1.
Counties of the People's Republic of China
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There are 1,464 counties in Mainland China out of a total of 2,862 county-level divisions. Xian have existed since the Warring States period, and were established nationwide during the Qin Dynasty, the term xian is usually translated as districts or prefectures when put in the context of Chinese history. This article, however, will try to keep the terminology consistent with the modern translation, xian have existed since the Warring States period and were set up nationwide by the Qin Dynasty. The number of counties in China proper gradually increased from dynasty to dynasty, as Qin Shi Huang reorganized the counties after his unification, there were about 1,000. Under the Eastern Han Dynasty, the number of counties increased to above 1,000, about 1400 existed when the Sui dynasty abolished the commandery level, which was the level just above counties, and demoted some commanderies to counties. The current number of counties mostly resembled that of the years of Qing Dynasty. Changes of location and names of counties in Chinese history have been a field of research in Chinese historical geography. Government below the county level was often undertaken through informal non-bureaucratic means, the head of a county was the magistrate, who oversaw both the day-to-day operations of the county as well as civil and criminal cases. Autonomous counties are a class of counties in Mainland China reserved for non-Han Chinese ethnic minorities. Autonomous counties are all over China, and are given, by law. There are 117 autonomous counties in Mainland China, as the Communist Party of China is central to directing government policy in Mainland China, every level of administrative division has a local CPC Committee. A countys is called the CPC County Committee and the called the Secretary. Policies are carried out via the Peoples government of the county, the governor is often also one of the deputy secretaries in the CPC Committee. County List of counties in the Peoples Republic of China List of county-level divisions of China History of the divisions of China
2.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
3.
Provinces of China
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Provinces, formally provincial-level administrative divisions or first-level administrative divisions, are the highest-level Chinese administrative divisions. There are 34 such divisions, classified as 23 provinces, four municipalities, five autonomous regions, the Peoples Republic of China claims sovereignty over the territory administered by the Republic of China, claiming most of it as its Taiwan Province. The ROC also administers some offshore islands which form Fujian Province and these were part of an originally unified Fujian province, which since the stalemate of the Chinese Civil War in 1949 has been divided between the PRC and ROC. Note that every province has a Communist Party of China provincial committee, the committee secretary is in effective charge of the province, rather than the nominal governor of the provincial government. The government of each province is nominally led by a provincial committee. The committee secretary is first-in-charge of the province, second-in-command is the governor of the provincial government, the Peoples Republic of China claims the island of Taiwan and its surrounding islets, including Penghu, as Taiwan Province. The territory is controlled by the Republic of China, a municipality or direct-controlled municipality is a higher level of city which is directly under the Chinese government, with status equal to that of the provinces. In practice, their status is higher than that of common provinces. The governor of each region is usually appointed from the respective minority ethnic group. A special administrative region is an autonomous and self-governing subnational subject of the Peoples Republic of China that is directly under the Central Peoples Government. Each SAR has an executive as head of the region. The regions government is not fully independent, as policy and military defence are the responsibility of the central government. Notes,1, as of 20102, per km23, km24, Abbreviation in the parentheses is informal 5, Since founding in 1949, however, the PRC has never controlled Taiwan. Taiwan currently administers Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu, the subject of whether or not Taiwan is part of China is often debated, with no clear conclusion. The Ming Dynasty kept the system set up by the Yuan Dynasty, however. By the time of the establishment of the Qing Dynasty in 1644 there were 18 provinces, in addition, there was a zongdu, a general military inspector or governor general, for every two to three provinces. Outer regions of China were not divided into provinces, military leaders or generals oversaw Manchuria, Xinjiang, and Mongolia, while vice-dutong and civilian leaders headed the leagues, a subdivision of Mongolia. The ambans supervised the administration of Tibet, in 1884 Xinjiang became a province, in 1907 Fengtian, Jilin, and Heilongjiang were made provinces as well
4.
Hubei
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Hubei is a province of the Peoples Republic of China, located in the Central China region. The name of the province north of the lake, referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The provincial capital is Wuhan, a major thoroughfare and the political, cultural. It borders Henan to the north, Anhui to the east, Jiangxi to the southeast, Hunan to the south, Chongqing to the west, the high-profile Three Gorges Dam is located at Yichang, in the west of the province. The Hubei region was home to sophisticated Neolithic cultures, by the Spring and Autumn period, the territory of todays Hubei was part of the powerful State of Chu. During the Warring States period Chu became the major adversary of the upstart State of Qin to the northwest, 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 its heartland, which correspond to modern Hubei. In 223 BC Qin chased down the remnants of the Chu regime, Qin founded the Qin dynasty in 221 BC, the first unified state in the region. Qin was succeeded by the Han dynasty in 206 BC, which established the province of Jingzhou in what is now Hubei, the Qin and Han played an active role in the agricultural colonization of Hubei, maintaining a system of river dikes to protect farmland from summer floods. Towards the end of the Han Dynasty in the beginning of the 3rd century, the incursion of northern nomadic peoples into the region at the beginning of the 4th century began nearly three centuries of division into a nomad-ruled north and a Han Chinese-ruled south. Hubei, to the South, remained under southern rule for this entire period, until the unification of China by the Sui dynasty in 589. After the Tang dynasty disintegrated in the 10th century, Hubei came under the control of several regional regimes, Jingnan in the center, Wu to the east, and the Five Dynasties to the north. The Song dynasty reunified the region in 982 and placed most of Hubei into Jinghubei Circuit, Mongols conquered the region in 1279, and under their rule the province of Huguang was established, covering Hubei, Hunan, and parts of Guangdong and Guangxi. 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, todays Hubei was ravaged several times by the rebel armies of Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng. The Manchu Qing dynasty which had much of the region in 1644, soon split Huguang into the provinces of Hubei. The Huangshi/Daye area, south-east of Wuhan, became an important center of mining, 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, during World War II the eastern parts of Hubei were conquered and occupied by Japan while the western parts remained under Chinese control
5.
Prefecture-level city
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Prefectural level cities form the second level of the administrative structure. Administrative chiefs of prefectural level cities generally have the rank as a division chief of a national ministry. Since the 1980s, most former prefectures have been renamed into prefectural level cities, a prefectural level city is a city and prefecture that have been merged into one unified jurisdiction. The larger prefectural level cities span over 100 kilometres, prefectural level cities nearly always contain multiple counties, county level cities, and other such sub-divisions. To distinguish a prefectural level city from its urban area. The first prefectural level cities were created on 5 November 1983, over the following two decades, prefectural level cities have come to replace the vast majority of Chinese prefectures, the process is still ongoing. Most provinces are composed entirely or nearly entirely of prefectural level cities, shijiazhuang and Zhengzhou are the largest prefectural level cities with populations approaching or exceeding some sub-provincial cities. A sub-prefecture-level city is a city with powers approaching those of prefectural level cities. There are total of three classification of prefecture-level city, Regular prefectural level city which consist of counties, county level cities, consolidated district-governed prefectural level city which only consist of districts as it subdivisions. Thus, Bloomington, Indiana is indicated on the map by a point, which is distinct from, and enclosed by, in China, however, large cities such as City of Xianning may, in reality, contain both urban and rural elements. Moreover, they may enclose counties or other cities, on a less detailed map, City of Xianning would be indicated by a point, more or less corresponding to the coordinates of its city government. Other populous areas may also be exhibited as points, such as County of Tongshan, with no indication that County of Tongshan is, in fact, enclosed by City of Xianning. On a more detailed map, City of Xianning would be drawn as an area, similar to a county of the United States and this convention may lead to difficulty in the identification of places mentioned in older sources. For example, Guo Moruo writes that he was born in Town of Shawan, within Prefecture of Leshan, and attended primary school in Town of Jiading. A modern map is unlikely to show either town, Shawan, because it is too small, and Jiading, because it is the seat of City of Leshan, and is therefore indicated on the map by a point labelled Leshan. A more detailed map would show Shawan as a district within City of Leshan, statistics of China such as population and industrial activity are generally reported along prefectural city lines. Thus, the relatively unknown City of Huangshi has 2.5 million residents, more than most European capitals, but upon closer inspection, furthermore, Huangshi contains several other cities, such as City of Daye. If a person wished to calculate the population of the area of Huangshi, and had a map of Huangshi, and a table of its population by district
6.
Jingzhou
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Jingzhou is a prefecture-level city in southern Hubei, China, located on the banks of the Yangtze River. As of the 2010 census, its population was 5,691,707,1,154,086 of whom resided in the built-up area comprising the two urban districts. Jingzhou occupies an area of 14,067 square kilometres with a topography rising from east to west and it is covered by a dense network of waterways, as well as lakes, and is located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River on the Jianghan Plain. Downstream to its east lies Wuhan, the capital and to the west the city of Yichang, the Three Gorges. Jingmen City, also in Hubei, lies to the north, to its south are Yueyang and Changde, Jingzhou has a humid subtropical climate, with hot, humid summers, and damp, chilly, but drier winters. Monthly daily average temperatures range from 4.1 °C in January to 28.0 °C in July, the area receives 1,800 to 2,000 hours of sunshine per year and has a frost-free period of 242−263 days annually. According to the 2010 Census, the city of Jingzhou has 5,691,707 inhabitants. The prefecture-level city of Jingzhou has jurisdiction over two districts, three cities and three counties. The information here presented uses the system and data from the 2010 Census. Jingzhou has been a hub and commodity distribution center for 6,000 years. The ancient city of Jingzhou forms what is now the main area of Jiangling County. Situated in the reaches of the Yangtze River, this has been a strategic location of military importance since ancient times. Ying, within the borders of present-day Jingzhou, was the capital of 20 kings over 411 years of the State of Chu during the Spring and Autumn, the city is said to have been built with earth by Guan Yu in the Three Kingdoms period. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties period, it was the capital of the Western Liang, in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, it was the capital of the Nanping State. Numerous sites have been preserved from the Chu State period, including the ruins of five Chu cities,73 sites featuring Chu Culture and more than 800 ancient tombs, including those of 18 Chu kings. There are also historical sites dating to the Three Kingdoms period, such as the Wulin Battlefield, the city walls were rebuilt in 1646 and measure 9 metres high and 10 metres thick. The perimeter of the wall extends for 10.17 kilometres, the city walls, city gates, watchtowers, and battlements have all been well maintained. Many of the towers on top of the city gates have been damaged or rebuilt
7.
Time in China
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The time in China follows a single standard time offset of UTC+08,00, despite China spanning five geographical time zones. The official national standard time is called Beijing Time domestically and China Standard Time internationally, daylight saving time has not been observed since 1991. The special administrative regions maintain their own authorities, with standards called Hong Kong Time. These have been equivalent to Beijing time since 1992, in addition, a second time standard is used in Xinjiang, two hours less than the Beijing Time, which is called Ürümqi Time or Xinjiang Time. In 1912, the Republic of China established five standard time zones, namely Kunlun, Sinkiang-Tibet, Kansu-Szechwan, Chungyuan, and Changpai. The unified time zone policy was adopted by the Communist Party of China or the Central People’s Government some time between 27 September 1949 and 6 October 1949, the date is unknown. However, recent research suggests that the policy was most likely adopted on 27 September 1949, daylight saving time was observed from 1986 to 1991. In 1997 and 1999, Hong Kong and Macau were transferred to China from the United Kingdom and Portugal, although the sovereignty of the SARs belongs to China, they retain their own policies regarding time zones for historical reasons. Due to their locations, both are within the UTC+08,00 time zone, which is the same as the national standard — Beijing time. Xinjiang Time, also known as Ürümqi Time, is set due to its location in the westernmost part of the country. The time offset is UTC+06,00, which is two hours behind Beijing, and is shared with neighbouring Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Currently, timezone usage within Xinjiang is roughly split along the divide, with most ethnic Han following Beijing time. Some local authorities are now using both time standard side by side, the coexistence of two timezones within the same region causes some confusion among the local population, especially when inter-racial communication occur. Some ethnic Han in Xinjiang might not be aware of the existence of the UTC+6 Xinjiang Time because of language barrier, regardless, Beijing Time users in Xinjiang usually schedule their daily activities two hours later than those who live in eastern China. As such, stores and offices in Xinjiang are commonly opening from 10am to 7pm Beijing Time and this is known as the work/rest time in Xinjiang. Hong Kong maintains its own time authority after transfer of sovereignty in 1997, the Hong Kong Time is UTC+08,00 all year round, and daylight saving time has not been used since 1979. Greenwich Mean Time was adopted as the basis in 1904, before that, local time was determined by astronomical observations at Hong Kong Observatory using a 6-inch Lee Equatorial and a 3-inch Transit Circle. Macau maintains its own time authority after transfer of sovereignty in 1999, the Macau Standard Time is the time in Macau
8.
Simplified Chinese characters
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Simplified Chinese characters are standardized Chinese characters prescribed in the Table of General Standard Chinese Characters for use in mainland China. Along with traditional Chinese characters, it is one of the two character sets of the contemporary Chinese written language. The government of the Peoples Republic of China in mainland China has promoted them for use in printing since the 1950s and 1960s in an attempt to increase literacy and they are officially used in the Peoples Republic of China and Singapore. Traditional Chinese characters are used in Hong Kong, Macau. Overseas Chinese communities generally tend to use traditional characters, Simplified Chinese characters may be referred to by their official name above or colloquially. Strictly, the latter refers to simplifications of character structure or body, character forms that have existed for thousands of years alongside regular, Simplified character forms were created by decreasing the number of strokes and simplifying the forms of a sizable proportion of traditional Chinese characters. Some simplifications were based on popular cursive forms embodying graphic or phonetic simplifications of the traditional forms, some characters were simplified by applying regular rules, for example, by replacing all occurrences of a certain component with a simplified version of the component. Variant characters with the pronunciation and identical meaning were reduced to a single standardized character. Finally, many characters were left untouched by simplification, and are identical between the traditional and simplified Chinese orthographies. Some simplified characters are very dissimilar to and unpredictably different from traditional characters and this often leads opponents not well-versed in the method of simplification to conclude that the overall process of character simplification is also arbitrary. In reality, the methods and rules of simplification are few, on the other hand, proponents of simplification often flaunt a few choice simplified characters as ingenious inventions, when in fact these have existed for hundreds of years as ancient variants. However, the Chinese government never officially dropped its goal of further simplification in the future, in August 2009, the PRC began collecting public comments for a modified list of simplified characters. The new Table of General Standard Chinese Characters consisting of 8,105 characters was promulgated by the State Council of the Peoples Republic of China on June 5,2013, cursive written text almost always includes character simplification. Simplified forms used in print have always existed, they date back to as early as the Qin dynasty, One of the earliest proponents of character simplification was Lubi Kui, who proposed in 1909 that simplified characters should be used in education. In the years following the May Fourth Movement in 1919, many anti-imperialist Chinese intellectuals sought ways to modernise China, Traditional culture and values such as Confucianism were challenged. Soon, people in the Movement started to cite the traditional Chinese writing system as an obstacle in modernising China and it was suggested that the Chinese writing system should be either simplified or completely abolished. Fu Sinian, a leader of the May Fourth Movement, called Chinese characters the writing of ox-demons, lu Xun, a renowned Chinese author in the 20th century, stated that, If Chinese characters are not destroyed, then China will die. Recent commentators have claimed that Chinese characters were blamed for the problems in China during that time
9.
Traditional Chinese characters
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Traditional Chinese characters are Chinese characters in any character set that does not contain newly created characters or character substitutions performed after 1946. They are most commonly the characters in the character sets of Taiwan, of Hong Kong. Currently, a number of overseas Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between both sets. In contrast, simplified Chinese characters are used in mainland China, Singapore, the debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters has been a long-running issue among Chinese communities. Although simplified characters are taught and endorsed by the government of Mainland China, Traditional characters are used informally in regions in China primarily in handwriting and also used for inscriptions and religious text. They are often retained in logos or graphics to evoke yesteryear, nonetheless, the vast majority of media and communications in China is dominated by simplified characters. Taiwan has never adopted Simplified Chinese characters since it is ruled by the Republic of China, the use of simplified characters in official documents is even prohibited by the government in Taiwan. Simplified characters are not well understood in general, although some stroke simplifications that have incorporated into Simplified Chinese are in common use in handwriting. For example, while the name of Taiwan is written as 臺灣, similarly, in Hong Kong and Macau, Traditional Chinese has been the legal written form since colonial times. In recent years, because of the influx of mainland Chinese tourists, today, even government websites use simplified Chinese, as they answer to the Beijing government. This has led to concerns by residents to protect their local heritage. In Southeast Asia, the Chinese Filipino community continues to be one of the most conservative regarding simplification, while major public universities are teaching simplified characters, many well-established Chinese schools still use traditional characters. Publications like the Chinese Commercial News, World News, and United Daily News still use traditional characters, on the other hand, the Philippine Chinese Daily uses simplified. Aside from local newspapers, magazines from Hong Kong, such as the Yazhou Zhoukan, are found in some bookstores. In case of film or television subtitles on DVD, the Chinese dub that is used in Philippines is the same as the one used in Taiwan and this is because the DVDs belongs to DVD Region Code 3. Hence, most of the subtitles are in Traditional Characters, overseas Chinese in the United States have long used traditional characters. A major influx of Chinese immigrants to the United States occurred during the half of the 19th century. Therefore, the majority of Chinese language signage in the United States, including street signs, Traditional Chinese characters are called several different names within the Chinese-speaking world
10.
Pinyin
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Pinyin, or Hànyǔ Pīnyīn, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese in mainland China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan. It is often used to teach Standard Chinese, which is written using Chinese characters. The system includes four diacritics denoting tones, Pinyin without tone marks is used to spell Chinese names and words in languages written with the Latin alphabet, and also in certain computer input methods to enter Chinese characters. The pinyin system was developed in the 1950s by many linguists, including Zhou Youguang and it was published by the Chinese government in 1958 and revised several times. The International Organization for Standardization adopted pinyin as a standard in 1982. The system was adopted as the standard in Taiwan in 2009. The word Hànyǔ means the language of the Han people. In 1605, the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci published Xizi Qiji in Beijing and this was the first book to use the Roman alphabet to write the Chinese language. Twenty years later, another Jesuit in China, Nicolas Trigault, neither book had much immediate impact on the way in which Chinese thought about their writing system, and the romanizations they described were intended more for Westerners than for the Chinese. One of the earliest Chinese thinkers to relate Western alphabets to Chinese was late Ming to early Qing Dynasty scholar-official, the first late Qing reformer to propose that China adopt a system of spelling was Song Shu. A student of the great scholars Yu Yue and Zhang Taiyan, Song had been to Japan and observed the effect of the kana syllabaries. This galvanized him into activity on a number of fronts, one of the most important being reform of the script, while Song did not himself actually create a system for spelling Sinitic languages, his discussion proved fertile and led to a proliferation of schemes for phonetic scripts. The Wade–Giles system was produced by Thomas Wade in 1859, and it was popular and used in English-language publications outside China until 1979. This Sin Wenz or New Writing was much more sophisticated than earlier alphabets. In 1940, several members attended a Border Region Sin Wenz Society convention. Mao Zedong and Zhu De, head of the army, both contributed their calligraphy for the masthead of the Sin Wenz Societys new journal. Outside the CCP, other prominent supporters included Sun Yat-sens son, Sun Fo, Cai Yuanpei, the countrys most prestigious educator, Tao Xingzhi, an educational reformer. Over thirty journals soon appeared written in Sin Wenz, plus large numbers of translations, biographies, some contemporary Chinese literature, and a spectrum of textbooks
11.
Hunan
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Hunan Province is the 7th most populous Province of China and the 10th most extensive by area. The name Hunan means south of Lake Dongting, a lake in the northeast of the province, vehicle license plates from Hunan are marked Xiang, after the Xiang River, which runs from south to north through Hunan and forms part of the largest drainage system for the province. Hunans primeval forests were first occupied by the ancestors of the modern Miao, Tujia, Dong and it entered the written history of China around 350 BC, when under the kings of the Zhou Dynasty, it became part of the State of Chu. After Qin conquered the Chu heartland in 278 BC, the region came under the control of Qin, the agricultural colonization of the lowlands was carried out in part by the Han state, which managed river dikes to protect farmland from floods. To this day many of the villages in Hunan are named after the Han families who settled there. Migration from the north was especially prevalent during the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern and Northern Dynasties Periods, during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, Hunan was home to its own independent regime, Ma Chu. Hunan and Hubei became a part of the province of Huguang until the Qing dynasty, Hunan province was created in 1664 from Huguang, renamed to its current name in 1723. Hunan became an important communications center due to its position on the Yangzi River and it was an important centre of scholarly activity and Confucian thought, particularly in the Yuelu Academy in Changsha. It was also on the Imperial Highway constructed between northern and southern China, the land produced grain so abundantly that it fed many parts of China with its surpluses. The population continued to climb until, by the century, Hunan became overcrowded. Some of the uprisings, such as the ten-year Miao Rebellion of 1795–1806, were caused by ethnic tensions, the Taiping Rebellion began in the south in Guangxi Province in 1850. The rebellion spread into Hunan and then further eastward along the Yangzi River valley, ultimately, it was a Hunanese army under Zeng Guofan who marched into Nanjing to put down the uprising in 1864. Hunan was relatively quiet until 1910 when there were uprisings against the crumbling Qing dynasty and it was led by Hunanese native Mao Zedong, and established a short-lived Hunan Soviet in 1927. The Communists maintained an army in the mountains along the Hunan-Jiangxi border until 1934. Under pressure from the Nationalist Kuomintang forces, they began the Long March to bases in Shaanxi Province, after the departure of the Communists, the KMT army fought against the Japanese in the second Sino-Japanese war. They defended the Changsha until it fell in 1944, japan launched Operation Ichigo, a plan to control the railroad from Wuchang to Guangzhou. Hunan was relatively unscathed by the war that followed the defeat of the Japanese in 1945. In 1949, the Communists returned once more as the Nationalists retreated southward, as Mao Zedongs home province, Hunan supported the Cultural Revolution of 1966–1976
12.
Towns of the People's Republic of China
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When referring to political divisions of China, town is the standard English translation of the Chinese 镇. It is an administrative unit, i. e. one of the units into which counties. Another common fourth-level unit is the township, a township is typically smaller in population, similarly to a higher-level administrative units, the borders of a town would typically include an urban core, as well as rural area with some villages. For example, the county government of Tongshan County, Hubei is located in Tongyang Town, road signs would also normally show distance to Tongshan rather than Tongyang
13.
Townships of the People's Republic of China
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Townships, formally township-level divisions, are the basic level of political divisions in China. They are similar to municipalities and communes in other countries and in turn may contain village committees and villages, in 1995 there were 29,502 townships and 17,532 towns in China. Much like other levels of government in mainland China, the governance is divided between the Communist Party Township Secretary, and the county magistrate. The township party secretary, along with the party committee. The magistrate is in charge of administering the affairs of government. A township official is the lowest-level ranked official in the civil service hierarchy, in practice, however, a town is larger, often more populous, and less remote than a township. de http, //chinadataonline. org/cgepublic/cityclient16/
14.
Neighbourhood
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A neighbourhood, or neighborhood, is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural area. Neighbourhoods are often social communities with considerable face-to-face interaction among members, the Old English word for neighbourhood was neahdæl. ”Most of the earliest cities around the world as excavated by archaeologists have evidence for the presence of social neighbourhoods. Historical documents shed light on life in numerous historical preindustrial or nonwestern cities. Neighbourhoods are typically generated by social interaction among people living near one another, in this sense they are local social units larger than households not directly under the control of city or state officials. In addition to social neighbourhoods, most ancient and historical cities also had administrative districts used by officials for taxation, record-keeping, administrative districts are typically larger than neighbourhoods and their boundaries may cut across neighbourhood divisions. In some cases, however, administrative districts coincided with neighbourhoods, for example, in the T’ang period Chinese capital city Chang’an, neighbourhoods were districts and there were state officials who carefully controlled life and activity at the neighbourhood level. Neighbourhoods in preindustrial cities often had some degree of social specialisation or differentiation, ethnic neighbourhoods were important in many past cities and remain common in cities today. One factor contributing to neighbourhood distinctiveness and social cohesion in past cities was the role of rural to urban migration and this was a continual process in preindustrial cities, and migrants tended to move in with relatives and acquaintances from their rural past. Neighbourhoods have been the site of delivery or service interventions in part as efforts to provide local, quality services. Alfred Kahn, as early as the mid-1970s, described the experience, theory and fads of neighbourhood service delivery over the decade, including discussion of income transfers. Neighbourhoods, as an aspect of community, also are the site of services for youth, including children with disabilities. While the term neighbourhood organisation is not as common in 2015, community and economic development activists have pressured for reinvestment in local communities and neighbourhoods. Community and Economic Development may be understood in different ways, and may involve faith-based groups, urban sociology even has a subset termed neighbourhood sociology which supports the study of local communities and the diversity of urban neighbourhoods. Neighbourhoods are also used in studies from postal codes and health disparities. Neighbourhoods are convenient, and always accessible, since you are already in your neighbourhood when you walk out your door, successful neighbourhood action frequently requires little specialised technical skill, and often little or no money. Action may call for an investment of time, but material costs are often low, with neighbourhood action, compared to activity on larger scales, results are more likely to be visible and quickly forthcoming. The streets are cleaner, the crosswalk is painted, the trees are planted, visible and swift results are indicators of success, and since success is reinforcing, the probability of subsequent neighbourhood action is increased. The social support that a neighbourhood may provide can serve as a buffer against various forms of adversity
15.
Villages of the People's Republic of China
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Villages, formally village-level divisions in China, serve as a fundamental organizational unit for its rural population. Basic local divisions like neighborhoods and communities are not informal like in the West, in 2000, Chinas densely populated villages had a population greater than 500 million and covered more than 2 million square kilometers, or more than 20% of Chinas total area. Administrative village or Village Gaqa only for Inner Mongolia, Ethnic village only for village populated by Ethnic minority. Village committees Villager groups Note Natural village one that spontaneously and naturally exists within rural area, organic Law of Village Committees Bibliography Ellis, E. C. DeFries, R. S. Asner, G. P. Houghton, R. A. eds. Ecosystems and Land Use Change Long-term ecological changes in the densely populated rural landscapes of China, joseph Esherick, Mary Backus Rankin, Joint Committee on Chinese Studies. Chinese Local Elites and Patterns of Dominance, of Camel Kings and Other Things, Rural Rebels Against Modernity in Late Imperial China. Chinese Village Government Information Network Two Chinese Villages, Two Views of Rural Poverty Long-term changes in Chinas village landscapes are changing the world
16.
Communist Party of China
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The Communist Party of China is the founding and ruling political party of the Peoples Republic of China. It was founded in 1921, chiefly by Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao, the CPC is currently the worlds second largest political party with a membership of 88.76 million as of 2016. It also controls the worlds largest armed force, the Peoples Liberation Army, the highest body of the CPC is the National Congress, convened every fifth year. The partys leader holds the offices of General Secretary, Chairman of the Central Military Commission, through these posts the party leader is the countrys paramount leader. The current party leader is Xi Jinping, elected at the 18th National Congress, the CPC is still committed to communist thought and continues to participate in the International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties each year. The official explanation for Chinas economic reforms is that the country is in the stage of socialism. The planned economy established under Mao Zedong was replaced by the socialist market economy, the CPC has its origins in the May Fourth Movement of 1919, during which radical ideologies like Marxism and anarchism gained traction among Chinese intellectuals. Other influences stemming from the Bolshevik revolution and Marxist theory inspired the Communist Party of China, Li Dazhao was the first leading Chinese intellectual who publicly supported Leninism and world revolution. In contrast to Chen Duxiu, Li did not renounce participation in the affairs of the Republic of China, both of them regarded the October Revolution in Russia as groundbreaking, believing it to herald a new era for oppressed countries everywhere. The CPC was modeled on Vladimir Lenins theory of a vanguard party, Study circles were, according to Cai Hesen, the rudiments. Several study circles were established during the New Culture Movement, the founding National Congress of the CPC was held on 23–31 July 1921. With only 50 members in the beginning of 1921, the CPC organization, while it was originally planned to be held in Shanghai French Concession, police officers interrupted the meeting on 3 July. Because of that, the congress was moved to a tourist boat on South Lake in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, only 12 delegates attended the congress, with neither Li nor Chen being able to attend. Chen sent a representative to attend the congress. The resolutions of the called for the establishment of a communist party. The communists dominated the left wing of the KMT, a party organized on Leninist lines, when KMT leader Sun Yat-sen died in March 1925, he was succeeded by a rightist, Chiang Kai-shek, who initiated moves to marginalize the position of the communists. Fresh from the success of the Northern Expedition to overthrow the warlords, Chiang Kai-shek turned on the communists, ignoring the orders of the Wuhan-based KMT government, he marched on Shanghai, a city controlled by communist militias. Although the communists welcomed Chiangs arrival, he turned on them, Chiangs army then marched on Wuhan, but was prevented from taking the city by CPC General Ye Ting and his troops
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Wuhan
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Wuhan is the capital of Hubei province, China, and is the most populous city in Central China. It lies in the eastern Jianghan Plain at the intersection of the reaches of the Yangtze. Because of its key role in transportation, Wuhan was sometimes referred to as the Chicago of China by foreign sources. Holding sub-provincial status, Wuhan is recognized as the political, economic, financial, cultural, educational, the city of Wuhan, first termed as such in 1927, has a population of 10,607,700 people as of 2015. In the 1920s, Wuhan was the capital of a leftist Kuomintang government led by Wang Jingwei in opposition to Chiang Kai-shek. At the 2010 census, its built-up area made of 8 out of 10 urban districts was home to 8,821,658 inhabitants, with a 3, 500-year-long history, Wuhan is one of the most ancient and civilized metropolitan cities in China. During the Han dynasty, Hanyang became a busy port. Around that time, walls were built to protect Hanyang and Wuchang, the latter event marks the foundation of Wuhan. In AD223, the Yellow Crane Tower was constructed on the Wuchang side of the Yangtze River, cui Hao, a celebrated poet of the Tang dynasty, visited the building in the early 8th century, his poem made it the most celebrated building in southern China. The city has long been renowned as a center for the arts, under the Mongol rulers, Wuchang was promoted to the status of provincial capital, by the dawn of the 18th century, Hankou had become one of Chinas top four most important towns of trade. In the late 19th century, railroads were extended on an axis through the city. Also during this period foreign powers extracted mercantile concessions, with the riverfront of Hankou being divided up into foreign-controlled merchant districts and these districts contained trading firm offices, warehouses, and docking facilities. On October 10,1911, Sun Yat-sens followers launched the Wuchang Uprising, Wuhan was the capital of a leftist Kuomintang government led by Wang Jingwei, in opposition to Chiang Kai-shek during the 1920s. S. As the battle raged on through 1938, Wuhan and the region had become the site of the Battle of Wuhan. After being taken by the Japanese in late 1938, Wuhan became a major Japanese logistics center for operations in southern China, in December 1944, the city was largely destroyed by U. S. firebombing raids conducted by the Fourteenth Air Force. In 1967, civil strife struck the city in the Wuhan Incident as a result of tensions arising out of the Cultural Revolution. The city has been subject to devastating floods, which are now supposed to be controlled by the ambitious Three Gorges Dam, a project which was completed in 2008. In December 1858, James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin, High Commissioner to China, and in the spring of 1861, Counselor Harry Parkes and Admiral Herbert were sent to Wuhan to open a trading port
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Hanyang District
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Hanyang District forms part of the urban core of and is one of 13 districts of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, Peoples Republic of China. Currently, it is a district and stands between the Han River and the Yangtze River, where the former drains into the latter and it is connected by bridges with its former sister cities, Hankou and Wuchang. The name Hanyang continues to be used for the part of urban Wuhan between the Han and the Yangtze. Administratively, the area forms Hanyang District of the City of Wuhan, with an area of 108 square kilometers, colleges and universities, Jianghan University Primary and secondary schools, Wuhan French International School Official website of Hanyang District Government
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Wuchang District
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Wuchang District forms part of the urban core of and is one of 13 districts of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, China. It was one of three cities that merged into modern-day Wuhan, and stood on the bank of the Yangtze River. The two other cities, Hanyang and Hankou, were on the left bank, separated from each other by the Han. The name Wuchang remains in use for the part of urban Wuhan south of the Yangtze River. Administratively, however, it is split between districts of the City of Wuhan. The historic center of Wuchang lies within the modern Wuchang District, which has an area of 82.4 square kilometres, other parts of whats colloquially known as Wuchang are within Hongshan District and Qingshan District. Presently, on the bank of the Yangtze, it borders the districts of Qingshan to the northeast and Hongshan to the east and south, on the opposite bank it borders Jiangan, Jianghan. The Wuchang fish is named after the town, in 221, warlord Sun Quan moved the capital of Eastern Wu from Gongan county, Jingzhou to È county, and renamed È to Wuchang. Later in the year Cao Pi proclaimed himself the emperor of Cao Wei, Sun Quan declared independence in the following year, and started to build forts and palaces in Wuchang. Sun Quan proclaimed himself the emperor of Eastern Wu in 229, Sun Hao, the emperor of Eastern Wu between 264 and 280, moved the capital back to Wuchang in 265. In 589, the Wuchang commandery was abolished and the Wuchang county was transferred to a new commandery named Ezhou, the Wuchang commandery was set up when È was renamed to Wuchang, and included six counties. In 223 the commandery was renamed to Jiangxia, and the capital of the moved to Xiakou. The name of the town was switched back and forth between Wuchang and Jiangxia several times in the following centuries, after 1301, the Wuchang prefecture, headquartered in the town, became the capital of Hubei province. At the end of the Qing Empire, the Wuchang Prefecture was the capital of the provinces of Hubei and Hunan. It was the seat of the government of Huguang, at the head of which was a viceroy of Huguang. Next to Nanjing and Guangzhou, it was one of the most important vice-royalties in the empire and it possessed an arsenal and a mint. The provincial government established ironworks for the manufacture of rails and other railway material, as the works did not pay under official management, they were transferred to the director-general of railways. Wuchang was not open to trade and residence, but a considerable number of missionaries
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Jiangxia District
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Jiangxia District is one of 13 districts of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, Peoples Republic of China, situated on the eastern bank of the Yangtze River. Jiangxia district has an area of 2,009 square kilometres and it is the southernmost and most sparsely populated of Wuhans districts. Unlike most other districts into which the City of Wuhan is divided, Jingxia, however, in the first decades of the 21st century urban development in the southeastern part of Wuhans urban area has spilled over from Hongshan District into Jiangxia District as well. Most of Jiangxia District still consists of the area south of the Wuhan city center. Jingxia has its own core, which is a large residential area called Zhifang some 20 kilometres south of Wuhan proper. The Longquanshan Scenic Area, which contains the tombs of the Ming Princes of Chu is located in the part of Jiangxi District. That area must have been rural, and remote from the provincial capital, Wuchang, in the Ming days. The Wulongquan East Railway Station of the Wuhan-Guangzhou High-speed Railway is located within the district, the Wuhan–Xianning Intercity Railway, the regions first dedicated commuter rail line, opened in the late 2013, has several stations in the district. In particular, the Zhifang East Station serves the urban core. It takes 40-50 min by train from Zhifang East to Wuhans Wuchang Railway Station. As of 2012, the authorities were considering repurposing the military Shanpo Airfield, located in the districts Shanpo Township, the possibility for dual civil and military use is considered as well. If the plans are implemented, Shanpo will become Wuhans second airport
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Huangshi
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Huangshi is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Hubei province, Peoples Republic of China. Its population was 2,429,318 inhabitants at the 2010 census,1,601,687 of whom lived in the area made up of 4 urban districts plus the city of Daye. Huangshi is located in southeastern Hubei province, along the bank of one of the major bends in the Yangtze River. It is located 100 kilometres south-east of Wuhan, and borders Jiangxi province to the south and its area was reported by the local government as 4,583 square kilometres, elsewhere, the number of 4,630 square kilometres was given. The terrain is mostly small mountains and hills, the tallest mountain is 7 Summit Mountain with an elevation of 860 metres above sea level. Huangshi is also located in a lake district between Hunans Dongting Lake and Jiangxis Poyang lake and has dozens of large lakes. Average annual temperature is 17 °C and precipitation is 1,400 mm, there are 264 frost free days. It snows between December and February, Huangshi has 4 districts,1 county, and 1 county-level city. More than 99% of the population belong to the Han ethnic group, according to Google Map there are 686.894 people in Huangshi, this refers, presumably, to Huangshis urban core, and excludes the far-flung Yangxin County, Daye, and Tieshan. Huangshis GDP for 2003 was 27.5 billion CNY and its proximity to Wuhan and location along major rail lines and the Yangtze River make Huangshi an important logistics, distribution, and transportation hub. Mineral resources are plentiful in Huangshi giving it the nickname The Southern Cornucopia, metals include iron, manganese, gold, copper, tungsten, molybdenum, zinc, lead, cobalt, silver, gallium, and thallium. Other mineral resources include germanium, indium, selenium, tellurium, sulfur, calcite, limestone, celestine, plaster, agriculture is also a major part of Huangshis economy. There are more than 3000 species of plants in Huangshi, many of them used for food, pharmaceuticals, other industries include metallurgy, textiles, construction materials, energy, light manufacturing, electronics, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and food processing. The prefecture-level city is served by G45 Daqing–Guangzhou Expressway, G50 Shanghai–Chongqing Expressway, National Highways 106 and 316, the city has two Yangtze River crossings, the Huangshi Yangtze River Bridge and the Edong Yangtze River Bridge. Many of the trains traveling on the Wuhan–Jiujiang Railway between Wuhan and the points southeast make stops at the Huangshi and Yangxin stations. The Huangshi Station is located within the borders of Daye County-level city. The Yangxin Station is near Yangxin Countys county seat, Xingguo Town, although Huangshis main urban area is some distance away from the Wuhan–Jiujiang Railway mainline, it is connected to it by a dead-end branch, of considerable importance for the local industries. It runs all the way to Huangshis river port on the Yangtze, there was even a downtown passenger station on this branch, but, as of 2012, it was served by very few trains, and by 2015, was not in operation anymore
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Daye
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Daye is a city of eastern Hubei province, Peoples Republic of China. Administratively, it is a city of Huangshi City. Before the adoption of the Hanyu Pinyin, the name of the city was often transcribed in English as Tayeh. As it is usually the case with county-level cities, Daye includes both a core and a fair amount of rural land in all directions, with smaller townships such as Dajipu. According to the Fifth Population Census of China, the entire city of Daye had 813,600 residents. The Daye Lake south of Dayes urban core is surrounded by parks and fishing ponds, for a traveler who goes on G316 from Wuhan toward the south-east, Daye appears as a border between the more urban and more rural parts of the province. Daye sits on the border of the heavily industrialized Wuhan/Ezhou/Huangshi metropolitan area, south of it. Daye is a city, a center of mining and metallurgy. According to archaeologists, copper mining and smelting was conducted at Dayes Tonglüshan Mine as early as the Spring and Autumn period, Tonglüshan Mine is located just southwest of the modern city, and now has a museum. Among the major employers is Huangshi Daye Non-ferrous Metals Co. Ltd, Daye was the junction of the Wuhan-Daye Railway and Daye-Shahejie Railway, which merged in 1989 to form the Wuhan–Jiujiang Railway. Huangshi Railway Station, which is the passenger station for the entire Huangshi metropolitan area, is located within Dayes administrative borders. It has fairly frequent service, with time to Wuhan being typically around 1 hour on a high-speed D-series train. Daye is served by the Wuhan–Huangshi Intercity Railway, part of the future Wuhan Metropolitan Area Intercity Railway, the new Daye North Railway Station, located north-east of Dayes main urban area, serves as that lines terminal. It has fairly frequent service to the Wuhan Railway Station, construction work is carried out to extent this rail line beyond Daye, this will become the Wuhan–Jiujiang Passenger Railway. Daye is also served by the China National Highway 106, Daye County existed on and off for centuries, as recently as the World War II period, it included much of todays prefecture-level city of Huangshi. This means that pre-1949 references to a location in Daye or Tayeh may refer to anywhere within todays Huangshi, Daye County was re-established on June 1,1962, on a rather smaller scale, as part of Huangshi City. On February 18,1994 Daye was converted into a county-level city, the speech of Daye and the adjacent counties farther south has been traditionally characterized as the Daye dialect, part of the Datong dialect group of Gan Chinese
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Yangxin County, Hubei
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Yangxin County is a county within the prefecture-level city of Huangshi in southeastern Hubei province, Peoples Republic of China. It occupies the half of the Huangshi City, bordering on Jiangxi in the south. The Yangtze River flows along the eastern border. The southern part of the county, located in the foothills of the Mufu Mountains, is hilly, according to the Fifth Population Census of China, the countys population was 949,100, making for the population density of 341 people per square kilometer. Besides the countys main urban area, other towns include Longgang. The county is rural, but more prosperous than its neighbor. The main transportation artery of the county is currently China National Highway 106, however, it does not pass through the Yangxin county seat, the town is served by Hubei provincial highway 316. The Yangxin Railway Station is located on the Wuhan–Jiujiang Railway, which runs from Wuhan to Jiujiang, a number of passenger trains running from the Wuchang stations in Wuhan stop at the Yangxin Railway Station. The distance from the Yangxin station to Wuchang by rail is 153 kilometres, the travel time by train being around 2 hours, usually with stops at the Huangshi station, Ezhou
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Shiyan
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At the 2010 census, its population was 3,340,841 of whom 767,920 lived in the built-up area ade of Maojian and Zhangwan urban districts on 1,193 square kilometres. In 2007, the city was named Chinas top ten cities by Chinese Cities Brand Value Report. The Wudang Mountains run approximately east–west through the territory of the Prefecture-level city of Shiyan, the peak commonly referred to as Wudang Mountain, or in Mandarin Wudangshan, is one of the most important cultural centres of the Taoist faith. The surrounding areas are dotted with up to 200 Taoist monastic temples, the prefecture-level city of Shiyan administers 8 county-level divisions, including 3 districts,1 county-level city and 4 counties. This area is subject to change as part of the South to North water diversion project of the Han River. Certain areas will see an increase of up to 5 meters in water level to create a new reservoir to serve Beijing an Tianjing as part of major water diversion project. Shiyan is one of the most important centers of industry in China, with Dongfeng, the premier Chinese truck, bus. It is also labeled as the Detroit of China, given this focus on automobile manufacture, before 1949, it was a small village, which grew after the founding of the China. In 1967, teams of workers and engineers were first sent to Shiyan in order to survey sites for automotive plants, at this time, the population of Shiyan was only a few hundred. Chairman Mao chose Shiyan as the site for Chinas automobile industry because the surrounding mountains, Shiyan is located on the Xiangyu Railway between Xiangyang and Chongqing. Construction on a railway between Shiyan and Yichang is scheduled to begin construction in 2009, g70 Fuzhou-Yinchuan Expressway China National Highway 209 Several four-lane highways passing through Shiyan will also be completed in 2009. Shiyan Wudangshan Airport is an airport serving the city of Shiyan in northwestern Hubei Province and it is located 15 kilometres from the city center and 20 kilometres from Wudangshan, the World Heritage Site after which it is named. Shiyan has been a city of Craiova, Romania, since December 1999
