Anhui

/ahn"hwee"/, n. Pinyin, Wade-Giles.

a province in E China. 35,000,000; 54,015 sq. mi. (139,899 sq. km). Cap.: Hefei.

Also, Older Spelling, Anhwei /ahn"hway"/.

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or An-hui conventional Anhwei

Province (pop., 2000 est.: 59,860,000), east-central China.

It is bounded by Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hubei, and Hunan provinces. With an area of 54,000 sq mi (139,900 sq km), it is one of China's smallest provinces; its capital is Hefei. Anhui was the first part of southern China to be settled by the Han dynasty, in the later part of the 1st millennium BC. Well-watered by the Huai and Yangtze (Chang) rivers, it was the empire's major agricultural area for several centuries. Anhui was ruled by the Ming dynasty in the 14th–17th centuries. It was occupied by the Japanese in World War II; after the war, the Nationalists held it briefly before the communists took over. It is a notable agricultural producer.

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▪ province, China

Introduction

Wade-Giles romanization  An-hui , conventional  Anhwei 

 sheng (province), eastern China. It is one of the country's smallest provinces, stretching for some 350 miles (570 km) from north to south. Landlocked, it is bounded by the provinces of Jiangsu (Kiangsu) to the northeast, Zhejiang (Chekiang) to the southeast, Jiangxi (Kiangsi) to the south, and Hubei (Hupeh) and Henan to the west. Its northern extremity barely touches the southern extremity of Shandong (Shantung) province. Its name, meaning “Peaceful Beauty,” is derived from the names of two cities— Anqing and Huizhou (now Huizhou district within the city of Huangshan). The capital, Hefei, is located in the heart of the province.

      Anhui was long one of China's poorest and most undeveloped areas. Since 1949, however, successful attempts have been made to utilize the province's economic and human resources. Vast irrigation schemes on the major rivers have alleviated severe periodic flooding and have also provided increased agricultural land and electric power. Area 54,000 square miles (139,900 square km). Pop. (2007 est.) 61,100,000.

Land

      Anhui lies in the path of a great subduction zone (downwarping of the Earth's crust) that stretches across the entire length of eastern China from Heilongjiang on the Russian border to Jiangxi. The floor of this zone from southern Hebei province to Anhui is steadily sinking under the weight of the silt carried by the Huang He (Yellow River) and the Huai River, though this is counteracted by silt deposition. The sediment is estimated to be more than 2,000 feet (600 metres) deep.

Relief

 The northern portion of the province is occupied by the North China Plain—an immense level surface that periodically has been flooded by its dominant rivers. The southern section of the province, the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang) valley, is separated from the northern plain by a series of mountains that stretch roughly from west to east. The Dabie Mountains—an eastern extension of the Qin (Tsinling) (Qin Mountains) range lying to the north of the Yangtze—form a convex curve of steep slopes facing east and northeast on the southwestern Hubei-Anhui border. The Baiji Mountains lie south and east of the Yangtze and form the southeastern border between Anhui and Zhejiang. Composed mainly of granite, metamorphic rock (rock formed in the solid state by heat and pressure), and sandstone, they include the Huang Mountains, which rise to a height of about 6,000 feet (1,800 metres) and are beloved by poets and artists for their massive shapes and lush vegetation; the mountains have become one of the most popular tourist destinations in China.

Drainage

      The northern plain is drained by the Huai River. Its many left-bank tributaries rise in the western mountains and flow eastward across Henan province into Anhui. The shorter right-bank tributaries rise in the Dabie Mountains. The Huai flows across the level plain and drains into Hongze Lake, which lies just across the eastern border with Jiangsu province. The river basin is subject to widespread and disastrous floods.

      The watershed between the Huai and the Huang to the north is barely perceptible. At least three times in history the Huang He has changed its course to flow south of the Shandong Peninsula, joining its waters with the Huai to flow into the Yellow Sea. Because of its susceptibility to disastrous floods, the Huai River basin was chosen in 1949 to be the site of the first large-scale water-conservation project to be undertaken by the People's Republic. The scheme entailed building several dams on the upper reaches of the Huai and its tributaries in order to control the flow of floodwaters, constructing or rebuilding hundreds of miles of dikes and irrigation and drainage canals along the main rivers, clearing the entry to and the exit from Hongze Lake, and digging the Subei Canal from the eastern edge of the lake to the Yellow Sea. Since 1956 there have been no serious inundations, local flooding has been controlled, and irrigation has successfully compensated for threatened drought.

      The low line of hills (Huayang Mountains) that extends northeast from the Dabie range to Hongze Lake marks the divide between the Huai and Yangtze river basins. The Yangtze Plain is studded with lakes that, in time of flood, join the river and increase its width in places to 5 miles (8 km). The change of river level between summer and winter is not as great as it is in Hubei province; nevertheless, winter navigation is difficult. The Yangtze plain is crisscrossed by canals that are used for irrigation, drainage, and transport.

Soils

      The province's complex soil structure can be divided broadly into three categories. The uplands to the north and south of the Yangtze are mainly podzolized (leached) old and young red earths that are susceptible to erosion but are valuable for the cultivation of tea. The Yangtze floodplains are composed chiefly of alluvium and rice paddy soils that have a slightly acidic character. The alluvial soil of the Huai basin—particularly the area drained by the left-bank tributaries and extending into the North China Plain—is calcareous (chalky), however. It includes curious mineral masses known as shajiangtu (“sandy ginger soils”) because they resemble ginger roots. They form in low-lying places where the ground is waterlogged, rarely occur on the surface, and sometimes form a hardpan, or basin, some feet below ground level.

Climate

      Anhui shares with much of the rest of China the seasonal monsoon climate characterized by hot, wet summers and cooler, dry winters. Because of its north-south extent, however, Anhui experiences appreciable variations in climate. Mean January temperatures in the north of the Huai basin range between 32 °F (0 °C) and 36 °F (2 °C). Mean July temperatures in both regions are 82 °F (28 °C). The north has between 200 and 230 frost-free days, while the south experiences between 230 and 250. The relative humidity is considerably higher in summer in the Yangtze valley than in the Huai basin. Northern Anhui experiences some discomfort when winter dust storms, brought by dry, cold winds, sweep down from the plateaus of Shanxi province.

      There is a marked difference between the precipitation of the Yangtze basin and that of the Huai plain. In the south the precipitation amounts to between 47 and 71 inches (1,200 and 1,800 mm) and is relatively evenly distributed. In the north the mean annual amount is between 24 and 31 inches (600 and 800 mm), more than half of which falls between June and September. Precipitation becomes progressively unreliable northward until the dry lands of the northwest are reached. Summer evaporation in northern Anhui is intense.

Plant and animal life

      The original vegetation was forest and woodland, but centuries of intensive settlement have deforested the terrain everywhere except in the western and southern uplands. This process, accompanied by soil erosion, has been extremely rapid since the mid-18th century. Cultivated crops and grass have replaced the trees, but, over time, fuel gatherers have stripped the hillsides of grass. The only remains of the forests on the plains are the bamboo groves and woods surrounding temples and villages. Since the 1950s, resolute efforts at afforestation have been made, and fuel gathering has been restricted.

      The rare Yangtze alligator lives in the environs of Wuhu, where it feeds mainly on fish and small animals. Apart from rodents and reptiles, few wild mammals remain in the densely settled and cultivated plains.

People

 The regions of densest population are the tributaries and banks of the Huai above Bengbu and the diked areas along the right bank of the Yangtze. Generally, the villages in the Huai basin are somewhat larger than those in the south. In the Yangtze valley, villages are farther apart and there are more scattered homesteads. Population density is considerably less in the hilly region that separates the two river basins, with the lowest densities in the southern uplands.

      As in the rest of China, there is no precise demarcation between rural and urban population. Places of 2,000 residents and fewer, where the people are engaged primarily in agriculture, are classified as rural. There are several large cities and towns: Hefei, the capital, is the most populous; others include Huainan, Huaibei, Wuhu, Bengbu, Ma'anshan, and Anqing, the former provincial capital. Many of these localities grew rapidly as the province became industrialized, notably Huaibei, which has developed around coal-mining operations.

      The population is almost totally Han (Chinese), and there are no pockets of aboriginal peoples as there are in the provinces south of the Yangtze. Until the 7th century CE large numbers of Hakka lived in the region, but they were later driven south into Fujian and Guangdong. Those of their descendants who remained have been assimilated into the main Chinese population.

Economy

      Until 1949 Anhui was regarded as the most economically backward province of eastern China. Most of its population was rural, and the standard of its agriculture was low because water resources were poorly utilized. Mineral resources were little developed. Since the 1950s great advances have been made in agriculture and industry. Improvements in irrigation now allow more land in the south to be double-cropped in rice, and other water conservancy and land improvement measures along with a return to household farming have improved yields and increased per capita net farm income. The Shanghai special economic zone, established to promote industrial growth, included Anhui province, and Anhui's mineral resources have been developed on the model of the Ruhr Valley in western Germany.

Agriculture

      Wheat is the predominant crop in the Huai basin to the north, and—more importantly—rice is grown in the Yangtze basin to the south. In the relatively wetter Yangtze valley most of the cultivable land is devoted to rice, while in the drier Huai basin about one-third of the land is under wheat. Most of the land produces two crops a year. Anhui is also one of China's most important soybean producers; the beans are grown mainly in the north in rotation with wheat or barley. The main industrial crops are vegetable oilseeds, cotton, tea, fibres, and tobacco. Among the vegetable oils, the most important are rapeseed, peanut (groundnut), and sesame. Cotton is grown mainly on the northern Huai plain. Hemp, jute, and ramie (an Asian nettle that yields a fibre used for making textiles) are also grown.

      Anhui has been renowned for its tea since the 7th century, when teas were exported to the rest of China as well as abroad. This trade became depressed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries but then was revived; Keemun (Qimen) black tea is especially prized. The main areas of cultivation are on the slopes of the Dabie Mountains, north of the Yangtze, and on the Baiji Mountains along the Anhui-Zhejiang border. Sericulture, the production of raw silk by raising silkworms, has also been revived. During the years of warfare from 1937 to 1949, many of the region's mulberry trees were felled to deprive guerrilla forces of cover. These have been replaced, and both the mulberry-feeding moth (Bombyx mori) and the tussah silkworm are reared, providing the raw material for Nanjing brocades and Wuhan silk fabrics.

      Large domesticated animals are used almost exclusively for draft purposes. Pigs are the main source of meat, and sheep are raised in increasing numbers in northern Anhui. Numerous rivers and lakes abound in fish, mainly carp and white bream. Aquaculture is practiced all along the Yangtze.

Manufacturing

 Anhui's industrial capacity was quite limited before the 1950s, based mainly on the modest exploitation of its rich copper, iron, and coal deposits. The Huainan coal basin was first worked in the 1920s but was substantially developed in the 1950s; a similar push followed in the Huaibei basin in the 1960s. The coal from these sources became the primary source of power for Anhui's mainly thermally generated electricity supply, although hydroelectric power units were built on tributaries of the Huai to also supply the province's major industrial centres. Anhui is rich in high-quality iron ore, located near the Jiangsu border. These reserves, first exploited by the Japanese during World War II, were further developed in the 1950s. A large copper shaft mine and smelter were built at Tongling in the 1950s on the site of a Tang dynasty copper lode, and Tongling developed into a major supplier of blister copper.

      Anhui is now an important regional hub of coal and steel production, and an industrial network has been established to cover such sectors as coal, power, metallurgy, chemicals, machinery, electronics, building materials, light manufactures, and textiles. Hefei is the province's major industrial centre. Its development began in the 1950s, when a number of textile and other light industry plants were transferred there from Shanghai. Steelmaking and machine-tool plants were soon established to serve provincial mining, electrical, and chemical enterprises, and the city also developed into a producer of chemical fertilizer. Bengbu, in northern Anhui, developed into an important supplier of agricultural machinery and a major food-processing centre. Wuhu, on the southern bank of the Yangtze, has been a commercial centre since the 1960s, with a port that plays an increasingly important role in both domestic and international trade.

Transportation

      Throughout the centuries, waterways have been the main means of regional communication. Water-conservation schemes increased the navigability of rivers and canals, and traffic on them is heavy. The ports of Ma'anshan, Wuhu, Tongling, and Anqing on the Yangtze can be reached by oceangoing vessels of 15,000 tons during the high-water summer months.

      A principal railway from Beijing to Shanghai enters the province from Xuzhou across the northern Jiangsu border and runs south to Bengbu, where it divides—the main line running southeast to Nanjing in Jiangsu province and a branchline running south to Hefei, from which one line runs southeastward and crosses the Yangtze by a bridge at Wuhu and extends to Hangzhou in Zhejiang province while another line runs southwest to Jiujiang, also crossing the Yangtze by a bridge, in Jiangxi province. One more principal railway from Beijing to Jiulong (Kowloon) passes through the northwest portion of the province at Fuyang, with branch lines connecting the cities of Huainan and Huaibei.

      Hefei stands at the centre of the province's highway system, with main roads running to Nanjing, Bengbu, and Wuhan. Air travel is also focused on Hefei, and there are airports in several other cities, including Anqing and Huangshan.

Government and society

Constitutional framework

      From 1950 to 1954 Anhui was included in the East China greater administrative region, which embraced all the east-coast provinces from Shandong to Fujian. In 1954 provincial government was made directly subordinate to the national government. At the end of 2007 Anhui was subdivided into 17 prefecture-level municipalities (dijishi). Below this level it is divided into districts under a municipality (shixiaqu), counties (xian), and county-level municipalities (xianjishi). The provincial Revolutionary Committee appointed by the central government during the Cultural Revolution (1966–76) was replaced in 1980 by the People's Government, which is the administrative arm of the People's Congress.

Health and welfare

      Health services that were developed after 1949 were at first concerned primarily with public hygiene and preventive medicine. Medical teams were sent into the countryside to inoculate the population and to teach and advise on matters of public health. From 1960, hospitals were built in the communes and all the major towns. The emphasis on public hygiene has, however, been maintained. Both Western and traditional medical practices are employed.

Education

      Western learning was introduced in the early decades of the 20th century through the teaching of Christian missions. The Nationalist (Nationalist Party) government after 1928 attempted to expand education throughout the province, but most people remained illiterate. After 1949 the problem of illiteracy was attacked with vigour. The communes established in the late 1950s were made responsible for primary and middle-school education, and a program combining work and study was introduced. Several schools of sericulture were established on the slopes of the Dabie Mountains, and the tea-growing regions set up special schools for farming and study. Anhui has made considerable advances in education, and more than five-sixths of the population ages 15 years and older is literate; however, considerably more males are literate than females.

      Anhui has dozens of institutions of higher education, headed by Anhui University (founded 1928) in Hefei. In addition, the province is noted for its many institutions devoted to science and technology, including Hefei University of Technology (1945) and the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, which was created by the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2001 by the merger of several separate research facilities.

Cultural life

      The Anhui region was one of the earliest areas in the Yangtze basin to be settled by Sinitic peoples. Many of the current linguistic and cultural traits of the region were shaped during the Nan (Southern) Song (Song dynasty) period (1127–1279), particularly the characteristic conservatism of language and art forms. A number of separate regional subcultures continue to exist, including the Huizhou culture from the region around Shexian, renowned for its commercial and clan traditions.

      A number of well-known traditional specialty products come from Anhui. Notable are Xuan paper and Huizhou ink sticks, which collectively are considered to be two of the traditional “four treasures of the study” along with Duan ink slabs in Guangdong province and Huzhou writing brushes produced in Zhejiang province. The ink slabs produced in Shexian, in southeastern Anhui, are also renowned. Iron pictures from Wuhu (which reproduce in iron Chinese paintings), jade sculptures from Bengbu, paper cuttings from Fuyang, and sleeping mats from Shucheng are all highly regarded articles. A type of liquor, distilled in Bozho, is also well known in China, and both Qimen black tea and Tunxi green tea sell well at home and abroad.

      Among Anhui's notable historical sites are the two ancient villages of Xidi and Hongcun near Huangshan, which collectively were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2000. Among the province's most popular scenic places is Mount Huang, also near Huangshan and named a World Heritage site in 1990.

History

      During the Zhanguo ( Warring States) period of the Zhou dynasty (475–221 BCE) Anhui formed part of the large southern state of Chu. Between 221 and 207 BCE the Qin dynasty unified the states, and a great southward migration along the natural highway of the North China Plain and the Huai River basin began. Anhui became the first part of southern China to be settled by the Han. Unrest following the fall of the Han dynasty in 220 CE led to further immigration into the area.

      The Yangtze River basin subsequently became the granary of the empire, and an improved transport and canal system was developed across northern Anhui to carry tribute grain to the capital from Xuzhou to Bian (modern Kaifeng) and Luoyang in Henan province. It was later superseded by the Bian Canal, built during the Sui dynasty (581–618). The new canal ran along the Gui River and then cut across the region to Bian, forming the main line of communication to the capital. During the 12th century Anhui was the scene of bitter battles between the Nan Song emperors and the invading Juchen. After the establishment of the capital at Dadu (modern Beijing), the Yuan, or Mongol, dynasty (1206–1368) constructed the Grand Canal to the east, connecting Hangzhou in Zhejiang province with Dadu, and the previously built waterways fell into disuse.

      In the early 1850s the Huang He made one of its great changes in course, flowing into the Bo Hai north of the Shandong Peninsula instead of south into the Yellow Sea. The loss of water for the Huai basin was a major catastrophe for the farmers of northern Anhui. Subsequent peasant risings—together with the Taiping Rebellion of 1850–64—caused widespread devastation.

      The Yangtze was opened to foreign shipping in 1860, but it was not until 1877 that the walled city of Wuhu in Anhui was opened to international trade. Although it was the province's only treaty port, the city never figured prominently in overseas commerce.

      In 1938 the Huang He was temporarily diverted south of Shandong by the Nationalist (Nationalist Party) government, which blew up the river's dikes in Henan in an attempt to stem the advance of Japanese invaders. The river waters then surged south to Hongze Lake on the Anhui border, flooding a vast area and causing the deaths of about 900,000 people. During World War II most of Anhui was occupied by Japanese forces, but the resistance of the Chinese inhabitants effectively restricted Japanese control to only the daylight hours. Between 1946 and 1949 the province was controlled by Nationalist forces.

      From 1949 to 1952 Anhui was administered in two separate parts. The section north of the Yangtze, which came under communist military control in 1949, was constituted as the North Anhui administrative district. The South Anhui administrative district was established several months later, after the People's Liberation Army (PLA) had crossed the Yangtze and based its administration in Wuhu. In August 1952 the province was reunified under the leadership of Zeng Xisheng, a long-time veteran of the PLA.

      Anhui's provincial administration experienced relatively greater leadership turnover than other provinces in the 1950s and '60s and during the Cultural Revolution. However, it subsequently became a base for many of the economic reforms implemented in China since 1980.

Thomas R. Tregear Victor C. Falkenheim Ed.

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