Wuhu


Wuhu is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Anhui province, China. Sitting on the southeast bank of the Yangtze River, Wuhu borders Xuancheng to the southeast, Chizhou and Tongling to the southwest, Hefei city to the northwest, Ma'anshan city to the northeast, Jiangsu Province to the east, and is approximately southwest of Nanjing. As of 2017, the city had a population of approximately 3,696,000 officially registered inhabitants.

Administration

The prefecture-level city of Wuhu administers 8 county-level divisions, including 5 districts, 1 county, and 1 county-level city.
NameSimplified ChinesePinyinPopulationPostal Code
Jinghu District镜湖区Jìnghú Qū555,000241000
Yijiang District弋江区Yìjiāng Qū478,000241002
Jiujiang District鸠江区Jiūjiāng Qū61,000241000
Wanzhi District湾沚区Wānzhǐ Qū299,000241100
Fanchang District繁昌区Fánchāng Qū268,000241200
Nanling County南陵县Nánlíng Xiàn550,500241300
Wuwei city无为市Wúwéi Shì1,033,000238300

Demographics

Population

By the end of 2017, the total population was estimated to be 3,842,100, of whom 1,665,000 live in the 4 urban districts and the others live in the counties. The city has over 47 ethnic minorities present — the largest being the Muslim population. There are other ethnic minorities with over 500 inhabitants in the city: Yi, Tujia, Miao, Zhuang, and Manchu.

Language

Jiang-Huai Mandarin, a branch of Mandarin Chinese, is widely spoken in urban area, while some people in the counties speak Wu Chinese. Putonghua, or Standard Mandarin, was commonly used in this area.

History

Wuhu is known to have been inhabited since at least 770 BCE. It became a strategically important town during the Three Kingdoms period, when it was controlled by the Eastern Wu. At this time it was known as Jiuzi. Under the Ming dynasty, Wuhu developed into a major commercial center and river port and since that time has been known as a center of the rice trade.
In 1644, the Hongguang Emperor, one of the last emperors of the Ming Dynasty, was captured by forces of the new Qing Dynasty in Wuhu. During the Taiping Rebellion, Wuhu exchanges hands over five times between Taiping and Imperial forces. The city became a treaty port in 1876 and has remained a commercial center since that time. The city's Roman Catholic cathedral, St. Joseph's Cathedral, dates from this time. Most of the downtown area alongside the Yangtze River was ceded in the British concession.
Trade in rice, wood, and tea flourished at Wuhu until the Warlord Era of the 1920s and 1930s, when bandits were active in the area.
At the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War, part of the Second World War, Wuhu was occupied by Japan on December 10, 1937. This was a prelude to the Battle of Nanjing, ending in the Nanjing Massacre. Under Japanese occupation, Chinese resistance fighters hid in the lakes around Wuhu by submerging themselves and breathing through reeds.
Major industries began to be developed in Wuhu after the Second World War, with the development of the textile industry, shipbuilding, and paper mills. Despite this, Wuhu had been lagging behind Ma'anshan and Tongling in industrial production for decades after the establishment of the People's Republic of China and remained primarily a commercial center for trade in rice, silk, cotton, tea, wheat and eggs. However, with recent years' economic rise, Wuhu has become a hub for manufacturing.
In July 2016, Nanling and Wuwei counties suffered serious damage from heavy rain.

Economy

The city is the second largest economy in Anhui, after Hefei, the provincial capital. In 2019, Wuhu's GDP reached RMB 361.826 billion.Its per capita GDP was RMB 96533.
Wuhu Economic & Technological Development Area in the north of the city launched in 1993 is one of the first state-level economic and technological development area in Anhui province. It has the only export processing zone in the province. Chery Automobile and Anhui Conch Cement Company are headquartered in this development area.
Wuhu is the fifth largest port alongside Yangtze River. Yuxikou Pier is the largest inland river coal harbor in China.

Transportation

Bus

Buses in Wuhu start at ¥1 for a general bus and ¥2 for air-conditioned buses.

Taxi

During the day, taxis start at ¥7; after 2.5 km, the price increases at ¥1.8 per km. From 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. taxis start at ¥8 and after 2.5 km, the prices increase at a rate of ¥2.5 for each additional km. There is a free 4 minutes of waiting time due to traffic/red lights. Afterwards it's an additional ¥0.34 for every minute during the day and ¥0.38 for every minute at night.

Airport

There is no civilian airport in Wuhu but there is a military airport used by the People's Liberation Army Air Force.

Bridge

Wuhu has one Yangtze River crossing—the Wuhu Yangtze River Bridge, opened in 2000, carries the G5011 Wuhu–Hefei Expressway and Huainan Railway.

Train

Wuhu is served by the Anhui–Jiangxi, Nanjing–Tongling and Huainan Railways. It only takes 2.5 hours from Shanghai to Wuhu by high-speed train.

Metro system

Wuhu Rail Transit Line 1 and Line 2 are under construction and scheduled to be operational by the end of 2019.

Culture

The great poet Li Bai spent his late life in Wuhu, it is said, due to its striking landscape. Li Bai was born in a Central Asian town and raised in the southwestern China. Xie Tiao, one of the most distinctive Six Dynasty poets whom he greatly admired, left many poems when holding positions here.
In the Tang dynasty, the poet Du Mu wrote a famous poem Thoughts on Staying Again at Wuhu.
A factory in Wuhu carries on the local craft of making wrought iron pictures. Other local handicrafts are embossed lacquerware and rice straw pith patchwork. A famous stone tablet in Wuhu recording local events of the Song dynasty period is considered to be a masterpiece of the renowned calligrapher Mi Fu. In the Western world, Wuhu is now known as the home city to many adopted Chinese children.

Folklore

An itinerant blacksmith named Tang Tianchi is reputed to have invented the wrought-iron picture in Wuhu, when a painter whom he admired chided him, "You will never make pictures by beating iron."
Another blacksmith of the Spring and Autumn period named Gan Jiang was famous for sword making. Zhe Shan is said to get its colour from the flames of Gan Jiang's furnace. Shen Shan is the legendary location of his sword grinding rock and tempering pool.

Cuisine

Wuhu and Anqing are noted centers of the Yanjiang cuisine. It specializes in freshwater fish and poultry, and features special techniques of chopping, shaping, and colouring. The flavour of Yanjiang dishes is often enhanced by sweetening and smoking.
Religion/Medicine
The New York Methodist Mission Society's Superintendent Virgil C. Hart arrived in Wuhu in 1881, intent on purchasing a piece of property to build the city's first Methodist Church and western hospital. V.C. Hart was able to secure the Yichisan Hill before the angered British, who wanted the property to build a consulate and naval base. The Yichisan Hospital is Anhui's oldest/continuous western hospital. Dr. Edgerton H. Hart became the hospital's Director in 1895 and continued at that capacity until his death in April 1913. Caroline Maddock arrived in Wuhu in October, 1904, to serve as the General Hospital's Head Nurse. Caroline Maddock would marry Dr. Edgerton Hart in October,1907. In 1909, Caroline and four other Nurses founded the Nurses Association of China and she served as its first president; this association still represents China's Nurse profession.

Tourism

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