing on a low saddle crossing the northeastern extension of the Dabie Mountains, which form the divide between the Huai and Yangtze rivers. From Hefei there is easy water transport via the lake to the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang) opposite Wuhu. Important land routes run through Hefei—east-west from Pukou (opposite Nanjing in Jiangsu) to Xi’an (in Shaanxi) and north-south from Xuzhou (in Jiangsu) and Bengbu to Anqing (both in Anhui).
From the 8th to the 6th century bce, Hefei was the site of the small state of Shu, later a part of the Chu kingdom. Many archaeological finds dating from that period have been made. The name Hefei was first given to a county set up in the area under the Han dynasty in the 2nd century bce. During the 4th to the 6th century ce, 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 (581–618) and Tang (618–907) 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-day city dates from the Song dynasty (960–1279), the earlier Hefei having been some distance farther north. During the 10th century, it was for a while the capital of the independent Wu kingdom (902–937) and was an important centre of the Nan (Southern) Tang state (937–975/976). From 1127 it became a centre of the defenses of the Nan Song dynasty (1127–1279) against the Jin (Juchen) invaders, as well as a flourishing centre of trade between the two states. When the Chinese republic was founded in 1911/12, the superior prefecture was abolished, and the city took the name Hefei.
Before World War II, Hefei remained essentially an administrative centre and the regional market for the fertile plain to the south. It was a collecting hub for grain, beans, cotton, and hemp, as well as a centre 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 (on the Yangtze opposite Wuhu) 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 Heifei area by taking much of its produce to Wuhu and Nanjing.
Although Hefei was a 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 when the provincial government was established there in 1952, but much of its new growth derived from its development as a diversified industrial city. A cotton mill was opened in 1958, and a thermal-power-generating plant, using coal from Huainan, was established in the early 1950s. It also became the seat of factories 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 plants producing aluminum, electronics, and a variety of light manufactures. Hefei is now the political, economic, cultural, and communication centre of Anhui province. There are a number of institutions of higher learning, including the prestigious University of Science and Technology of China, established in Beijing in 1958 and moved to Hefei in the early 1970s. Pop. (2002 est.) city, 1,170,014; (2007 est.) urban agglom., 2,035,000.