Hefei

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合肥市
Héféi Shì
Image:Hefei.png
Administration Type	Prefecture-level city
City Seat	Yaohai District (Template:Coor dm)
Area	7,266 km²
Population	4,446,800 (2004)
GDP - Total - Per Capita	¥58.97 billion (2004) ¥13,378 (2004)
Major Nationalities	Han
County-level divisions	7
Township-level divisions
CPC Committee Secretary	Sun Jinlong (孙金龙)
Mayor	Guo Wanqing (郭万清)
Area code	551
Postal Code	230000 (Urban center) 231100, 231200, 231600 (Other areas)
License Plate Prefix	皖A
City Flower	Sweet Osmanthus Osmanthus fragrans Lour. Blossom of pomegranate Punica granatum L.
City Tree	Southern magnolia Magnolia grandiflora L.

Hefei (Template:Zh-cpw; literally: "Junction (of the) Fertility (River)"; former names: Ho-fei, Luzhou, Luchow) is a prefecture-level city and the provincial capital of Anhui province, China. Located in central Anhui, it borders Huainan to the north, Chuzhou to the northeast, Chaohu to the southeast and Lu'an to the west.

Image:Hefei downtown.jpg

1 Administration
2 History
3 Geography
4 Demographics
5 Economy
6 Sites of interest
7 Children's Welfare Institute
8 Sister cities
9 Notable people
10 External links

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Administration

The prefecture-level city of Hefei administers 7 county-level divisions, including 4 districts and 3 counties.

Yaohai District (瑶海区)
Luyang District (庐阳区)
Shushan District (蜀山区)
Baohe District (包河区)
Changfeng County (长丰县)
Feidong County (肥东县)
Feixi County (肥西县)

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History

The name Hefei was first given to a county set up under the Han dynasty in the 2nd century BC. Because of its location on a mountain saddle between northern and southern states, Hefei was frequently fought over in the 4th to 11th centuries AD.

The city was known as Luzhou (庐州; pinyin Lúzhōu) during the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

A famous Three Kingdoms battle was fought at what is currently Leisure Ford (逍遥津) in Hefei. General Zhang Liao of the Kingdom of Wei commanding 7,000 picked cavalry defeated the 100,000-men army of the Kingdom of Wu. Several decades of warring in Hefei between Wu and Wei followed this battle. During the Song Dynasty, Hefei was a frontier strategic town against the Jin Dynasty.

Hefei was the temperorary capital for Anhui from 1853 to 1862. It was renamed as Hefei County in 1912. Following the Chinese victory in the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1945, Hefei was made the capital of Anhui.

Hefei was a quiet market center until 1949, serving as a collection center for grain, beans, cotton, and hemp. Since then has become an industrial center through the development of a cotton mill, a thermal generating plant, chemical plants, an iron and steel complex, and an aluminum industry.

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Geography

Image:Hefei-Jan-2005.JPG

Hefei is located 130 km west of Nanjing.

Hefei's annual average temperature is about 15.7 °C. Its annual precipitation is about 1000 mm. It snows irregularly in the winter.

In the months of June, July, August, and often September, daily temperatures can reach highs of 37 °C with high hunidity levels being the norm.

May and June see the air quality level in Hefei diminish. The city is blanketed by a foul-smelling smog caused by the smoke generated as farmers outside the city burn their fields in preparation for planting the next crop.

Chaohu Lake, a lake 15 km southeast of the city, is one of the largest freshwater lakes in China. However, the lake has unfortuneatly been polluted with nitrogen and phosphorus in recent decades.

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Demographics

The majority of the population in Hefei is Han Chinese. There is a small minority of Hui Chinese living in the city.

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Economy

The GDP per capita was ¥13,378 (ca. US$ 1,654) in 2004.

The average monthly wage for most people in 2005 ranged from 600 RMB to 1500 RMB.

Before the Chinese civil war Hefei was a town whose main industry was agriculture. Soon after the founding of the People's Republic, the capital of Anhui was moved from Anqing to Hefei. To assist the development of the city, many talented people were sent from other parts of the country. Modern-day Hefei has machinery, electronics, chemistry, steel, textile, and cigarette industries, among others.

Despite being the Provincial Capital of Anhui, Hefei still exudes an air of poverty. Migrants from all over Anhui converge upon the city looking for opportunities which do not exist for many of them. This constant influx results in keeping wages low. New industrial development in special economic zones ringing the city has resulted in new manufacturing jobs for technical school and college graduates.

In the summer of 2005, the municipal government implemented moves to beautify the city by demolishing thousands of illegally built structures, and clearing away long established marketplaces in many parts of the city. Overnight, long existing businesses housed in flimsy structures that once lined many streets were gone. The impact on the local economy could be seen immediately as hundreds, if not thousands, of low paid workers no longer had employment.

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Sites of interest

Leisure Ford, a public park sitting on the ancient site of the Battle of Leisure Ford.
Temple of Lord Bao, built in 1066 near the tomb of Lord Bao.
Hui Garden (徽园) (Opened to the public in September 2001)

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Children's Welfare Institute

On official documents this is sometimes referred to as "Children's Orphanage" or "Social Welfare Institute".

Address: Hefei Children's Welfare Institute, 129 Fanwa Road, Hefei, Anhui Province, China 230031

Address in Chinese:

Image:Hefei CWI address.gif

Map of Hefei showing location of Hefei Children's Welfare Institute:

Image:Hefei map.gif

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Sister cities

Hefei is a sister city of the following cities around the world.

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Notable people

Bao Zheng (999 - 1062), Northern Song Dynasty bureaucrat and judge whose name has become synonymous with juridical wisdom and uprightness
Li Hongzhang (1823 - 1901), prominent late Qing Dynasty bureaucrat and diplomat
Chen Ning Yang, (b. 1922), 1957 Nobel Physics Prize laureate, one of the two earliest Chinese to receive the prize

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