Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Lianyuan

Lianyuan is a city in Loudi, Hunan province in China. As of 2005 it had a population of around 133,059 people.

Lengshuijiang

Lengshuijiang is a county-level city in Hunan province of the People's Republic of China.

Lengshuijiang Normal School is an institution of higher education in Lengshuijiang, which has no university.

Leiyang

Leiyang is a county-level city in Hengyang, Hunan in China. It has over 1.3 million inhabitants. Cai Lun, inventor of paper, was born and lived in Leiyang. Now, there is a Cai Lun invention square established in Leiyang to show a respect for Cai Lun.

History



Leiyang enjoys long history dated back to the Qin dynasty.

In time of the Sanguo period, Pang Tong was nominated as magistrate of Leiyang by Liu Bei because he was ugly. Although he was very wise, after he took the office he did no work as a magistrate for for three years. People were confused and upset about his inaction and appealed to Liu Bei. Liu Bei sent Zhang Fei, a sworn brother of Liu Bei, to Leiyang for investigate. Before Zhang Fei arrived in Leiyang, Pang Tong orderd that water must be added to all the wine because Zhang Fei liked wine. After Zhang Fei arrived, he drunk a lot of wine but was still not drunk. He was very angry at Pang Tong but Pang Tone answered he would finish these cases in three days which were backlogged for three years which he proceeded to do. For this Pang Tong was promoted by Liu Bei. The special wine is called Zhang Fei Wine today.

Language


Leiyangers speak a dialect resembling Jiangxi dialect.

Geography



Mashui (Chinese:马水)village is located in northeast Leiyang neighboring Anren(: 安仁)& Hengnan

Pingtian (Chinese:坪田)township was annexed by Mashui a few years ago. Mashui brought Pingtian under its fold.

Production brigade is a thing of the past and a rural farming mode during years before agrarian reform adopted by Deng Xiaoping. Pingtian Production brigade where now there is a Chenjia Wan, people there inherited hardworking traits from ancestor. As China opens up to outside world, young people go to neighboring Guangdong province to seek fortune, meanwhile, bring lots of new ideas that inpacts old traditions. Nevertheless, Senior farmers in Chenjia Wan, never give way to the new unfavorable lifestyle; No gambling, No smoking, it remains a Xanadu.

Jishou

Jishou is a county-level city and the seat of Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in Hunan province of the
People's Republic of China.



Population


Jishou County had a population of 290,000 in the year 2006.

Education


Jishou has several institutions of higher education:
Jishou University
Normal College of Jishou University

Economy


A called ''jiugui'' is produced in the town of Zhenwu.

Transportation


Bus routes run from Jishou to numerous towns and cities within Xiangxi and farther afield.

Direct trains connect Jishou to many of China's major cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Changsha.

Jishou lacks an airport; the with commercial service is located two hours away in Zhangjiajie.

Changsha

Changsha is the capital city of Hunan, a province of south-central China, located on the lower reaches of Xiang river, a branch of the Yangtze River. It covers an area of 11,819 sq. kilometers and has a population of 6,017,600 .

Changsha was important from the time of the Qin dynasty . In AD 750–1100 Changsha was an important commercial city, and its population increased greatly. Under the Qing dynasty, from 1664, it was the capital of Hunan province, and it was a major rice market. It was besieged during the Taiping Rebellion but never fell. Changsha was the site of Mao Zedong's conversion to communism. It was the scene of major battles in the and was briefly occupied by the Japanese. Rebuilt since 1949, the city is now a major port and a commercial and industrial center.

Administration


Changsha has jurisdiction over five districts , three and Liuyang city.

History


During the 1st millennium BC, it was the centre of the southern part of the Yangtze River valley state of . In 1935–36 some Chu graves excavated nearby produced important evidences of Chu culture. The city's most ancient name was ''Qingyang''.

Under the Qin dynasty it became a staging post for Qin expeditions into Guangdong province. By 202 BC it was already a fortified city. During the Han Dynasty it was also the capital of Changsha kingdom.

From Han times it was named Linxiang county and was the seat of the Changsha commandery. The county was renamed Changsha in 589, when it became the administrative seat of Tan prefecture. It lost some importance at this period, however, because traffic from Guangdong was mostly diverted up the Gan River valley in Jiangxi.



The celebrated Mawangdui Tombs of the Han Dynasty were constructed between 186 and 165 BC. The earliest tomb , when excavated in the 1970s, had preserved the corpse of Lady Xin Zhui in a surprisingly good condition. Also found in the tomb were the earliest versions of , the main text of Taoism, among many other historical documents.

During the Three Kingdoms period, Changsha was a much-fought-over territory. During the Sui Dynasty, Changsha was a county.

After the fall of the Tang dynasty , it became the capital of the independent Chu state and later fell to the Later Tang dynasty . Between 750 and 1100, as Changsha became an important commercial city, the population of the area increased tenfold.

Under the and dynasties it was made a superior prefecture and from 1664 onward was the capital of Hunan and prospered as one of China's chief rice markets. During the Taiping Rebellion the city was besieged by the rebels but never fell; it then became the principal base for the suppression of the rebellion. Changsha was opened to foreign trade in 1904. Further development followed the opening of the railway to Hankou in Hubei province in 1918, which was extended to Guangzhou in Guangdong province in 1936. Although Changsha's population grew, the city remained primarily commercial in character and before 1937 had little industry, apart from some small cotton-textile, glass, and nonferrous-metal plants and handicraft enterprises.

Yuelu Academy was founded in , destroyed by war in 1127, and rebuilt in 1165 . The celebrated philosopher Zhu Xi taught at the Academy in 1165. It was destroyed by the Mongols but was restored in the late 15th century . In 1903 it became Hunan High School. The modern day Hunan University is a descendant of the academy. The architecture of some of the buildings was restored from 1981–1986, presumably according to the Song design.

In 1852 the Taiping forces laid a siege on Changsha.

The 1903 Treaty of Shanghai between China and Japan opened the city to foreign trade. Consequently, factories, churches and schools were built. A college was started by Yale University bachelors, and later became a medical center named Xiangya and a secondary school named the Yali School.



Mao Zedong, founder of the People's Republic of China began his political career in Changsha. He was a student at the Hunan Number 1 Teachers' Training School from 1913 to 1918. He later returned as a teacher and principal from 1920 to 1922. The school was destroyed during the Chinese Civil War but has since been restored. The Former Office of the Hunan Communist Party Central Committee where Mao Zedong once lived is now a museum that includes Mao's living quarters, photographs and other historical items from the 1920s.

During the Second Sino-Japanese War , the strategic location of Changsha made it the focus of four campaigns by the Japanese to capture it from the hands of the which resulted in the battles of , , , and . The city was able to repulse the first three attacks thanks to Bai Chongxi's leadership, but ultimately fell for a short time into Japanese hands in 1944 for another year until they were defeated in a counterattack and forced to surrender. The city itself was virtually destroyed by fire in 1938–39.

The city later became the territory of the People's Republic of China when it was formed in 1949 after the Kuomintang were driven to Taiwan.

Geography and climate




Changsha is located at 111°53'–114°5' east longitude and 27°51'–28°40' north latitude, situated in the east central Hunan. Its terrain is high in the west and low in the east. There are many mountainous areas in the west and in the north. The Xiangjiang River flows south to northwest; 296 m high Mt. Yuelushan is in the west; and Liuyanghe River and Laodaohe River east.

Changsha has a monsoon climate within the sub-tropical zone, with annual average temperature being 16.8°C–17.2°C, 4.6°C in January and 28.6°C in July. Average annual precipitation is 1422 mm., and the yearly frost-free period is 275 days.

The four seasons are distinct. The summers are long and hot, with heavy rainfall, and autumn is comfortable with abundant sunlight. In winter, it is nearly rainless and not very cold, changing to rainy and wet weather with rapidly increasing temperatures in the spring.

Changsha neighboring areas include: Jiangxi province, cities and counties of Hunan, such as Tonggu county, Wanzai county, Yichun city, Pingxiang city of Jiangxi province. Pingjiang county, Miluo city, Xiangyin County of Yueyang; Heshan District, Taojiang county, Anhua County of Yiyang; Lianyuan city of Loudi; Zhuzhou county, Liling City of Zhuzhou; Xiangtan county, Xiangxiang city of Xiangtan.

Transportation


Changsha is well connected by roads, river, rail, and air transportation modes, and is a regional hub for industrial, tourist, and service sectors.

*Public Transport: The city's public transportation system consists of an extensive bus network with over a hundred lines as well as taxis.
*Roads: National Highways 107 and 319, as well as Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan Express Way connect the Changsha metro area nationally. There are three main bus terminals in Changsha: South Station, East Station and West Station, dispatching long- and short-haul trips to cities within and outside Hunan Province.
*River: Changsha is surrounded by major rivers, including the Xiangjiang, the , and the . Ships transport mainly goods from Xianing port located in North Changsha domesticly and internationally.
*Rail: Changsha Railway Station is located at city center and provides express and regular services to most cities in China, new passenger only high speed railway station under construction in Yuhua district, with two main high speed rail way line across in next ten years .
*Air: Changsha Huanghua International Airport is a regional hub for China Southern Airlines, which serves major cities in China, including Hong Kong. Other major airlines also provide daily service between Changsha and other domestic and international destinations.

Economy



Rebuilt since 1949, its population nearly tripled between the late 1940s and the early 1980s. The city is now a major port, handling rice, cotton, timber, and livestock, and is also a collection and distribution point on the railway from Hankou to Guangzhou. It is a centre of rice milling and also has oil-extraction, tea- and tobacco-curing, and meat-processing plants. Its textile industry produces cotton yarn and fabrics and engages in dyeing and printing. Agricultural chemicals and fertilizers, farm implements, and pumping machinery are also produced.

Changsha has a large thermal generating station linked by a power grid with the nearby industrial centres of Zhuzhou and Xiangtan; the three cities were designated in the 1970s as the nucleus of a major industrial complex. In the 1960s there was some development of heavy industry. The manufacture of machinery, especially machine tools and precision tools, became important, and Changsha became a center of China's aluminum industry. The city also has cement, rubber, ceramic, and papermaking plants and is a centre for many types of traditional handicrafts, producing hsiang embroidery, leather goods, umbrellas, and buttons. Coal is mined in the vicinity.

In 2007, Changsha's nominal GDP was ?219.03 billion , a year-on-year growth of 16% from the previous year. Its per capita GDP was ?33,711 .

Changsha is one of China's top 20 "economically advanced" cities. Its GDP has grown at an average of 14% per year from 2001-2005, compared with the national average of 9%. During the year 2005, the service sector represented roughly half of Changsha's GDP , up 112% from 2001 figures, and it is expected to continue driving the city's economic growth. The manufacturing and construction sectors have grown relatively steadily, growing 116% during 2001-2005. The primary sector, including agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishery, has grown slightly over this same period. In addition, the consumer market has grown dramatically with income levels. Urban residents in 2005 had average income of about USD $1,500, 15% higher than national average, and up 10% from 2001 figures.

The city has also attracted a tremendous amount of foreign investment. In 2005, for example, nearly USD $1 billion worth of foreign direct investment poured into the city, mainly in hi-tech, manufacturing, food production, and services. This figure is up 40% from 2001. 59% of the total FDI has come from Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, and Japan; 28% has come from the Americas and 9% from Europe.

Along with the economic growth, environmental pollution in Changsha has become a serious problem, with rapidly increasing number of private cars, construction fields everywhere, and numerous industrial facilities on the outskirts of the city .

Cultural life




In recent years, Changsha has become an important creative center for TV and entertainment arts, with its many TV stations producing some of the most popular programs in China, including , a Chinese female version of the UK Pop Idol or American Idol that is the most watched program ever to air on Chinese TV. These programs have also brought a new entertainment industry, including singing bars, dance clubs, theater shows, as well as related businesses like hair salons, fashion stores, and hot spicy snacks at night.

Changsha is home to the Lei Feng Jinianguan and his statue.

On the 27th May 2008, the BBC started broadcasting a four-part TV series in the UK, a study of the world's largest restaurant, a 5,000 seat capacity West Lake restaurant in Hunanese town of Changsha, under the BBC's 'Storyville' documentary series.

Colleges and universities


Changsha was the seat of many ancient schools and academies. It is the site of Hunan Medical University and has several colleges and institutes of higher learning.

National
*Central South University
*Hunan University
*National University of Defense Technology
Public
*Changsha University of Science and Technology
*Hunan Agricultural University
*Hunan Normal University
*Hunan College of Traditional Chinese Medicine
*Changsha University
*Hunan Business College
*Central South University of Forestry and Technology

Note: Institutions without full-time bachelor programs are not listed.



Notable inhabitants


Changsha is the birthplace of:
Xiong Ni - Olympic diver and gold medalist
Yang Kaihui - Mao's second wife
Zhu Rongji - Prime Minister of China, 1997-2002
Tian Han - Author of the lyrics to China's national anthem
Huang Xing - Kuomintang General
Liang Heng - Writer and literary scholar.
Hu Yaobang - CPC General Secretary until death
Lei Feng - Eminent PLA soldier/role-model
- Olympic gymnast
Li Fuchun
Liu Shaoqi - President of China, until disgrace in 1966.
Tan Dun - Contemporary composer
Dong Qiming - Olympic swimmer and gold medalist
Qin Vivian - Model and literary scholar

Other famous people associated with the city:
Mao Zedong

Sister cities and friendship cities


Changsha has with the following cities and regions:

* Aleizuo, Italy
* Augsburg, Germany
* Fribourg, Switzerland
* Gumi, South Korea
* Kagoshima, Japan
* Kimberley, South Africa
* Latenapula, Sri Lanka
* Mons, Belgium
* Puluolua, New Zealand
* , Minnesota USA

Zixing

Zixing is a city with more than 100,000 inhabitants in Chenzhou, Hunan, China. It is twinned with Laredo, Texas

Yuanjiang, Hunan

Yuanjiang City is a county-level city of Yiyang, Hunan province, in China.