Hunan

湖南省
Húnán Shěng
Abbreviation : 湘 ( Pinyin : Xiāng)
Capital	Changsha
surface - Total - share in the PRC	Rank 10 out of 33 210,800 km² 2.21%
population - Total 2016 - density	Rank 7 out of 33 68,220,000 inhabitants 324 inhabitants / km²
Management type	province
governor	Xu Dazhe

ISO-3166-2 code	CN-HN
District level	13 cities, 1 autonomous district
District level	60 counties, 36 city districts, 18 cities, 7 autonomous counties
Community level	1,089 large communities, 990 communities, 233 street districts, 97 nationality communities

Hunan ( Chinese 湖南省 , Pinyin Hunan , dt. "South of the lake") is a since the empire existing Province in the People's Republic of China .

The name of the province comes from the fact that Hunan is located south of Dongting Lake ( 湖 , hú - "lake"; 南 , nán - "south"). It has played an important role in the country's rice supply since the Yuan and Ming dynasties , when Hunan and Hubei were combined in the province of Huguang ( 湖廣 , húgu Provinzng ). Hunan is one of the most fertile and best irrigated provinces in China. In addition to rice, the production of tea and cotton also plays an important role.

Population development

Population growth in the province since 1954.

year	population
1954 census	33.226.954
1964 census	37.182.286
1982 census	54.008.851
1990 census	60,659,754
2000 census	63.274.173
2010 census	65,700,762
Guess 2016	68,220,000

Geographical location

Hunan is located on the middle reaches of the Yangtze . In the south, Hunan is the Nan Ling called Mountain of Guangdong limited. The province bears its name due to its location south of the lake region on the border with Hubei along the Yangtze River. Except in the northeast, Hunan is criss-crossed by low mountain ranges and thus breaks up into several singular basins . About in the center of the province is the Heng Shan , the southernmost of the former five sacred mountains of China .

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

Rivers

Wulingyuan

The largest rivers all flow towards the Yangtze. The Xiang Jiang rises in Guangxi and reaches below Quanzhou to Hunan, the Luihe flows to the right of this and the Zejiang to the left. The Yuánjiāng and the Li Shui have their source in Guizhou . All three rivers flow into the Dongting Lake basin in the northeast of the province. This over 5,500 km² lake is only so big during the great floods of the Yangtze River in summer, at other times of the year it only consists of the three mentioned rivers and a few smaller rivers.

Administrative structure

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);
City Shaoyang (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);
City of Loudi (娄底市);
Xiangxi Autonomous District of Tujia and Miao (湘西土家族苗族自治州).

The capital of the province is Changsha .

Biggest cities

The population figures are based on the 2010 census and refer to the actual urban settlement. In 2014, 49.3% of the population lived in cities or urban areas.

rank	city	Residents	rank	city	Residents
1	Changsha	3,193,354	6th	Changde	846.308
2	Hengyang	1,115,645	7th	Yiyang	697,607
3	Zhuzhou	999,404	8th	Liuyang	588.081
4th	Yueyang	924.099	9	Chenzhou	582,971
5	Xiangtan	903.287	10	Shaoyang	574,527

language

Hunan is the home of the Xiang Chinese language .

economy

In 2015, the province had a GDP of 2.90 trillion yuan (US $ 479 billion), ranking 7th among the provinces of China. The GDP per capita was 45,931 yuan ($ 6,915 / PPP : $ 13,225) per year (ranked 16th out of 31 among Chinese provinces). The level of prosperity in the province was thus roughly on par with South Africa and was 85% of the Chinese average.