Shanwei City was renamed established in 1988. It was politically administered as part of Huizhoufu by the Ming and Qing empires, Shanwei it gained its prefectural and administrative independence from Huizhou during the Nationalist period. The dominant ethnic population is Hoklo who came as a result of the large decrease in population caused by warfare in the early Qing dynasty in what is now Shanwei.
Administration
The prefecture-level city of Shanwei administers 4 county-level divisions, including 1 district, 1 county-level city and 2 counties. These are further divided into 53 township-level divisions, including 40 towns, 10 townships and 3 subdistricts.
Geography and climate
Shanwei has a monsoon-influenced humid subtropical climate, with short, mild to warm winters, and long, hot, humid summers. Winter begins sunny and dry but becomes progressively wetter and cloudier. Spring is generally overcast, while summer brings the heaviest rains of the year though is much sunnier; there are 10.3 days with or more rainfall. Autumn is sunny and dry. The monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from in January to in July, and the annual mean is. The annual rainfall is around, about two-thirds of which occurs from May to August. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 26% in March to 57% in October, the city receives 1,925 hours of bright sunshine annually.
Transportation
Xiamen–Shenzhen Railway.
Economy
According to a December 2011 report, officials from Shenzhen considered Shanwei as one of the major destinations to which air-polluting industries should be relocated from Shenzhen. According to the mayor of Shenzhen, some 4000 Shenzhen factories should be moved to an industrial park in Shanwei.
Recent history
On the night of December 6, 2005, armed policemen were sent to the village of Dongzhou, located near the coast of Jieshi Bay some southeast of central Shanwei, to suppress appeals by residents protesting the lack of compensation for having land confiscated by the government. Several residents were shot dead: the Chinese government claimed that three people were killed, and residents claimed that the number was between 20 and 33, with up to 40 more missing. Other media have reported armed police were sent in after the villagers attacked unarmed police. In 2011, a conflict between the residents of the Wukan village attracted world media's attention.
Language
Generally used is Haifeng dialect which is similar to Chaozhou dialect and Hoklo, belonging to the Min Nan division of Min Chinese. Haifeng, Lufeng and the urban area have basically the same accent. Most parts of the rural Luhe county formerly part of Lufeng use the peasant Hakka Chinese language belonging to the Xinhui subdialect of the Yuetai dialect. As Shanwei is adjacent to the Pearl River Delta and Hong Kong, together with the impact of television programs from Hong Kong and population movements within Guangdong province, many local residents, especially the younger generation, have communication skills in Cantonese.
