Quicknation    China Huainan

Images of Huainan: G Y AOL AV MSN News of Huainan: G Y Books of Huainan: B

Huainan ) is a prefecture-level city in central Anhui province, People's Republic of China. It borders the provincial capital of Hefei to the south, Lu'an to the southwest, Fuyang to the west, Bozhou to the northwest, Bengbu to the northeast and Chuzhou to the east.

The name traditionally refers to the entire area south of the Huai River and north of the Yangtze River, which includes the present day central Anhui. The historic political center of the Huainan area lay in Shouchun (present day Shou County).

table

The prefecture-level city of Huainan administers 5 county-level divisions, including 4 districts and 1 county.

These are further divided into 66 township-level divisions, including 24 towns, 23 townships and 19 subdistricts.

The name Huainan first came into existence in 203 BC, when Liu Bang bestowed upon Ying Bu, one of his most trusted generals, the title of the King of Huainan. The capital of the Kingdom of Huainan was situated in the present day Lu'an. Later, after Ying Bu was executed, the title was transferred and the capital moved to Shouchun (present day Shou County).

In 164 BC, the kingdom was divided into three, one of which retained the name Huainan and continued to be administered from Shouchun. In 122 BC, with the suicide of the third King of Huainan Liu An, the kingdom was abolished and the area renamed Jiujiang Commandery, which was its old name before 203 BC.

Towards the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Yuan Shu declared himself emperor of the so-called Cheng Dynasty and renamed the commandery Huainan Commandery. This entity remained generally intact till the Northern Song Dynasty, when it divided into the eastern and the western halves in 1071. This division was converted to a north-south one, with the line drawn along the Huai River, following a peace pact between the ruling bodies of the Southern Song Dynasty and Jin Empire.

The divided state persisted till the area was claimed by the Communist Party of China on January 18, 1949. The party renamed the area Huainan Coalmine Special District for its rich coal resources.

Huainan is a major production center for coal, with an output of 35.831 million tons in 2003.