Henan
Encyclopedia
Henan is a province
of the People's Republic of China
, located in the central part of the country. Its one-character
abbreviation is "豫" (yù), named after Yuzhou
(豫州 Yù Zhōu), a Han Dynasty
state (zhou
) that included parts of Henan. Although the name of the province (河南) means "south of the river", approximately a quarter of the province lies north of the Yellow River
, also known as the "Huang He".
Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan
(中原 zhōngyuán) or Zhongzhou (中州 zhōngzhōu) which literally means "central plains" or "midland", although the name is also applied to the entirety of China proper
. Henan is the birthplace of Chinese civilization
with over 5,000 years of history, and remained China's cultural, economical, and political center until approximately 1,000 years ago. Numerous heritages have been left behind including the ruins of Shang Dynasty
capital city Yinxu
and the Shaolin Temple. Four of the Eight Great Ancient Capitals of China
, Luoyang
, Anyang
, Kaifeng
, and Zhengzhou
are located in Henan.
With an area of 167000 square kilometres (64,479.1 sq mi), Henan covers a large part of the fertile and densely populated North China Plain
. Its neighbouring provinces are Shaanxi
, Shanxi
, Hebei
, Shandong
, Anhui
, and Hubei
. Henan is China's second most populous province with a population of over 94 million. If it were a country by itself, Henan would be the 12th most populous country in the world, behind Mexico
and ahead of the Philippines
.
Henan is the 5th largest provincial economy of China and the largest among inland provinces. However, per capita GDP is low compared to other eastern and central provinces, and Henan is considered to be one of the more backward areas in China. The economy continues to depend on its dwindling aluminum and coal reserves, as well as agriculture, heavy industry, tourism, and retail. High-tech industry and service sector is underdeveloped and is concentrated around Zhengzhou and Luoyang.
have caused significant damage from time to time. Kaifeng
, in particular, has been buried by the Yellow River's silt seven times due to flooding.
and Longshan Culture
were active in what is now northern Henan since the Neolithic Era. The more recent Erlitou culture
has been controversially identified with the Xia Dynasty
, the first and largely legendary Chinese dynasty that was established, roughly, in the 21st century BC
. Virtually the entire kingdom existed within what is now north and central Henan.
The Xia Dynasty collapsed around the 16th century BC following the invasion of Shang
, a neighboring vassal state
centered around today's Shangqiu
in eastern Henan. The Shang Dynasty
(16th-11th centuries BC) was the first literate dynasty of China. Its many capitals are located at the modern cities of Shangqiu
, Yanshi
, and Zhengzhou
. Their last and most important capital, Yin, located in modern Anyang
, is the where the first Chinese writing was created.
In the 11th century BC, the Zhou Dynasty
of Shaanxi
arrived from the west and overthrew the Shang Dynasty. The capital was moved to Chang'an
, and the political and economical center was moved away from Henan for the first time. In 722 BC, when Chang'an
was devastated by Xionites
invasions, the capital was moved back east to Luoyang
. This began the Spring and Autumn Period, a period of warfare and rivalry. What is now Henan and all of China was divided into a variety of small, independent states, constantly at war for control of the central plain. Although regarded formally as the ruler of China, the control that Zhou king in Luoyang exerted over the feudal kingdoms had virtually disappeared. Despite the prolonged period of instability, prominent philosophers such as Confucius
emerged in this era and offered their ideas on how a state should be run. Laozi
, the founder of Taoism
, was born in northern Chu, part of modern day Henan.
Later on these states were replaced by seven large and powerful states during the Warring States Period
, and Henan was divided into three states, the Wei
to the north, the Chu to the south, and the Han in the middle. In 221 BC, state of Qin forces from Shaanxi conquered all of the other six states, ending 800 years of warfare.
and unified the core of the Han Chinese
homeland for the first time. The empire quickly collapsed after the death of Ying Zheng and was replaced by the Han Dynasty
in 206 BC, with its capital at Chang'an
. Thus began a golden age
of Chinese culture, economy, and military power. The capital was moved east to Luoyang
in 25 CE, in response to a coup in Chang'an
that created the short lived Xin Dynasty
. Luoyang quickly regained control of China, and the Eastern Han Dynasty began, extending the golden age for another two centuries.
The late Eastern Han Dynasty saw war and rivalry between regional warlords. Xuchang
in central Henan was the power base of Cao Cao
, who eventually succeeded in unifying all of northern China under the Kingdom of Wei. Wei then moved its capital to Luoyang
, which remained the capital after the unification of China by the Western Jin Dynasty
. During this period Luoyang became one of the largest and most prosperous cities in the world, despite being repeatedly damaged by warfare.
With the fall of the Western Jin Dynasty in the 4th and 5th century, nomadic peoples from the north invaded northern China and established many successive regimes in northern China, including Henan. These people were gradually assimilated into the Chinese culture in a process known as sinification.
The short lived Sui Dynasty
reunified China again in 589
with its capital back to Chang'an
. It collapsed due to Sui Emperor Yang's costly attempt to relocate the capital from Chang'an
to Luoyang
and the construction of many extravagant palaces there. The succeeding Tang Dynasty
kept its capital in Chang'an
, marking the beginning of China's second golden age, with Henan being one of the wealthiest places in the empire.
The Tang Dynasty lasted for three centuries before it eventually succumbed to internal strife. In the Period of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms that followed, Kaifeng
in eastern Henan was the capital of four dynasties. The Song Dynasty
that reunified China in 982 also had its capital at Kaifeng
. Under Song rule, China entered another era of culture and prosperity, and Kaifeng overtook Luoyang and Chang'an as the largest city in China and the world. In 1127, however, the Song Dynasty succumbed to Jurchen (Jin Dynasty) invaders from the north, and in 1142 ceded all of northern China, including Henan. The Song government moved its capital to Hangzhou
in Southern China, which, under the Southern Song Dynasty continued to enjoy relative economic and culture prosperity. A prolonged period of peace and cultural and economic prosperity in the Yangtze River
delta Jiangnan
region (modern southern Jiangsu
, northern Zhejiang
, and Shanghai
) made this the new center of Chinese culture and economy.
Kaifeng served as the Jurchen's "southern capital" from 1157 (other sources say 1161) and was reconstructed during this time. But the Jurchen kept their main capital further north, until 1214, when they were forced to move the imperial court southwards to Kaifeng
in order to flee the Mongol onslaught. In 1234 they succumbed to combined Mongol and Song Dynasty
forces. Mongols took control, and in 1279 they conquered all of China, establishing the Yuan Dynasty
and set up the equivalent of modern Henan province, with borders extremely similar to modern ones. Neither its territories nor its role in the economy were changed under later dynasties. Henan remained important in the Ming Dynasty
and Qing Dynasty
that followed, though its economy slowly deteriorated due to frequent natural disasters.
was overthrown by the Republic of China
in 1911, marking the beginning of China's modern era. The construction and extension of the Pinghan Railway and Longhai Railway had turned Zhengzhou
, a minor county town at the time, into a major transportation hub. Despite the rise of Zhengzhou, Henan's overall economy repeatedly stumbled as it was the hardest hit by the many disasters that struck China in its modern era.
In 1938, when the Imperial Japanese Army
captured Kaifeng, the government led by Chiang Kai-shek
bombed the Huayuankou dam in Zhengzhou in order to prevent the Japanese forces from advancing further. However, this caused massive flooding in Henan, Anhui
, and Jiangsu
resulting in a famine that caused millions of deaths.
In 1954, the new government of the People's Republic of China
moved the capital of Henan from Kaifeng
to Zhengzhou, as a result of its economic importance. The PRC had earlier established a short-lived Pingyuan Province consisting of what is now northern Henan and western Shandong
with Xinxiang
as its capital. This province was abolished in 1952.
In 1958, Yashan in Suiping County
, Henan, became the first people's commune
of China, heralding the beginning of the "Great Leap Forward
". In the subsequent famines of the early 1960s popularly attributed to the Great Leap Forward, Henan was one of the hardest hit and millions of lives were lost. In 1975, the collapse of the Banqiao Dam
and other dams in southern Henan following a typhoon and extraordinarily high levels of rainfall led to the deaths, across several counties, of an estimated 230,000 people. This was the most deadly dam-related catastrophe in human history.
By the early 1970s, China was one of the poorest countries in the world, and Henan was one of the poorest provinces in China. In 1978, however, when the communist leader Deng Xiaoping
initiated the open door policy
and embraced capitalism, China entered an economic boom that continues today. The boom did not reach inland provinces such as Henan initially, but by the 1990s Henan's economy was expanding at an even faster rate than that of China overall.
Henan has still not, however, entirely shed its reputation as an economic backwater. In recent years the prevalence of "selling blood" (blood donations for payment) among poor villagers has put Henan in the national spotlight. It was exposed that AIDS
villages, where most of the population is HIV
positive, exist in Henan. In many rural areas of China during the 1990s, particularly in the province of Henan, tens to hundreds of thousands of farmers and peasants were infected with HIV through participation in state-run blood collection programs in which contaminated equipment was reused. The initial cover up of the crisis by local officials, followed by the national exposure, has put Henan in a somewhat negative spotlight.
In November 2004, martial law was declared in Zhongmou county, Henan, to quell deadly ethnic clashes between Han Chinese
and the Muslim Hui Chinese. http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/article/0,13673,501041115-750858,00.html The reported number of deaths ranged between 7 and 148.
Henan has a diverse landscape with floodplains in the east and mountains in the west. Much of the province forms part the densely populated North China Plain
, an area known as the "breadbasket of China". The Taihang Mountains
intrude partially into Henan's northwestern borders from Shanxi
, forming the eastern edge of Loess Plateau
. To the west the Xionger and Funiu Mountains form an extensive network of mountain ranges and plateaus, supporting one of the few remaining temperate deciduous forest
s which once covered all of Henan. The famous Mount Song
and its Shaolin Temple is located in the far east of the region, near the capital city Zhengzhou
. To the far south, the Dabie Mountains divides Hubei
from Henan. The Nanyang Basin
, separated from North China Plain by these mountains, is another important agricultural and population center, with culture and history distinct from the rest of Henan and closer to that of Hubei's. Unlike the rest of northern China, desertification
is not a problem in Henan, though sandstorms are common in cities near the Yellow River due to the large amount of sand present in the river.
The Yellow River
passes through central Henan. It enters from the northwest, via the Sanmenxia Reservoir. After it passes Luoyang
, the mountains gave way to plains. Excessive amount of sediments are formed due to the silt
it picks up from the Loess Plateau, raising the riverbed and causing frequent floods which shaped the habitat of the region. More recently however, construction of dams and levee
s, as well as the depletion of water resources have ended the floods. The Huai River
in southern Henan is another important river, and has been recognized as part of the boundary dividing northern and southern Chinese climate and culture
.
Henan shares borders with six other provinces
. It is bordered to the west by Shaanxi
, to the south by Hubei
, and to the north by Shanxi
(northwest) and Hebei
(northeast). To the east lie Shandong
(northeast) and Anhui
(southeast), whose borders meet at a narrow strip of land which separates Henan from Jiangsu
to the east.
climate that is humid subtropical (Köppen
Cwa or Cfa) to the south of the Yellow River and bordering on humid continental (Köppen Dwa) to the north. It has a distinct seasonal climate characterised by hot, humid summers due to the East Asian monsoon
, and generally cool to cold, windy, dry winters that reflect the influence of the vast Siberian anticyclone
. Temperatures average around the freezing mark in January and 27 to 28 °C in July. A great majority of the annual rainfall occurs during the summer.
.The prefecture-level cities are:
The seventeen prefecture-level divisions and one directly administered county-level city
of Henan are subdivided into 159 county-level divisions (50 districts, twenty-one county-level cities, and 88 counties; Jiyuan is counted as a county-level city here). Those are in turn divided into 2440 township-level divisions (866 towns, 1234 townships, twelve ethnic townships, and 328 subdistrict
s).
. It is also the fifth most populous sub-national division in the world. If it were a country by itself, it would be the twelfth most populous in the world, just behind Mexico and ahead of the Philippines. However, the hukou system shows Henan as the most populous province in China with over 103 million people, as it counts the migrant Henanese laborers as residents of Henan, instead of the province they currently reside in. On the other hand, Guangdong is shown as having only 81 million people, though the actual population is 95 million due to the influx of migrants from other provinces.
Although the population is highly homogeneous with 98.8% of the population being Han
, Henan has the largest Muslim Hui
population in eastern China, which constitutes approximately 1% of the population and live mostly in Muslim enclaves in Guancheng District
in in Zhengzhou
, Chanhe District in Luoyang
, and Shunhe District in Kaifeng
. Small populations of Mongols
and Manchus exists in scattered rural communities as well as major urban centers. Kaifeng is also known for its historical Jewish communities, though after centuries of integration few of them are aware of their ancestry and Jews are not an officially recognized ethnic minority in China.
Along with Jiangxi
, Henan has one of the most unbalanced gender ratios in China. As a result of the Chinese government's one-child policy (many parents do not want the only child to be female and abort the fetus), the gender ratio was 118.46 males for 100 females in 2000. Subsequently, aborting female fetuses was banned in Henan and heavy fines are issued for those who violate the law. In addition, daughter-only families receive an annual allowance from the government Despite these efforts the problem has gotten far worse. Based on a 2009 British Medical Journal study, the ratio is over 140 boys for every 100 girls in the 1-4 age group, though it might be a huge exaggeration as many families with more than one child do not register their daughters to the hukou in order to escape fines.
The Governor of Henan is the highest ranking official in the People's Government of Henan. However, in the province's dual party-government governing system, the Governor has less power than the Henan Communist Party of China
Provincial Committee Secretary, colloquially termed the "Henan CPC Party Chief".
Henan is a semi-industrialized economy with an underdeveloped service sector. In 2009, Henan's primary, secondary, and tertiary industries were worth 277 billion RMB (US$40 billion), 1.097 trillion RMB (US$160 billion), and 563 billion RMB (US$82 billion), respectively. Agriculture
has traditionally been a pillar of its economy, with the nation's highest wheat
and sesame
output and second highest rice
output, earning its reputation as the breadbasket of China. Henan is also an important producer of beef
, cotton
, maize
, pork
, animal oil, and corn
. Food production and processing makes up more than 14% of the output from the province's secondary industry, ant it is said that 90% of Chinese McDonald's
and KFC
ingredients comes from Henan.
Although Henan's industry has traditionally been based on light textiles and food processing
, recent developments have diversified the industry sector to metallurgy
, petrol, cement
, chemical industry
, machinery and electronics
. Henan has the second largest molybdenum
reserve in the world. Coal
, aluminum, alkaline metals and tungsten
are also present in large amounts in western Henan. Export and processing of these materials is one of the main sources of revenues.
Henan is actively trying to build its economy around the provincial capital of Zhengzhou, and it is hoped that the province may become an important transportation and manufacturing hub in the years to come. In 2008, the total trade volume (import and export) was US$17.5 billion, including US$10.7 billion for exports. Since 2002, 7,111 foreign enterprises have been approved, and foreign funds (FDI
) of US$10.64 billion have been used in contracts with a realized FDI of US$5.3 billion. Foreign exchanges are increasing continuously. Friendly provincial relationships have been established with 16 states (districts) in the United States, Japan, Russia, France, Germany, and others. Some cities of Henan have established friendly relationships (sister city) with thirty-two foreign cities.
Henan's service sector is rather small and underdeveloped. Finance
and commerce
is largely concentrated in urban centers such as Zhengzhou
and Luoyang
, where the economy is fueled by a large and relatively affluent consumer base. In order to make the economy more knowledge and technology based, the government established a number of development zones all of the major cities, promoting industries such as software, information technologies, new materials, bio-pharmaceutical and photo-machinery-electronic industries. Henan is a major destination for tourist
s, with places such as Shaolin Temple and Longmen Grottoes
attracting millions of tourists each year.
and Longhai Railway, the nation's two most important railways, run through much of the province and intersects at Zhengzhou
. Other railway hubs such as Shangqiu
, Xinxiang
, and Luohe
have also become important centers of trade and manufacturing as a result. A high-speed rail
way links Zhengzhou with Xi'an
. Henan's expressway system is highly developed and the total length is approximately 5,000 km, higher than any other province in China. The state of air transport is less stellar, the only 3 public airports are located in Xinzheng
(near Zhengzhou), Luoyang
, and Nanyang
.
, Kaifeng
and Anyang
. Henan is one of the few provinces which has many historical relics in the country. There are 16 key national units of protecting historical relics and 267 provincial units of protecting historical relics. The over-ground historical relics are the second in China in number. Historical relics in museums take up one-eighth of those in China, and the underground historical relics are the first in China in number. In Henan Museum there are 120,000 historical relics, including over 40,000 rare ones.
Other;
Province (China)
A province, in the context of Chinese government, is a translation of sheng formally provincial level divisions, which is an administrative division. Provinces, municipalities, autonomous regions, and the special administrative regions, make up the four types of province of administrative division...
of the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
, located in the central part of the country. Its one-character
Chinese character
Chinese characters are logograms used in the writing of Chinese and Japanese , less frequently Korean , formerly Vietnamese , or other languages...
abbreviation is "豫" (yù), named after Yuzhou
Yuzhou (nine ancient provinces)
Yuzhou was one of the Nine Provinces in ancient China. It was located near present day Henan and Anhui provinces, China.- History / Romance :...
(豫州 Yù Zhōu), a Han Dynasty
Han Dynasty
The Han Dynasty was the second imperial dynasty of China, preceded by the Qin Dynasty and succeeded by the Three Kingdoms . It was founded by the rebel leader Liu Bang, known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu of Han. It was briefly interrupted by the Xin Dynasty of the former regent Wang Mang...
state (zhou
Zhou (political division)
Zhou were historical political divisions of China. Formally established during the Han Dynasty, zhou continued to exist until the establishment of the Republic of China — a period of over 2000 years...
) that included parts of Henan. Although the name of the province (河南) means "south of the river", approximately a quarter of the province lies north of the Yellow River
Yellow River
The Yellow River or Huang He, formerly known as the Hwang Ho, is the second-longest river in China and the sixth-longest in the world at the estimated length of . Originating in the Bayan Har Mountains in Qinghai Province in western China, it flows through nine provinces of China and empties into...
, also known as the "Huang He".
Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan
Central Plain (China)
Zhongyuan or the Central Plain of China refers to the area on the lower reaches of the Yellow River which formed the cradle of Chinese civilization. It forms part of the North China Plain....
(中原 zhōngyuán) or Zhongzhou (中州 zhōngzhōu) which literally means "central plains" or "midland", although the name is also applied to the entirety of China proper
China proper
China proper or Eighteen Provinces was a term used by Western writers on the Qing Dynasty to express a distinction between the core and frontier regions of China. There is no fixed extent for China proper, as many administrative, cultural, and linguistic shifts have occurred in Chinese history...
. Henan is the birthplace of Chinese civilization
History of China
Chinese civilization originated in various regional centers along both the Yellow River and the Yangtze River valleys in the Neolithic era, but the Yellow River is said to be the Cradle of Chinese Civilization. With thousands of years of continuous history, China is one of the world's oldest...
with over 5,000 years of history, and remained China's cultural, economical, and political center until approximately 1,000 years ago. Numerous heritages have been left behind including the ruins of Shang Dynasty
Shang Dynasty
The Shang Dynasty or Yin Dynasty was, according to traditional sources, the second Chinese dynasty, after the Xia. They ruled in the northeastern regions of the area known as "China proper" in the Yellow River valley...
capital city Yinxu
Yinxu
Yinxu is the ruins of the last capital of China's Shang Dynasty. The capital served 255 years for 12 kings in 8 generations.Rediscovered in 1899, it is one of the oldest and largest archeological sites in China and is one of the historical capitals of China and a UNESCO World Heritage Site...
and the Shaolin Temple. Four of the Eight Great Ancient Capitals of China
Historical capitals of China
The Chinese phrase Four Great Ancient Capitals of China traditionally refers to Beijing , Nanjing, Luoyang, and Chang'an ....
, Luoyang
Luoyang
Luoyang is a prefecture-level city in western Henan province of Central China. It borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyang to the south, Sanmenxia to the west, Jiyuan to the north, and Jiaozuo to the northeast.Situated on the central plain of...
, Anyang
Anyang
Anyang is a prefecture-level city in Henan province, People's Republic of China. The northernmost city in Henan, Anyang borders Puyang to the east, Hebi and Xinxiang to the south, and the provinces of Shanxi and Hebei to its west and north respectively....
, Kaifeng
Kaifeng
Kaifeng , known previously by several names , is a prefecture-level city in east-central Henan province, Central China. Nearly 5 million people live in the metropolitan area...
, and Zhengzhou
Zhengzhou
Zhengzhou , is the capital and largest city of Henan province in north-central China. A prefecture-level city, it also serves as the political, economic, technological, and educational centre of the province, as well as a major transportation hub for Central China...
are located in Henan.
With an area of 167000 square kilometres (64,479.1 sq mi), Henan covers a large part of the fertile and densely populated North China Plain
North China Plain
The North China Plain is based on the deposits of the Yellow River and is the largest alluvial plain of eastern Asia. The plain is bordered on the north by the Yanshan Mountains and on the west by the Taihang Mountains edge of the Shanxi plateau. To the south, it merges into the Yangtze Plain...
. Its neighbouring provinces are Shaanxi
Shaanxi
' is a province in the central part of Mainland China, and it includes portions of the Loess Plateau on the middle reaches of the Yellow River in addition to the Qinling Mountains across the southern part of this province...
, Shanxi
Shanxi
' is a province in Northern China. Its one-character abbreviation is "晋" , after the state of Jin that existed here during the Spring and Autumn Period....
, Hebei
Hebei
' is a province of the People's Republic of China in the North China region. Its one-character abbreviation is "" , named after Ji Province, a Han Dynasty province that included what is now southern Hebei...
, Shandong
Shandong
' is a Province located on the eastern coast of the People's Republic of China. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history from the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River and served as a pivotal cultural and religious site for Taoism, Chinese...
, Anhui
Anhui
Anhui is a province in the People's Republic of China. Located in eastern China across the basins of the Yangtze River and the Huai River, it borders Jiangsu to the east, Zhejiang to the southeast, Jiangxi to the south, Hubei to the southwest, Henan to the northwest, and Shandong for a tiny...
, and Hubei
Hubei
' Hupeh) is a province in Central China. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Lake Dongting...
. Henan is China's second most populous province with a population of over 94 million. If it were a country by itself, Henan would be the 12th most populous country in the world, behind Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
and ahead of the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
.
Henan is the 5th largest provincial economy of China and the largest among inland provinces. However, per capita GDP is low compared to other eastern and central provinces, and Henan is considered to be one of the more backward areas in China. The economy continues to depend on its dwindling aluminum and coal reserves, as well as agriculture, heavy industry, tourism, and retail. High-tech industry and service sector is underdeveloped and is concentrated around Zhengzhou and Luoyang.
History
Widely regarded as the Cradle of Chinese civilization along with Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces, Henan is known for its historical prosperity and periodic downturns. The economic prosperity resulted from its vast, fertile plains and its location at the heart of the country. However, its strategic location also means that it has suffered from nearly all of the major wars in China. In addition, the numerous floods of the Yellow RiverYellow River
The Yellow River or Huang He, formerly known as the Hwang Ho, is the second-longest river in China and the sixth-longest in the world at the estimated length of . Originating in the Bayan Har Mountains in Qinghai Province in western China, it flows through nine provinces of China and empties into...
have caused significant damage from time to time. Kaifeng
Kaifeng
Kaifeng , known previously by several names , is a prefecture-level city in east-central Henan province, Central China. Nearly 5 million people live in the metropolitan area...
, in particular, has been buried by the Yellow River's silt seven times due to flooding.
Ancient Era
Archaeological sites reveal that prehistoric cultures such as the Yangshao CultureYangshao culture
The Yangshao culture was a Neolithic culture that existed extensively along the central Yellow River in China. The Yangshao culture is dated from around 5000 BC to 3000 BC. The culture is named after Yangshao, the first excavated representative village of this culture, which was discovered in 1921...
and Longshan Culture
Longshan culture
The Longshan culture was a late Neolithic culture in China, centered on the central and lower Yellow River and dated from about 3000 BC to 2000 BC...
were active in what is now northern Henan since the Neolithic Era. The more recent Erlitou culture
Erlitou culture
The Erlitou culture is a name given by archaeologists to an Early Bronze Age urban society that existed in China from 2000 BCE to 1500 BCE. The culture was named after the site discovered at Erlitou in Yanshi, Henan Province...
has been controversially identified with the Xia Dynasty
Xia Dynasty
The Xia Dynasty is the first dynasty in China to be described in ancient historical chronicles such as Bamboo Annals, Classic of History and Records of the Grand Historian. The Xia Dynasty was established by the legendary Yu the Great after Shun, the last of the Five Emperors gave his throne to him...
, the first and largely legendary Chinese dynasty that was established, roughly, in the 21st century BC
21st century BC
The 21st century BC is a century which lasted from the year 2100 BC to 2001 BC.- Events :Note: all dates from this long ago should be regarded as either approximate or conjectural; there are no absolutely certain dates, and multiple competing reconstructed chronologies, for this time period.* c....
. Virtually the entire kingdom existed within what is now north and central Henan.
The Xia Dynasty collapsed around the 16th century BC following the invasion of Shang
Shang Dynasty
The Shang Dynasty or Yin Dynasty was, according to traditional sources, the second Chinese dynasty, after the Xia. They ruled in the northeastern regions of the area known as "China proper" in the Yellow River valley...
, a neighboring vassal state
Ancient Chinese states
Ancient Chinese States were typified by variously sized city states and territories that existed in China prior to its unification by Qin Shi Huang in 221 BCE. In many cases these were vassal states characterized by tribute paid to the ruling Zhou Dynasty...
centered around today's Shangqiu
Shangqiu
Shangqiu is a city in eastern Henan province, Central China. It borders Kaifeng to the northwest, Zhoukou to the southwest, and the provinces of Shandong and Anhui to the northeast and southeast respectively. An ancient city with a rich history, Shangqiu was also the first capital of the Shang...
in eastern Henan. The Shang Dynasty
Shang Dynasty
The Shang Dynasty or Yin Dynasty was, according to traditional sources, the second Chinese dynasty, after the Xia. They ruled in the northeastern regions of the area known as "China proper" in the Yellow River valley...
(16th-11th centuries BC) was the first literate dynasty of China. Its many capitals are located at the modern cities of Shangqiu
Shangqiu
Shangqiu is a city in eastern Henan province, Central China. It borders Kaifeng to the northwest, Zhoukou to the southwest, and the provinces of Shandong and Anhui to the northeast and southeast respectively. An ancient city with a rich history, Shangqiu was also the first capital of the Shang...
, Yanshi
Yanshi
Yanshi is a county-level city administered by the prefecture-level city of Luoyang in western Henan province, People's Republic of China. The ancient Erlitou culture existed in the area. Yanshi lies on the Luo River. The ruins the first Shang Dynasty capital, Xibo, are located in Shixianggou...
, and Zhengzhou
Zhengzhou
Zhengzhou , is the capital and largest city of Henan province in north-central China. A prefecture-level city, it also serves as the political, economic, technological, and educational centre of the province, as well as a major transportation hub for Central China...
. Their last and most important capital, Yin, located in modern Anyang
Anyang
Anyang is a prefecture-level city in Henan province, People's Republic of China. The northernmost city in Henan, Anyang borders Puyang to the east, Hebi and Xinxiang to the south, and the provinces of Shanxi and Hebei to its west and north respectively....
, is the where the first Chinese writing was created.
Zhou Dynasty
The Zhou Dynasty was a Chinese dynasty that followed the Shang Dynasty and preceded the Qin Dynasty. Although the Zhou Dynasty lasted longer than any other dynasty in Chinese history, the actual political and military control of China by the Ji family lasted only until 771 BC, a period known as...
of Shaanxi
Shaanxi
' is a province in the central part of Mainland China, and it includes portions of the Loess Plateau on the middle reaches of the Yellow River in addition to the Qinling Mountains across the southern part of this province...
arrived from the west and overthrew the Shang Dynasty. The capital was moved to Chang'an
Chang'an
Chang'an is an ancient capital of more than ten dynasties in Chinese history, today known as Xi'an. Chang'an literally means "Perpetual Peace" in Classical Chinese. During the short-lived Xin Dynasty, the city was renamed "Constant Peace" ; yet after its fall in AD 23, the old name was restored...
, and the political and economical center was moved away from Henan for the first time. In 722 BC, when Chang'an
Chang'an
Chang'an is an ancient capital of more than ten dynasties in Chinese history, today known as Xi'an. Chang'an literally means "Perpetual Peace" in Classical Chinese. During the short-lived Xin Dynasty, the city was renamed "Constant Peace" ; yet after its fall in AD 23, the old name was restored...
was devastated by Xionites
Xionites
Xionites, Chionites, Chionitae, , Hunni Xionites, Chionites, Chionitae, (Middle Persian: Xiyon, Avestan: Xiiaona, Sogdian:xwn), Hunni Xionites, Chionites, Chionitae, (Middle Persian: Xiyon, Avestan: Xiiaona, Sogdian:xwn), Hunni (Pahlavi:Huna, Yun or Xūn (獯), were a nomadic tribe prominent in...
invasions, the capital was moved back east to Luoyang
Luoyang
Luoyang is a prefecture-level city in western Henan province of Central China. It borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyang to the south, Sanmenxia to the west, Jiyuan to the north, and Jiaozuo to the northeast.Situated on the central plain of...
. This began the Spring and Autumn Period, a period of warfare and rivalry. What is now Henan and all of China was divided into a variety of small, independent states, constantly at war for control of the central plain. Although regarded formally as the ruler of China, the control that Zhou king in Luoyang exerted over the feudal kingdoms had virtually disappeared. Despite the prolonged period of instability, prominent philosophers such as Confucius
Confucius
Confucius , literally "Master Kong", was a Chinese thinker and social philosopher of the Spring and Autumn Period....
emerged in this era and offered their ideas on how a state should be run. Laozi
Laozi
Laozi was a mystic philosopher of ancient China, best known as the author of the Tao Te Ching . His association with the Tao Te Ching has led him to be traditionally considered the founder of Taoism...
, the founder of Taoism
Taoism
Taoism refers to a philosophical or religious tradition in which the basic concept is to establish harmony with the Tao , which is the mechanism of everything that exists...
, was born in northern Chu, part of modern day Henan.
Later on these states were replaced by seven large and powerful states during the Warring States Period
Warring States Period
The Warring States Period , also known as the Era of Warring States, or the Warring Kingdoms period, covers the Iron Age period from about 475 BC to the reunification of China under the Qin Dynasty in 221 BC...
, and Henan was divided into three states, the Wei
Wei (state)
The State of Wei was a Zhou Dynasty vassal state during the Warring States Period of Chinese history. Its territory lay between the states of Qin and Qi and included parts of modern day Henan, Hebei, Shanxi and Shandong...
to the north, the Chu to the south, and the Han in the middle. In 221 BC, state of Qin forces from Shaanxi conquered all of the other six states, ending 800 years of warfare.
Imperial Era
Ying Zheng, the leader of Qin, crowned himself as the First Emperor. He abolished the feudal system and centralized all powers, establishing the Qin DynastyQin Dynasty
The Qin Dynasty was the first imperial dynasty of China, lasting from 221 to 207 BC. The Qin state derived its name from its heartland of Qin, in modern-day Shaanxi. The strength of the Qin state was greatly increased by the legalist reforms of Shang Yang in the 4th century BC, during the Warring...
and unified the core of the Han Chinese
Han Chinese
Han Chinese are an ethnic group native to China and are the largest single ethnic group in the world.Han Chinese constitute about 92% of the population of the People's Republic of China , 98% of the population of the Republic of China , 78% of the population of Singapore, and about 20% of the...
homeland for the first time. The empire quickly collapsed after the death of Ying Zheng and was replaced by the Han Dynasty
Han Dynasty
The Han Dynasty was the second imperial dynasty of China, preceded by the Qin Dynasty and succeeded by the Three Kingdoms . It was founded by the rebel leader Liu Bang, known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu of Han. It was briefly interrupted by the Xin Dynasty of the former regent Wang Mang...
in 206 BC, with its capital at Chang'an
Chang'an
Chang'an is an ancient capital of more than ten dynasties in Chinese history, today known as Xi'an. Chang'an literally means "Perpetual Peace" in Classical Chinese. During the short-lived Xin Dynasty, the city was renamed "Constant Peace" ; yet after its fall in AD 23, the old name was restored...
. Thus began a golden age
Golden Age
The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology and legend and refers to the first in a sequence of four or five Ages of Man, in which the Golden Age is first, followed in sequence, by the Silver, Bronze, and Iron Ages, and then the present, a period of decline...
of Chinese culture, economy, and military power. The capital was moved east to Luoyang
Luoyang
Luoyang is a prefecture-level city in western Henan province of Central China. It borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyang to the south, Sanmenxia to the west, Jiyuan to the north, and Jiaozuo to the northeast.Situated on the central plain of...
in 25 CE, in response to a coup in Chang'an
Chang'an
Chang'an is an ancient capital of more than ten dynasties in Chinese history, today known as Xi'an. Chang'an literally means "Perpetual Peace" in Classical Chinese. During the short-lived Xin Dynasty, the city was renamed "Constant Peace" ; yet after its fall in AD 23, the old name was restored...
that created the short lived Xin Dynasty
Xin Dynasty
The Xin Dynasty was a Chinese dynasty which lasted from AD 9 to 23. It followed the Western Han Dynasty and preceded the Eastern Han Dynasty....
. Luoyang quickly regained control of China, and the Eastern Han Dynasty began, extending the golden age for another two centuries.
The late Eastern Han Dynasty saw war and rivalry between regional warlords. Xuchang
Xuchang
Xuchang is a prefecture-level city in central Henan province in Central China. It borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the northwest, Kaifeng to the northeast, Zhoukou to the east, Luohe to the southeast, and Pingdingshan to the southwest....
in central Henan was the power base of Cao Cao
Cao Cao
Cao Cao was a warlord and the penultimate chancellor of the Eastern Han Dynasty who rose to great power during the dynasty's final years. As one of the central figures of the Three Kingdoms period, he laid the foundations for what was to become the state of Cao Wei and was posthumously titled...
, who eventually succeeded in unifying all of northern China under the Kingdom of Wei. Wei then moved its capital to Luoyang
Luoyang
Luoyang is a prefecture-level city in western Henan province of Central China. It borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyang to the south, Sanmenxia to the west, Jiyuan to the north, and Jiaozuo to the northeast.Situated on the central plain of...
, which remained the capital after the unification of China by the Western Jin Dynasty
Jìn Dynasty (265-420)
The Jìn Dynasty , was a dynasty in Chinese history, lasting between the years 265 and 420 AD. There are two main divisions in the history of the Dynasty, the first being Western Jin and the second Eastern Jin...
. During this period Luoyang became one of the largest and most prosperous cities in the world, despite being repeatedly damaged by warfare.
With the fall of the Western Jin Dynasty in the 4th and 5th century, nomadic peoples from the north invaded northern China and established many successive regimes in northern China, including Henan. These people were gradually assimilated into the Chinese culture in a process known as sinification.
Sui Dynasty
The Sui Dynasty was a powerful, but short-lived Imperial Chinese dynasty. Preceded by the Southern and Northern Dynasties, it ended nearly four centuries of division between rival regimes. It was followed by the Tang Dynasty....
reunified China again in 589
589
Year 589 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 589 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.- Europe :* October 17 – The Adige River...
with its capital back to Chang'an
Chang'an
Chang'an is an ancient capital of more than ten dynasties in Chinese history, today known as Xi'an. Chang'an literally means "Perpetual Peace" in Classical Chinese. During the short-lived Xin Dynasty, the city was renamed "Constant Peace" ; yet after its fall in AD 23, the old name was restored...
. It collapsed due to Sui Emperor Yang's costly attempt to relocate the capital from Chang'an
Chang'an
Chang'an is an ancient capital of more than ten dynasties in Chinese history, today known as Xi'an. Chang'an literally means "Perpetual Peace" in Classical Chinese. During the short-lived Xin Dynasty, the city was renamed "Constant Peace" ; yet after its fall in AD 23, the old name was restored...
to Luoyang
Luoyang
Luoyang is a prefecture-level city in western Henan province of Central China. It borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyang to the south, Sanmenxia to the west, Jiyuan to the north, and Jiaozuo to the northeast.Situated on the central plain of...
and the construction of many extravagant palaces there. The succeeding Tang Dynasty
Tang Dynasty
The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
kept its capital in Chang'an
Chang'an
Chang'an is an ancient capital of more than ten dynasties in Chinese history, today known as Xi'an. Chang'an literally means "Perpetual Peace" in Classical Chinese. During the short-lived Xin Dynasty, the city was renamed "Constant Peace" ; yet after its fall in AD 23, the old name was restored...
, marking the beginning of China's second golden age, with Henan being one of the wealthiest places in the empire.
The Tang Dynasty lasted for three centuries before it eventually succumbed to internal strife. In the Period of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms that followed, Kaifeng
Kaifeng
Kaifeng , known previously by several names , is a prefecture-level city in east-central Henan province, Central China. Nearly 5 million people live in the metropolitan area...
in eastern Henan was the capital of four dynasties. The Song Dynasty
Song Dynasty
The Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...
that reunified China in 982 also had its capital at Kaifeng
Kaifeng
Kaifeng , known previously by several names , is a prefecture-level city in east-central Henan province, Central China. Nearly 5 million people live in the metropolitan area...
. Under Song rule, China entered another era of culture and prosperity, and Kaifeng overtook Luoyang and Chang'an as the largest city in China and the world. In 1127, however, the Song Dynasty succumbed to Jurchen (Jin Dynasty) invaders from the north, and in 1142 ceded all of northern China, including Henan. The Song government moved its capital to Hangzhou
Hangzhou
Hangzhou , formerly transliterated as Hangchow, is the capital and largest city of Zhejiang Province in Eastern China. Governed as a sub-provincial city, and as of 2010, its entire administrative division or prefecture had a registered population of 8.7 million people...
in Southern China, which, under the Southern Song Dynasty continued to enjoy relative economic and culture prosperity. A prolonged period of peace and cultural and economic prosperity in the Yangtze River
Yangtze River
The Yangtze, Yangzi or Cháng Jiāng is the longest river in Asia, and the third-longest in the world. It flows for from the glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau in Qinghai eastward across southwest, central and eastern China before emptying into the East China Sea at Shanghai. It is also one of the...
delta Jiangnan
Jiangnan
Jiangnan or Jiang Nan is a geographic area in China referring to lands immediately to the south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, including the southern part of the Yangtze Delta...
region (modern southern Jiangsu
Jiangsu
' is a province of the People's Republic of China, located along the east coast of the country. The name comes from jiang, short for the city of Jiangning , and su, for the city of Suzhou. The abbreviation for this province is "苏" , the second character of its name...
, northern Zhejiang
Zhejiang
Zhejiang is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. The word Zhejiang was the old name of the Qiantang River, which passes through Hangzhou, the provincial capital...
, and Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
) made this the new center of Chinese culture and economy.
Kaifeng served as the Jurchen's "southern capital" from 1157 (other sources say 1161) and was reconstructed during this time. But the Jurchen kept their main capital further north, until 1214, when they were forced to move the imperial court southwards to Kaifeng
Kaifeng
Kaifeng , known previously by several names , is a prefecture-level city in east-central Henan province, Central China. Nearly 5 million people live in the metropolitan area...
in order to flee the Mongol onslaught. In 1234 they succumbed to combined Mongol and Song Dynasty
Song Dynasty
The Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...
forces. Mongols took control, and in 1279 they conquered all of China, establishing the Yuan Dynasty
Yuan Dynasty
The Yuan Dynasty , or Great Yuan Empire was a ruling dynasty founded by the Mongol leader Kublai Khan, who ruled most of present-day China, all of modern Mongolia and its surrounding areas, lasting officially from 1271 to 1368. It is considered both as a division of the Mongol Empire and as an...
and set up the equivalent of modern Henan province, with borders extremely similar to modern ones. Neither its territories nor its role in the economy were changed under later dynasties. Henan remained important in the Ming Dynasty
Ming Dynasty
The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...
and Qing Dynasty
Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....
that followed, though its economy slowly deteriorated due to frequent natural disasters.
Modern Era
The Qing DynastyQing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....
was overthrown by the Republic of China
Republic of China
The Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...
in 1911, marking the beginning of China's modern era. The construction and extension of the Pinghan Railway and Longhai Railway had turned Zhengzhou
Zhengzhou
Zhengzhou , is the capital and largest city of Henan province in north-central China. A prefecture-level city, it also serves as the political, economic, technological, and educational centre of the province, as well as a major transportation hub for Central China...
, a minor county town at the time, into a major transportation hub. Despite the rise of Zhengzhou, Henan's overall economy repeatedly stumbled as it was the hardest hit by the many disasters that struck China in its modern era.
In 1938, when the Imperial Japanese Army
Imperial Japanese Army
-Foundation:During the Meiji Restoration, the military forces loyal to the Emperor were samurai drawn primarily from the loyalist feudal domains of Satsuma and Chōshū...
captured Kaifeng, the government led by Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He is known as Jiǎng Jièshí or Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng in Mandarin....
bombed the Huayuankou dam in Zhengzhou in order to prevent the Japanese forces from advancing further. However, this caused massive flooding in Henan, Anhui
Anhui
Anhui is a province in the People's Republic of China. Located in eastern China across the basins of the Yangtze River and the Huai River, it borders Jiangsu to the east, Zhejiang to the southeast, Jiangxi to the south, Hubei to the southwest, Henan to the northwest, and Shandong for a tiny...
, and Jiangsu
Jiangsu
' is a province of the People's Republic of China, located along the east coast of the country. The name comes from jiang, short for the city of Jiangning , and su, for the city of Suzhou. The abbreviation for this province is "苏" , the second character of its name...
resulting in a famine that caused millions of deaths.
In 1954, the new government of the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
moved the capital of Henan from Kaifeng
Kaifeng
Kaifeng , known previously by several names , is a prefecture-level city in east-central Henan province, Central China. Nearly 5 million people live in the metropolitan area...
to Zhengzhou, as a result of its economic importance. The PRC had earlier established a short-lived Pingyuan Province consisting of what is now northern Henan and western Shandong
Shandong
' is a Province located on the eastern coast of the People's Republic of China. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history from the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River and served as a pivotal cultural and religious site for Taoism, Chinese...
with Xinxiang
Xinxiang
Xinxiang is a prefecture-level city in northern Henan province, People's Republic of China. It borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to its southwest, Kaifeng to its southeast, Hebi and Anyang to its north, Jiaozuo to its west, and the provinces of Shanxi and Shandong to its northwest and...
as its capital. This province was abolished in 1952.
In 1958, Yashan in Suiping County
Suiping County
Suiping County is a county of Henan, China. It is under the administration of Zhumadian city....
, Henan, became the first people's commune
People's commune
The people's commune was the highest of three administrative levels in rural areas of the People's Republic of China during the period of 1958 to 1982-85 until they were replaced by townships. Communes, the largest collective units, were divided in turn into production brigades and production teams...
of China, heralding the beginning of the "Great Leap Forward
Great Leap Forward
The Great Leap Forward of the People's Republic of China was an economic and social campaign of the Communist Party of China , reflected in planning decisions from 1958 to 1961, which aimed to use China's vast population to rapidly transform the country from an agrarian economy into a modern...
". In the subsequent famines of the early 1960s popularly attributed to the Great Leap Forward, Henan was one of the hardest hit and millions of lives were lost. In 1975, the collapse of the Banqiao Dam
Banqiao Dam
The Banqiao Reservoir Dam is a dam on the River Ru in Zhumadian Prefecture, Henan province, China. It infamously failed in 1975, causing more casualties than any other dam failure in history, and was subsequently rebuilt....
and other dams in southern Henan following a typhoon and extraordinarily high levels of rainfall led to the deaths, across several counties, of an estimated 230,000 people. This was the most deadly dam-related catastrophe in human history.
By the early 1970s, China was one of the poorest countries in the world, and Henan was one of the poorest provinces in China. In 1978, however, when the communist leader Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping was a Chinese politician, statesman, and diplomat. As leader of the Communist Party of China, Deng was a reformer who led China towards a market economy...
initiated the open door policy
Open Door Policy
The Open Door Policy is a concept in foreign affairs, which usually refers to the policy in 1899 allowing multiple Imperial powers access to China, with none of them in control of that country. As a theory, the Open Door Policy originates with British commercial practice, as was reflected in...
and embraced capitalism, China entered an economic boom that continues today. The boom did not reach inland provinces such as Henan initially, but by the 1990s Henan's economy was expanding at an even faster rate than that of China overall.
Henan has still not, however, entirely shed its reputation as an economic backwater. In recent years the prevalence of "selling blood" (blood donations for payment) among poor villagers has put Henan in the national spotlight. It was exposed that AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
villages, where most of the population is HIV
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
positive, exist in Henan. In many rural areas of China during the 1990s, particularly in the province of Henan, tens to hundreds of thousands of farmers and peasants were infected with HIV through participation in state-run blood collection programs in which contaminated equipment was reused. The initial cover up of the crisis by local officials, followed by the national exposure, has put Henan in a somewhat negative spotlight.
In November 2004, martial law was declared in Zhongmou county, Henan, to quell deadly ethnic clashes between Han Chinese
Han Chinese
Han Chinese are an ethnic group native to China and are the largest single ethnic group in the world.Han Chinese constitute about 92% of the population of the People's Republic of China , 98% of the population of the Republic of China , 78% of the population of Singapore, and about 20% of the...
and the Muslim Hui Chinese. http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/article/0,13673,501041115-750858,00.html The reported number of deaths ranged between 7 and 148.
Geography
North China Plain
The North China Plain is based on the deposits of the Yellow River and is the largest alluvial plain of eastern Asia. The plain is bordered on the north by the Yanshan Mountains and on the west by the Taihang Mountains edge of the Shanxi plateau. To the south, it merges into the Yangtze Plain...
, an area known as the "breadbasket of China". The Taihang Mountains
Taihang Mountains
The Taihang Mountains are a Chinese mountain range running down the eastern edge of the Loess Plateau in Henan, Shanxi and Hebei provinces. The range extends over 400 km from north to south and has an average elevation of 1,500 to 2,000 meters. The principal peak is Xiao Wutaishan...
intrude partially into Henan's northwestern borders from Shanxi
Shanxi
' is a province in Northern China. Its one-character abbreviation is "晋" , after the state of Jin that existed here during the Spring and Autumn Period....
, forming the eastern edge of Loess Plateau
Loess Plateau
The Loess Plateau , also known as the Huangtu Plateau, is a plateau that covers an area of some 640,000 km² in the upper and middle reaches of China's Yellow River. Loess is the name for the silty sediment that has been deposited by wind storms on the plateau over the ages...
. To the west the Xionger and Funiu Mountains form an extensive network of mountain ranges and plateaus, supporting one of the few remaining temperate deciduous forest
Temperate deciduous forest
A temperate deciduous forest, more precisely termed temperate broadleaf forest or temperate broadleaved forest, is a biome found in North America, southern South America, Europe, and Asia. A temperate deciduous forest consists of trees that lose their leaves every year...
s which once covered all of Henan. The famous Mount Song
Mount Song
Mount Song, known in Chinese as Song Shan , is one of the Five Sacred Mountains of Taoism and is located in Henan province on the south bank of the Yellow River in China...
and its Shaolin Temple is located in the far east of the region, near the capital city Zhengzhou
Zhengzhou
Zhengzhou , is the capital and largest city of Henan province in north-central China. A prefecture-level city, it also serves as the political, economic, technological, and educational centre of the province, as well as a major transportation hub for Central China...
. To the far south, the Dabie Mountains divides Hubei
Hubei
' Hupeh) is a province in Central China. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Lake Dongting...
from Henan. The Nanyang Basin
Nanyang Basin
Nanyang Basin is located in Henan Province of the People's Republic of China, a small part of the basin is in Hubei Province, the southern neighbor of Henan. Its total area is 46291 square kilometers....
, separated from North China Plain by these mountains, is another important agricultural and population center, with culture and history distinct from the rest of Henan and closer to that of Hubei's. Unlike the rest of northern China, desertification
Desertification
Desertification is the degradation of land in drylands. Caused by a variety of factors, such as climate change and human activities, desertification is one of the most significant global environmental problems.-Definitions:...
is not a problem in Henan, though sandstorms are common in cities near the Yellow River due to the large amount of sand present in the river.
The Yellow River
Yellow River
The Yellow River or Huang He, formerly known as the Hwang Ho, is the second-longest river in China and the sixth-longest in the world at the estimated length of . Originating in the Bayan Har Mountains in Qinghai Province in western China, it flows through nine provinces of China and empties into...
passes through central Henan. It enters from the northwest, via the Sanmenxia Reservoir. After it passes Luoyang
Luoyang
Luoyang is a prefecture-level city in western Henan province of Central China. It borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyang to the south, Sanmenxia to the west, Jiyuan to the north, and Jiaozuo to the northeast.Situated on the central plain of...
, the mountains gave way to plains. Excessive amount of sediments are formed due to the silt
Silt
Silt is granular material of a size somewhere between sand and clay whose mineral origin is quartz and feldspar. Silt may occur as a soil or as suspended sediment in a surface water body...
it picks up from the Loess Plateau, raising the riverbed and causing frequent floods which shaped the habitat of the region. More recently however, construction of dams and levee
Levee
A levee, levée, dike , embankment, floodbank or stopbank is an elongated naturally occurring ridge or artificially constructed fill or wall, which regulates water levels...
s, as well as the depletion of water resources have ended the floods. The Huai River
Huai River
The Huai River is a major river in China. The Huai River is located about mid-way between the Yellow River and Yangtze River, the two largest rivers in China, and like them runs from west to east...
in southern Henan is another important river, and has been recognized as part of the boundary dividing northern and southern Chinese climate and culture
Northern and southern China
Northern China and southern China are two approximate regions within China. The exact boundary between these two regions has never been precisely defined...
.
Henan shares borders with six other provinces
Province (China)
A province, in the context of Chinese government, is a translation of sheng formally provincial level divisions, which is an administrative division. Provinces, municipalities, autonomous regions, and the special administrative regions, make up the four types of province of administrative division...
. It is bordered to the west by Shaanxi
Shaanxi
' is a province in the central part of Mainland China, and it includes portions of the Loess Plateau on the middle reaches of the Yellow River in addition to the Qinling Mountains across the southern part of this province...
, to the south by Hubei
Hubei
' Hupeh) is a province in Central China. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Lake Dongting...
, and to the north by Shanxi
Shanxi
' is a province in Northern China. Its one-character abbreviation is "晋" , after the state of Jin that existed here during the Spring and Autumn Period....
(northwest) and Hebei
Hebei
' is a province of the People's Republic of China in the North China region. Its one-character abbreviation is "" , named after Ji Province, a Han Dynasty province that included what is now southern Hebei...
(northeast). To the east lie Shandong
Shandong
' is a Province located on the eastern coast of the People's Republic of China. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history from the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River and served as a pivotal cultural and religious site for Taoism, Chinese...
(northeast) and Anhui
Anhui
Anhui is a province in the People's Republic of China. Located in eastern China across the basins of the Yangtze River and the Huai River, it borders Jiangsu to the east, Zhejiang to the southeast, Jiangxi to the south, Hubei to the southwest, Henan to the northwest, and Shandong for a tiny...
(southeast), whose borders meet at a narrow strip of land which separates Henan from Jiangsu
Jiangsu
' is a province of the People's Republic of China, located along the east coast of the country. The name comes from jiang, short for the city of Jiangning , and su, for the city of Suzhou. The abbreviation for this province is "苏" , the second character of its name...
to the east.
Climate
Henan has a temperateTemperate
In geography, temperate or tepid latitudes of the globe lie between the tropics and the polar circles. The changes in these regions between summer and winter are generally relatively moderate, rather than extreme hot or cold...
climate that is humid subtropical (Köppen
Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by Crimea German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen himself, notably in 1918 and 1936...
Cwa or Cfa) to the south of the Yellow River and bordering on humid continental (Köppen Dwa) to the north. It has a distinct seasonal climate characterised by hot, humid summers due to the East Asian monsoon
Monsoon
Monsoon is traditionally defined as a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation, but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with the asymmetric heating of land and sea...
, and generally cool to cold, windy, dry winters that reflect the influence of the vast Siberian anticyclone
Anticyclone
An anticyclone is a weather phenomenon defined by the United States' National Weather Service's glossary as "[a] large-scale circulation of winds around a central region of high atmospheric pressure, clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere, counterclockwise in the Southern Hemisphere"...
. Temperatures average around the freezing mark in January and 27 to 28 °C in July. A great majority of the annual rainfall occurs during the summer.
Administrative divisions
Henan is divided into seventeen prefecture-level divisions – all prefecture-level cities – and one directly administered county-level cityCounty-level city
A county-level city is a county-level administrative division of mainland China. County-level cities are usually governed by prefecture-level divisions, but a few are governed directly by province-level divisions....
.The prefecture-level cities are:
| Map | # | Name | Hanzi | Hanyu Pinyin | Administrative Seat | Population (2010 Sixth National Population Census of the People's Republic of China The Sixth National Population Census of the People's Republic of China, also referred to as the 2010 Chinese Census, was conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics of the People's Republic of China with a zero hour of November 1, 2010.... ) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — Prefecture-level city Prefecture-level city A prefectural level city , prefectural city or prefectural level municipality is an administrative division of the People's Republic of China, ranking below a province and above a county in China's administrative structure. Prefectural level cities form the second level of the administrative... — |
||||||
| 1 | Zhengzhou Zhengzhou Zhengzhou , is the capital and largest city of Henan province in north-central China. A prefecture-level city, it also serves as the political, economic, technological, and educational centre of the province, as well as a major transportation hub for Central China... |
郑州市 | Zhèngzhōu Shì | Zhongyuan District Zhongyuan District Zhongyuan District is a district in the western part of the city of Zhengzhou in Henan Province, People's Republic of China. The city government is located in this district.... |
8,626,505 | |
| 2 | Anyang Anyang Anyang is a prefecture-level city in Henan province, People's Republic of China. The northernmost city in Henan, Anyang borders Puyang to the east, Hebi and Xinxiang to the south, and the provinces of Shanxi and Hebei to its west and north respectively.... |
安阳市 | Ānyáng Shì | Beiguan District Beiguan District Beiguan District is a district of Henan, China. It is under the administration of Anyang city.... |
5,172,834 | |
| 3 | Hebi Hebi Hebi is a prefecture-level city in northern Henan province, People's Republic of China. Situated in mountainous terrain at the edge of the Shanxi plateau, Hebi is about 25 miles south of Anyang, 40 miles northeast of Xinxiang and 65 miles north of Kaifeng.... |
鹤壁市 | Hèbì Shì | Qibin District Qibin District Qibin District is a district of Henan, China. It is under the administration of the Hebi city.... |
1,569,100 | |
| 4 | Jiaozuo Jiaozuo Jiaozuo is a prefecture-level city in northern Henan province, People's Republic of China. Sitting on the northern bank of the Yellow River, it borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the south, Xinxiang to the east, Jiyuan to the west, Luoyang to the southwest, and the province of Shanxi... |
焦作市 | Jiāozuò Shì | Jiefang District Jiefang District Jiefang District is a district of Henan, China. It is under the administration of the Jiaozuo city.... |
3,539,860 | |
| 5 | Kaifeng Kaifeng Kaifeng , known previously by several names , is a prefecture-level city in east-central Henan province, Central China. Nearly 5 million people live in the metropolitan area... |
开封市 | Kāifēng Shì | Gulou District Gulou District, Kaifeng Gulou District, Kaifeng is a district of Henan, China. It is under the administration of Kaifeng city.... |
4,676,159 | |
| 6 | Luohe Luohe Luohe is a prefecture-level city in central Henan province, People's Republic of China. It is surrounded by the cities of Xuchang, Zhoukou, Zhumadian and Pingdingshan on its north, east, south and west respectively.-Administration:... |
漯河市 | Luòhé Shì | Yancheng District Yancheng District, Luohe Yancheng District is a district of Henan, China. It is under the administration of Luohe city.... |
2,544,103 | |
| 7 | Luoyang Luoyang Luoyang is a prefecture-level city in western Henan province of Central China. It borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyang to the south, Sanmenxia to the west, Jiyuan to the north, and Jiaozuo to the northeast.Situated on the central plain of... |
洛阳市 | Luòyáng Shì | Xigong District Xigong District Xigong District is a district of Henan, China. It is under the administration of the Luoyang city.... |
6,549,486 | |
| 8 | Nanyang Nanyang, Henan Nanyang is a prefecture-level city in the southwest of Henan province, People's Republic of China. The city with the largest administrative area in Henan, Nanyang borders Xinyang to the southeast, Zhumadian to the east, Pingdingshan to the northeast, Luoyang to the north, Sanmenxia to the... |
南阳市 | Nányáng Shì | Wolong District Wolong District Wolong District is a District in the center part of Nanyang, in the southwestern Henan province of the People's Republic of China. It possesses a total area of 1,007 km², and has a population of 800,000.-Geography:... |
10,263,006 | |
| 9 | Pingdingshan Pingdingshan Pingdingshan , also known as the Eagle City, with approximately 5.2 million inhabitants is a prefecture-level city in central Henan province, People's Republic of China.-Geography:... |
平顶山市 | Píngdǐngshān Shì | Xinhua District Xinhua District, Pingdingshan Xinhua District, Pingdingshan is a district of Henan, China. It is under the administration of Pingdingshan city.... |
4,904,367 | |
| 10 | Puyang Puyang Puyang is a prefecture-level city in northeastern Henan province, China. Located on the northern shore of the Yellow River, it borders Anyang in the west, Xinxiang in the southwest, and the provinces of Shandong and Hebei in the east and north respectively.... |
濮阳市 | Púyáng Shì | Hualong District Hualong District Hualong District is a district of Henan, China. It is under the administration of Puyang city.... |
3,598,494 | |
| 11 | Sanmenxia Sanmenxia -Administration:The prefecture-level city of Sanmenxia administers one district, two county-level cities and three counties.*Hubin District*Lingbao City*Yima City*Lushi County*Shan County*Mianchi County*Sanmenxia Development Zone... |
三门峡市 | Sānménxiá Shì | Hubin District Hubin District Hubin District is a district of Henan, China. It is under the administration of the Sanmenxia city.... |
2,233,872 | |
| 12 | Shangqiu Shangqiu Shangqiu is a city in eastern Henan province, Central China. It borders Kaifeng to the northwest, Zhoukou to the southwest, and the provinces of Shandong and Anhui to the northeast and southeast respectively. An ancient city with a rich history, Shangqiu was also the first capital of the Shang... |
商丘市 | Shāngqiū Shì | Liangyuan District Liangyuan District Liangyuan District is one of the two districts of the city of Shangqiu. The name Liangyuan, or "the garden of Liang", follows from the name Emperor Xiao of Liang, who built the garden around 154 BC centered in the area of nowadays Shangqiu. At present, Liangyuan district hosts the government of... |
7,362,472 | |
| 13 | Xinxiang Xinxiang Xinxiang is a prefecture-level city in northern Henan province, People's Republic of China. It borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to its southwest, Kaifeng to its southeast, Hebi and Anyang to its north, Jiaozuo to its west, and the provinces of Shanxi and Shandong to its northwest and... |
新乡市 | Xīnxiāng Shì | Weibin District Weibin District, Xinxiang Weibin District, Xinxiang is a district of Henan, China. It is under the administration of the Xinxiang city.... |
5,707,801 | |
| 14 | Xinyang Xinyang Xinyang is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Henan province, People's Republic of China, the southernmost such administrative division in the province.-Recent history:... |
信阳市 | Xìnyáng Shì | Shihe District Shihe District Shihe District is a district of Henan, China. It is under the administration of Xinyang city.... |
6,108,683 | |
| 15 | Xuchang Xuchang Xuchang is a prefecture-level city in central Henan province in Central China. It borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the northwest, Kaifeng to the northeast, Zhoukou to the east, Luohe to the southeast, and Pingdingshan to the southwest.... |
许昌市 | Xǔchāng Shì | Weidu District Weidu District Weidu District is a district of Henan, China. It is under the administration of Xuchang city.... |
4,307,199 | |
| 16 | Zhoukou Zhoukou Zhoukou is a prefecture-level city in eastern Henan province, People's Republic of China. It borders Zhumadian to the southeast, Xuchang and Luohe to the west, Kaifeng to the northwest, Shangqiu to the northeast, and the province of Anhui on all other sides.... |
周口市 | Zhōukǒu Shì | Chuanhui District Chuanhui District Chuanhui District is a district of Henan, China under the administration of Zhoukou city. It lies at the intersection of Sha River, Ying River and Jialu River. The name "Chuanhui" means that three rivers come across. From 17th century to 19th century, it was an important port in China's Inland... |
8,953,172 | |
| 17 | Zhumadian Zhumadian Zhumadian is a prefecture-level city in southern Henan province, People's Republic of China. It borders Xinyang to the south, Nanyang to the west, Pingdingshan to the northwest, Luohe to the north, Zhoukou to the northeast, and the province of Anhui to the east.Its population is 7,230,744 at the... |
驻马店市 | Zhùmǎdiàn Shì | Yicheng District Yicheng District, Zhumadian Yicheng District is a district of Zhumadian, Henan, China.... |
7,230,744 | |
| — Sub-prefecture-level city Sub-prefecture-level city A sub-prefecture-level city , or vice-prefecture-level city, is an administrative division of China. A sub-prefecture-level city is officially considered to be a county-level city, but it has more power de facto because the cadres assigned to its government are one half-level higher in rank than... — |
||||||
| 18 | Jiyuan Jiyuan Jiyuan is a sub-prefecture-level city in northwestern Henan province of Central China. It borders the prefecture-level cities of Jiaozuo and Luoyang to the east and southwest respectively, as well as the province of Shanxi to the north.-Administration:... |
济源市 | Jǐyuán Shì | Jiyuan Jiyuan Jiyuan is a sub-prefecture-level city in northwestern Henan province of Central China. It borders the prefecture-level cities of Jiaozuo and Luoyang to the east and southwest respectively, as well as the province of Shanxi to the north.-Administration:... |
675,710 | |
The seventeen prefecture-level divisions and one directly administered county-level city
County-level city
A county-level city is a county-level administrative division of mainland China. County-level cities are usually governed by prefecture-level divisions, but a few are governed directly by province-level divisions....
of Henan are subdivided into 159 county-level divisions (50 districts, twenty-one county-level cities, and 88 counties; Jiyuan is counted as a county-level city here). Those are in turn divided into 2440 township-level divisions (866 towns, 1234 townships, twelve ethnic townships, and 328 subdistrict
Subdistrict
Subdistrict is a low level administrative division of a country. In Thailand it may refer to the King Amphoe or to the Tambon. In England and Wales it was part of a Registration district....
s).
Demographics
With a population of approximately 93.6 million, Henan is the second most populous Chinese province after GuangdongGuangdong
Guangdong is a province on the South China Sea coast of the People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...
. It is also the fifth most populous sub-national division in the world. If it were a country by itself, it would be the twelfth most populous in the world, just behind Mexico and ahead of the Philippines. However, the hukou system shows Henan as the most populous province in China with over 103 million people, as it counts the migrant Henanese laborers as residents of Henan, instead of the province they currently reside in. On the other hand, Guangdong is shown as having only 81 million people, though the actual population is 95 million due to the influx of migrants from other provinces.
Although the population is highly homogeneous with 98.8% of the population being Han
Han Chinese
Han Chinese are an ethnic group native to China and are the largest single ethnic group in the world.Han Chinese constitute about 92% of the population of the People's Republic of China , 98% of the population of the Republic of China , 78% of the population of Singapore, and about 20% of the...
, Henan has the largest Muslim Hui
Hui people
The Hui people are an ethnic group in China, defined as Chinese speaking people descended from foreign Muslims. They are typically distinguished by their practice of Islam, however some also practice other religions, and many are direct descendants of Silk Road travelers.In modern People's...
population in eastern China, which constitutes approximately 1% of the population and live mostly in Muslim enclaves in Guancheng District
Guancheng Hui District
Guancheng Hui District is a district in the central part of the city of Zhengzhou in Henan Province, People's Republic of China.The District government is located in this district. The ruins of a Shang Dynasty city, Ao are located here in Shang City Park.-External links:*...
in in Zhengzhou
Zhengzhou
Zhengzhou , is the capital and largest city of Henan province in north-central China. A prefecture-level city, it also serves as the political, economic, technological, and educational centre of the province, as well as a major transportation hub for Central China...
, Chanhe District in Luoyang
Luoyang
Luoyang is a prefecture-level city in western Henan province of Central China. It borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyang to the south, Sanmenxia to the west, Jiyuan to the north, and Jiaozuo to the northeast.Situated on the central plain of...
, and Shunhe District in Kaifeng
Kaifeng
Kaifeng , known previously by several names , is a prefecture-level city in east-central Henan province, Central China. Nearly 5 million people live in the metropolitan area...
. Small populations of Mongols
Mongols
Mongols ) are a Central-East Asian ethnic group that lives mainly in the countries of Mongolia, China, and Russia. In China, ethnic Mongols can be found mainly in the central north region of China such as Inner Mongolia...
and Manchus exists in scattered rural communities as well as major urban centers. Kaifeng is also known for its historical Jewish communities, though after centuries of integration few of them are aware of their ancestry and Jews are not an officially recognized ethnic minority in China.
Along with Jiangxi
Jiangxi
' is a southern province in the People's Republic of China. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze River in the north into hillier areas in the south, it shares a border with Anhui to the north, Zhejiang to the northeast, Fujian to the east, Guangdong to the south, Hunan to the west, and Hubei to...
, Henan has one of the most unbalanced gender ratios in China. As a result of the Chinese government's one-child policy (many parents do not want the only child to be female and abort the fetus), the gender ratio was 118.46 males for 100 females in 2000. Subsequently, aborting female fetuses was banned in Henan and heavy fines are issued for those who violate the law. In addition, daughter-only families receive an annual allowance from the government Despite these efforts the problem has gotten far worse. Based on a 2009 British Medical Journal study, the ratio is over 140 boys for every 100 girls in the 1-4 age group, though it might be a huge exaggeration as many families with more than one child do not register their daughters to the hukou in order to escape fines.
Politics
The Government of Henan is structured in a dual party-government system like all other governing institutions in mainland China.The Governor of Henan is the highest ranking official in the People's Government of Henan. However, in the province's dual party-government governing system, the Governor has less power than the Henan Communist Party of China
Communist Party of China
The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China...
Provincial Committee Secretary, colloquially termed the "Henan CPC Party Chief".
Economy
Henan has seen rapid development in its economy over the past two decades, and its economy has expanded at an even faster rate than the national average of 10%. This rapid growth has transformed Henan from one of the poorest provinces to one that matches other central provinces, though still relatively impoverished on a national scale. In 2009, Henan's nominal GDP was 2.29 trillion RMB (US$339 billion), making it the fifth largest economy in China, although it rank nineteen in terms of GDP per capita.Henan is a semi-industrialized economy with an underdeveloped service sector. In 2009, Henan's primary, secondary, and tertiary industries were worth 277 billion RMB (US$40 billion), 1.097 trillion RMB (US$160 billion), and 563 billion RMB (US$82 billion), respectively. Agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
has traditionally been a pillar of its economy, with the nation's highest wheat
Wheat
Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...
and sesame
Sesame
Sesame is a flowering plant in the genus Sesamum. Numerous wild relatives occur in Africa and a smaller number in India. It is widely naturalized in tropical regions around the world and is cultivated for its edible seeds, which grow in pods....
output and second highest rice
Rice
Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...
output, earning its reputation as the breadbasket of China. Henan is also an important producer of beef
Beef
Beef is the culinary name for meat from bovines, especially domestic cattle. Beef can be harvested from cows, bulls, heifers or steers. It is one of the principal meats used in the cuisine of the Middle East , Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Europe and the United States, and is also important in...
, cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
, maize
Maize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
, pork
Pork
Pork is the culinary name for meat from the domestic pig , which is eaten in many countries. It is one of the most commonly consumed meats worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BC....
, animal oil, and corn
Corn
Corn is the name used in the United States, Canada, and Australia for the grain maize.In much of the English-speaking world, the term "corn" is a generic term for cereal crops, such as* Barley* Oats* Wheat* Rye- Places :...
. Food production and processing makes up more than 14% of the output from the province's secondary industry, ant it is said that 90% of Chinese McDonald's
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...
and KFC
KFC
KFC, founded and also known as Kentucky Fried Chicken, is a chain of fast food restaurants based in Louisville, Kentucky, in the United States. KFC has been a brand and operating segment, termed a concept of Yum! Brands since 1997 when that company was spun off from PepsiCo as Tricon Global...
ingredients comes from Henan.
Although Henan's industry has traditionally been based on light textiles and food processing
Food processing
Food processing is the set of methods and techniques used to transform raw ingredients into food or to transform food into other forms for consumption by humans or animals either in the home or by the food processing industry...
, recent developments have diversified the industry sector to metallurgy
Metallurgy
Metallurgy is a domain of materials science that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their intermetallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are called alloys. It is also the technology of metals: the way in which science is applied to their practical use...
, petrol, cement
Cement
In the most general sense of the word, a cement is a binder, a substance that sets and hardens independently, and can bind other materials together. The word "cement" traces to the Romans, who used the term opus caementicium to describe masonry resembling modern concrete that was made from crushed...
, chemical industry
Chemical industry
The chemical industry comprises the companies that produce industrial chemicals. Central to the modern world economy, it converts raw materials into more than 70,000 different products.-Products:...
, machinery and electronics
Electronics
Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...
. Henan has the second largest molybdenum
Molybdenum
Molybdenum , is a Group 6 chemical element with the symbol Mo and atomic number 42. The name is from Neo-Latin Molybdaenum, from Ancient Greek , meaning lead, itself proposed as a loanword from Anatolian Luvian and Lydian languages, since its ores were confused with lead ores...
reserve in the world. Coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
, aluminum, alkaline metals and tungsten
Tungsten
Tungsten , also known as wolfram , is a chemical element with the chemical symbol W and atomic number 74.A hard, rare metal under standard conditions when uncombined, tungsten is found naturally on Earth only in chemical compounds. It was identified as a new element in 1781, and first isolated as...
are also present in large amounts in western Henan. Export and processing of these materials is one of the main sources of revenues.
Henan is actively trying to build its economy around the provincial capital of Zhengzhou, and it is hoped that the province may become an important transportation and manufacturing hub in the years to come. In 2008, the total trade volume (import and export) was US$17.5 billion, including US$10.7 billion for exports. Since 2002, 7,111 foreign enterprises have been approved, and foreign funds (FDI
Foreign direct investment
Foreign direct investment or foreign investment refers to the net inflows of investment to acquire a lasting management interest in an enterprise operating in an economy other than that of the investor.. It is the sum of equity capital,other long-term capital, and short-term capital as shown in...
) of US$10.64 billion have been used in contracts with a realized FDI of US$5.3 billion. Foreign exchanges are increasing continuously. Friendly provincial relationships have been established with 16 states (districts) in the United States, Japan, Russia, France, Germany, and others. Some cities of Henan have established friendly relationships (sister city) with thirty-two foreign cities.
Henan's service sector is rather small and underdeveloped. Finance
Finance
"Finance" is often defined simply as the management of money or “funds” management Modern finance, however, is a family of business activity that includes the origination, marketing, and management of cash and money surrogates through a variety of capital accounts, instruments, and markets created...
and commerce
Commerce
While business refers to the value-creating activities of an organization for profit, commerce means the whole system of an economy that constitutes an environment for business. The system includes legal, economic, political, social, cultural, and technological systems that are in operation in any...
is largely concentrated in urban centers such as Zhengzhou
Zhengzhou
Zhengzhou , is the capital and largest city of Henan province in north-central China. A prefecture-level city, it also serves as the political, economic, technological, and educational centre of the province, as well as a major transportation hub for Central China...
and Luoyang
Luoyang
Luoyang is a prefecture-level city in western Henan province of Central China. It borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyang to the south, Sanmenxia to the west, Jiyuan to the north, and Jiaozuo to the northeast.Situated on the central plain of...
, where the economy is fueled by a large and relatively affluent consumer base. In order to make the economy more knowledge and technology based, the government established a number of development zones all of the major cities, promoting industries such as software, information technologies, new materials, bio-pharmaceutical and photo-machinery-electronic industries. Henan is a major destination for tourist
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
s, with places such as Shaolin Temple and Longmen Grottoes
Longmen Grottoes
The Longmen Grottoes or Longmen Caves are one of the finest examples of Chinese Buddhist art. Housing tens of thousands of statues of Buddha and his disciples, they are located south of present day Luòyáng in Hénán province, Peoples Republic of China...
attracting millions of tourists each year.
Transportation
Henan has some of the most advanced transportation system in China due to its flat terrain and its location at the heart of central China's construction boom. The JingguangJingguang Railway
The Beijing–Guangzhou Railway or Jingguang Railway is a major arterial railway in the China that connects Beijing in the north with Guangzhou in the south. This dual-track electrified line has a total length of 2,324 kilometres and spans five provinces through north, central and south China...
and Longhai Railway, the nation's two most important railways, run through much of the province and intersects at Zhengzhou
Zhengzhou
Zhengzhou , is the capital and largest city of Henan province in north-central China. A prefecture-level city, it also serves as the political, economic, technological, and educational centre of the province, as well as a major transportation hub for Central China...
. Other railway hubs such as Shangqiu
Shangqiu
Shangqiu is a city in eastern Henan province, Central China. It borders Kaifeng to the northwest, Zhoukou to the southwest, and the provinces of Shandong and Anhui to the northeast and southeast respectively. An ancient city with a rich history, Shangqiu was also the first capital of the Shang...
, Xinxiang
Xinxiang
Xinxiang is a prefecture-level city in northern Henan province, People's Republic of China. It borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to its southwest, Kaifeng to its southeast, Hebi and Anyang to its north, Jiaozuo to its west, and the provinces of Shanxi and Shandong to its northwest and...
, and Luohe
Luohe
Luohe is a prefecture-level city in central Henan province, People's Republic of China. It is surrounded by the cities of Xuchang, Zhoukou, Zhumadian and Pingdingshan on its north, east, south and west respectively.-Administration:...
have also become important centers of trade and manufacturing as a result. A high-speed rail
High-speed rail
High-speed rail is a type of passenger rail transport that operates significantly faster than the normal speed of rail traffic. Specific definitions by the European Union include for upgraded track and or faster for new track, whilst in the United States, the U.S...
way links Zhengzhou with Xi'an
Xi'an
Xi'an is the capital of the Shaanxi province, and a sub-provincial city in the People's Republic of China. One of the oldest cities in China, with more than 3,100 years of history, the city was known as Chang'an before the Ming Dynasty...
. Henan's expressway system is highly developed and the total length is approximately 5,000 km, higher than any other province in China. The state of air transport is less stellar, the only 3 public airports are located in Xinzheng
Xinzheng
Xinzheng is a small county-level city of Zhengzhou in the south of Henan province of Central China. The city has a population of 600,000 people and covers an area of .-History:...
(near Zhengzhou), Luoyang
Luoyang
Luoyang is a prefecture-level city in western Henan province of Central China. It borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyang to the south, Sanmenxia to the west, Jiyuan to the north, and Jiaozuo to the northeast.Situated on the central plain of...
, and Nanyang
Nanyang, Henan
Nanyang is a prefecture-level city in the southwest of Henan province, People's Republic of China. The city with the largest administrative area in Henan, Nanyang borders Xinyang to the southeast, Zhumadian to the east, Pingdingshan to the northeast, Luoyang to the north, Sanmenxia to the...
.
Culture
- Most of Henan speaks dialects of the Mandarin group of dialects spoken in northern and southwestern China. Linguists put these dialects into the category of "Zhongyuan MandarinZhongyuan MandarinCentral Plains or Zhongyuan Mandarin is a dialect of Mandarin Chinese spoken in the central part of Shaanxi, Henan, and southern part of Shandong.The archaic dialect of Peking opera is a form of Zhongyuan Mandarin....
". The northwestern corner of Henan is an exception, where people speak Jin dialects instead. The dialects of Henan are collectively called "the Henan dialect" in popular usage, with easily identifiable stereotypical features.
- Henan opera (Yuju) is the local form of Chinese operaChinese operaChinese opera is a popular form of drama and musical theatre in China with roots going back as far as the third century CE...
; it is also famous and popular across the rest of China. Henan Quju and Henan Yuediao are also important local opera forms.
- Henan cuisineHenan cuisineHenan cuisine is derived from the native cooking styles of the Henan region in China. It is a cross between the Jiangsu cuisine, with which it shares the trait of selecting ingredients according to the four seasons, and to a lesser extent, the Beijing cuisine, from which it adopted many cooking...
is the local cuisine, with traditions such as the Luoyang Shuixi (LuoyangLuoyangLuoyang is a prefecture-level city in western Henan province of Central China. It borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyang to the south, Sanmenxia to the west, Jiyuan to the north, and Jiaozuo to the northeast.Situated on the central plain of...
"Water Table", consisting entirely of various soups, etc.); Xinyang Duncai (XinyangXinyangXinyang is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Henan province, People's Republic of China, the southernmost such administrative division in the province.-Recent history:...
brewed vegetables), and the traditional cuisine of Kaifeng.
- Important traditional art and craft products include: Junci, a type of porcelain originating in Yuzhou noted for its unpredictable colour patterns; the jade carvings of ZhenpingZhenping County, HenanZhenping County, Henan is a county of Henan, China. It is under the administration of Nanyang city....
; and LuoyangLuoyangLuoyang is a prefecture-level city in western Henan province of Central China. It borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyang to the south, Sanmenxia to the west, Jiyuan to the north, and Jiaozuo to the northeast.Situated on the central plain of...
's Tangsancai ("Tang Three Colours"), which are earthenware figurines made in the traditional style of the Tang DynastyTang DynastyThe Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
.
Tourism
Henan is located in the Yellow River valley where ancient people lived. Earlier in the New Stone Age, the light of civilization had appeared and the delicate potteries in the Peiligang Culture and Yangshao Culture, and the character signs and musical instruments 8,000 years ago have filled the present world and the ancient times with wonders. Three of the Seven Ancient Capitals of China are in Henan: LuoyangLuoyang
Luoyang is a prefecture-level city in western Henan province of Central China. It borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyang to the south, Sanmenxia to the west, Jiyuan to the north, and Jiaozuo to the northeast.Situated on the central plain of...
, Kaifeng
Kaifeng
Kaifeng , known previously by several names , is a prefecture-level city in east-central Henan province, Central China. Nearly 5 million people live in the metropolitan area...
and Anyang
Anyang
Anyang is a prefecture-level city in Henan province, People's Republic of China. The northernmost city in Henan, Anyang borders Puyang to the east, Hebi and Xinxiang to the south, and the provinces of Shanxi and Hebei to its west and north respectively....
. Henan is one of the few provinces which has many historical relics in the country. There are 16 key national units of protecting historical relics and 267 provincial units of protecting historical relics. The over-ground historical relics are the second in China in number. Historical relics in museums take up one-eighth of those in China, and the underground historical relics are the first in China in number. In Henan Museum there are 120,000 historical relics, including over 40,000 rare ones.
- Gaocheng Astronomical ObservatoryGaocheng Astronomical ObservatoryGaocheng Astronomical Observatory, also known as the Dengfeng Observatory, is a World Heritage Site in Duke Zhou Gong's shrine, Gaocheng Town, near Dengfeng in Henan Province, China. This site has a long tradition of astronomical observations, from the time of the Western Zhou up to the early Yuan...
, the oldest astronomical observatory in China. - Annual Peony Show in LuoyangLuoyangLuoyang is a prefecture-level city in western Henan province of Central China. It borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyang to the south, Sanmenxia to the west, Jiyuan to the north, and Jiaozuo to the northeast.Situated on the central plain of...
. - Mount Jigong, on the southern border.
- Mount SongMount SongMount Song, known in Chinese as Song Shan , is one of the Five Sacred Mountains of Taoism and is located in Henan province on the south bank of the Yellow River in China...
, near DengfengDengfengDengfeng is a county-level city in Zhengzhou, Henan province. In ancient times, it was known as Yangcheng .Dengfeng has an area of 1220 square kilometers and a population of 630,000....
, one of the Five Sacred Mountains of China. - Shaolin Temple, on Mount Song.
- The Longmen GrottoesLongmen GrottoesThe Longmen Grottoes or Longmen Caves are one of the finest examples of Chinese Buddhist art. Housing tens of thousands of statues of Buddha and his disciples, they are located south of present day Luòyáng in Hénán province, Peoples Republic of China...
, near Luoyang, a UNESCOUNESCOThe United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
World Heritage SiteWorld Heritage SiteA UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
since 2000. - Songyue PagodaSongyue PagodaThe Songyue Pagoda , constructed in 523 AD, is located at the Songyue Monastery on Mount Song, in Henan province, China. Built during the Northern Wei Dynasty, this pagoda is one of the few intact sixth-century pagodas in China and is also the earliest known Chinese brick pagoda...
- YinxuYinxuYinxu is the ruins of the last capital of China's Shang Dynasty. The capital served 255 years for 12 kings in 8 generations.Rediscovered in 1899, it is one of the oldest and largest archeological sites in China and is one of the historical capitals of China and a UNESCO World Heritage Site...
in AnyangAnyangAnyang is a prefecture-level city in Henan province, People's Republic of China. The northernmost city in Henan, Anyang borders Puyang to the east, Hebi and Xinxiang to the south, and the provinces of Shanxi and Hebei to its west and north respectively....
, a UNESCOUNESCOThe United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
World Heritage SiteWorld Heritage SiteA UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
. - Youguo TempleYouguo TempleYouguo Temple is a Buddhist monastery complex located northeast of Kaifeng, in Henan province, China. It was built by the Song Dynasty...
with the Iron PagodaIron PagodaThe Iron Pagoda of Youguo Temple , Kaifeng City, Henan province, is a Buddhist Chinese pagoda built in 1049 C.E. during the Song Dynasty of China. The pagoda is so-named not because it is made of iron, but because its colour resembles that of iron... - White Horse TempleWhite Horse TempleWhite Horse Temple is, according to tradition, the first Buddhist temple in China, established in 68 AD under the patronage of Emperor Ming in the Eastern Han capital Luoyang. Today the site is located just outside the walls of the ancient Eastern Han capital, some east of Luoyang in Henan...
in Luoyang - Baligou (Eight-mile valley, 八里沟) in Xinxiang
- Bigan Temple (比干庙) in Xinxiang
- Luwang Mausoleum (潞王陵) in Xinxiang
- Guan Mountain (关山) in Xinxiang
Colleges and universities
Public (a partial list)- Zhengzhou UniversityZhengzhou UniversityZhengzhou University , colloquially known in Chinese as Zhèngdà is a public university located in Zhengzhou, Henan, People's Republic of China.- History :...
(郑州大学)http://www.zzu.edu.cn - Henan UniversityHenan UniversityHenan University is a public university in Kaifeng, Henan, China.-History:Founded in 1912, Henan University is one of the oldest universities in China. It was originally named the Preparatory School for Further Study in Europe and America...
(河南大学)http://www.henu.edu.cn/ - Henan Normal UniversityHenan Normal UniversityHenan Normal University , colloqiually known as 河师大 Héshīdà), is a public normal university located in Xinxiang, Henan, China.- History :...
(河南师范大学)http://www.henannu.edu.cn - Henan University of TechnologyHenan University of TechnologyHenan University of Technology , formerly known as Zhengzhou Institute of Technology and Zhengzhou Polytechnic Institute, is a public university in Zhengzhou, the capital city of Henan province. It was established in 1956.-History:...
(河南工业大学)http://www.haut.edu.cn/ - Henan Agricultural UniversityHenan Agricultural UniversityHenan Agricultural University is a public university located in Zhengzhou, Henan, China.It was established in 1912 under the name as Henan Public Agricultural Major School. The school area is approximately 144000㎡...
(河南农业大学) (founded 1913) - Henan Medical University
- Henan College of Traditional Chinese MedicineHenan College of Traditional Chinese MedicineHenan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine is a public university located in Zhengzhou, Henan, China....
(河南中医学院) - Henan University of Science and TechnologyHenan University of Science and TechnologyHenan University of Science and Technology is a comprehensive teaching and research university which ranks top three in Henan Provice...
(河南科技大学） - Kaifeng University (开封大学)http://www.kfu.edu.cn/
- Xinxiang University (新乡学院） [www.xxu.edu.cn]
- Huanghe Science and Technology UniversityHuanghe Science and Technology UniversityHuanghe Science and Technology College is a private four-year university located in Zhengzhou, Henan, People's Republic of China.-External links:...
(黄河科技学院) - Nanyang Institute of Technology
- North China Institute of Water Conservancy and Hydroelectric PowerNorth China Institute of Water Conservancy and Hydroelectric PowerNorth China University of Water Conservancy and Electric Power is a teaching and research university established in 1951 and is now located in Zhengzhou, Henan Province...
(华北水利水电学院) - Shangqiu Normal UniversityShangqiu Normal UniversityShangqiu Normal University , formerly known as Shangqiu Teachers' College, is a small public university in the city of Shangqiu, in Henan Province of China....
(商丘师范学院) - Zhengzhou Institute of Aeronautical Industry ManagementZhengzhou Institute of Aeronautical Industry ManagementZhengzhou Institute of Aeronautical Industry Management is a public university located in Zhengzhou, Henan, China.-External links:...
(郑州航空工业管理学院) - Zhengzhou University of Light IndustryZhengzhou University of Light Industry- Information :About ZZULIFounded in 1977, Zhengzhou University of Light Industry was administered successively by the Ministry of Light Industry, the National Council of Light Industry, and the State Economic and Trade Commission until it was transferred to Henan Province as an institution...
(郑州轻工业学院) - Zhongyuan Institute of TechnologyZhongyuan Institute of TechnologyZhongyuan University of Technology , formerly Zhengzhou Textile Institute , is a public university located in Zhengzhou, Henan province, China. It comprises three campuses, a central, south, and west campus.-History:The University was founded in 1955 under the name Zhengzhou Textile Institute...
(中原工学院) - Henan Polytechnic (河南职业技术学院)http://www.hnzj.ha.cn
- Jiaozuo Institute of Technology
- Anyang Teacher's College
- Zhengzhou Grain University
- Zhengzhou University of Technology
- Zhengzhou Textile Institute
- Zhengzhou College of Animal Husbandry Engineering
- Luo Yang Institute of Technology
- Pingdingshan Normal College
- Xinyang Teachers College
- Xinxiang Medical UniversityXinxiang Medical UniversityXinxiang Medical University is located at Xinxiang city in the northern part of Henan province of China.Xinxiang Medical University has a vast campus with about 7000 undergraduates....
- Henan Vocational Technical Teacher's College
- Nanyang Teachers College(南阳师院)http://www.nytc.edu.cn
Notable people
- Sun TiantianSun TiantianSun Tiantian is a Chinese female tennis player.- Career :In September 2000, Tiantian won two successive US$10,000 ITF singles titles, a feat she would repeat in June 2001, when she won another two back-to-back....
, (b. October 12, 1981), tennis player - Zhao ZiyangZhao ZiyangZhao Ziyang was a high-ranking politician in the People's Republic of China . He was the third Premier of the People's Republic of China from 1980 to 1987, and General Secretary of the Communist Party of China from 1987 to 1989....
, (October 17, 1919 – January 17, 2005), former PremierPremier of the People's Republic of ChinaThe Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China , sometimes also referred to as the "Prime Minister" informally, is the Leader of the State Council of the People's Republic of China , who is the head of government and holds the highest-ranking of the Civil service of the...
and CCP SecretaryGeneral Secretary of the Communist Party of ChinaThe General Secretary of the Communist Party of China , officially General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is the highest ranking official within the Communist Party of China, a standing member of the Politburo and head of the Secretariat... - Deng YapingDeng YapingDeng Yaping is a Chinese table tennis player, who won six world championships and four Olympic championships between 1989 and 1997...
, (b. February 5, 1973), four-time OlympicOlympic GamesThe Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
gold medalist. - Du WeiDu Wei (footballer)Du Wei is a Chinese football player who currently captains Hangzhou Greentown in the Chinese Super League. He is also the current captain of the Chinese football team and was a participant at the 2002 FIFA World Cup.-Club career:...
(b. February 9, 1982), professional football player - Ge Xin'ai, (b. June 30, 1953) Table tennisTable tennisTable tennis, also known as ping-pong, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight, hollow ball back and forth using table tennis rackets. The game takes place on a hard table divided by a net...
World Champion (1975, 1977, 1979) - Chen ZhongChen ZhongChen Zhong is a retired Chinese taekwondo competitor who represented her country at international level for more than 10 years, including three consecutive Summer Olympic Games. She won China's first Olympic gold medal in taekwondo at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, and successfully defended...
, Olympic gold medalist in TaekwondoTaekwondoTaekwondo is a Korean martial art and the national sport of South Korea. In Korean, tae means "to strike or break with foot"; kwon means "to strike or break with fist"; and do means "way", "method", or "path"... - Liu GuoliangLiu GuoliangLiu Guoliang is a Chinese table tennis player who won all titles at major world tournaments including World Championships, World Cup and Olympic Games. The second man to achieve a career grand slam of 3 majors . He is considered by many to be one of the greatest players of all time.-Biography:Liu...
, member of the Chinese ping pong team - Su Zhibo, the first Chinese gold medalist in the Asian GamesAsian GamesThe Asian Games, officially known as Asiad, is a multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia. The Games were regulated by the Asian Games Federation from the first Games in New Delhi, India, until the 1978 Games. Since the 1982 Games they have been organised by the...
- Shang TangTang of ShangKing Cheng Tang of Shang was the first ruling king of the Shang dynasty in Chinese history. He overthrew Jie, the last ruler of the Xia dynasty.-Early life:...
, the first ruling king of the Shang dynastyShang DynastyThe Shang Dynasty or Yin Dynasty was, according to traditional sources, the second Chinese dynasty, after the Xia. They ruled in the northeastern regions of the area known as "China proper" in the Yellow River valley... - Hui ShiHui ShiHui Shi , or Huizi , was a Chinese philosopher during the Warring States Period. He was a representative of the School of Names , and is famous for ten paradoxes about the relativity of time and space, for instance, "I set off for Yue today and came there yesterday."-Works mentioning Hui Shi:The...
, (380 BC–?), philosopher - Xu ShenXu ShenXǔ Shèn was a Chinese philologist of the Han Dynasty. He was the author of Shuowen Jiezi, the first Chinese dictionary with character analysis, as well as the first to organize the characters by shared components. It contains over 9,000 character entries under 540 radicals, explaining the origins...
, (c.58–c.147), editor of the Shuowen JieziShuowen JieziThe Shuōwén Jiězì was an early 2nd century CE Chinese dictionary from the Han Dynasty. Although not the first comprehensive Chinese character dictionary , it was still the first to analyze the structure of the characters and to give the rationale behind them , as well as the first to use the... - Ruan JiRuan JiRuǎn Jí is one of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove. He is associated with the guqin melody, Jiu Kuang which was believed to be composed by him.- Historical background :...
, (210–263), poet - Du FuDu FuDu Fu was a prominent Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty.Along with Li Bai , he is frequently called the greatest of the Chinese poets. His greatest ambition was to serve his country as a successful civil servant, but he proved unable to make the necessary accommodations...
, (712–770), considered one of the greatest of Chinese poets - Han YuHan YuHan Yu , born in Nanyang, Henan, China, was a precursor of Neo-Confucianism as well as an essayist and poet, during the Tang dynasty. The Indiana Companion calls him "comparable in stature to Dante, Shakespeare or Goethe" for his influence on the Chinese literary tradition . He stood for strong...
, (768–824), one of China's most famous prose writers and poets - Li ShangyinLi ShangyinLi Shangyin , courtesy name Yishan , was a Chinese poet of the late Tang Dynasty, born in Henei . Along with Li He, he was much admired and "rediscovered" in the 20th century by the young Chinese writers for the imagist quality of his poems...
, (813–858), poet - Cheng HaoCheng HaoChéng Hào , styled Bochun , was a neo-Confucian philosopher from Luoyang, China. In his youth, he and his younger brother Cheng Yi were students of Zhou Dunyi, one of the architects of Neo-Confucian cosmology.-Life:...
, (1032–1085) and brother Cheng YiCheng Yi (philosopher)Cheng Yi , courtesy name Zhengshu , also known as Mr. Yichuan , was a Chinese philosopher born in Luoyang during the Song Dynasty. He worked with his older brother Cheng Hao . Like his brother, he was a student of Zhou Dunyi, a friend of Shao Yong, and a nephew of Zhang Zai...
(1033–1107), Neo-ConfucianNeo-ConfucianismNeo-Confucianism is an ethical and metaphysical Chinese philosophy influenced by Confucianism, that was primarily developed during the Song Dynasty and Ming Dynasty, but which can be traced back to Han Yu and Li Ao in the Tang Dynasty....
philosophers - Li Tang (c.1080–c.1130), painter
- Yuan ShikaiYuan ShikaiYuan Shikai was an important Chinese general and politician famous for his influence during the late Qing Dynasty, his role in the events leading up to the abdication of the last Qing Emperor of China, his autocratic rule as the second President of the Republic of China , and his short-lived...
, (1859–1916), second President of the Republic of ChinaPresident of the Republic of ChinaThe President of the Republic of China is the head of state and commander-in-chief of the Republic of China . The Republic of China was founded on January 1, 1912, to govern all of China... - Feng YoulanFeng YoulanFeng Youlan or Fung Yu-Lan was a Chinese philosopher who was important for reintroducing the study of Chinese philosophy.-Early life, education, & career:...
, (1895–1990), philosopher - Lao Zi, (Lao Tzu: dates uncertain), founder of Daoism
- Chuang Tzu, (b. 369 BC), Daoist philosopher
- Gao YaojieGao YaojieGao Yaojie is a Chinese gynecologist, academic, and AIDS activist in Zhengzhou, Henan province, China. Gao has been honored for her work by the United Nations and Western organizations, and has spent time under house arrest.-Biography:...
, medical doctor - Mo ZiMoziMozi |Lat.]] as Micius, ca. 470 BC – ca. 391 BC), original name Mo Di , was a Chinese philosopher during the Hundred Schools of Thought period . Born in Tengzhou, Shandong Province, China, he founded the school of Mohism, and argued strongly against Confucianism and Daoism...
, founder of MohismMohismMohism or Moism was a Chinese philosophy developed by the followers of Mozi , 470 BC–c.391 BC... - Lie YukouLie YukouLie Yukou is considered the author of the Daoist book Liezi, which uses his honorific name Liezi . The second Chinese character in Yukou is written kou 寇 "bandit; enemy"; the first is written yu 圄 "imprison", yu 禦 "resist; ward off", or occasionally yu 御 "drive ; ride ; control" Lie Yukou is...
, (c. 4th century BC), Daoist philosopher - Su QinSu QinSu Qin , was an influential political strategist during the Warring States Period of Chinese history . He was born in Chengxuan Village, Luoyang in present day Henan Province. According to legend Su Qin was a disciple of Gui Guzi, the founder of the School of Diplomacy...
- Han FeiHan FeiHan Fei was a Chinese philosopher who, along with Li Si, Gongsun Yang, Shen Dao and Shen Buhai, developed the doctrine of the School of Law or Legalism...
, (c. 280–233 BC), LegalistLegalism (Chinese philosophy)In Chinese history, Legalism was one of the main philosophic currents during the Warring States Period, although the term itself was invented in the Han Dynasty and thus does not refer to an organized 'school' of thought....
philosopher - Chen ShengChen ShengChen Sheng , also known in some sources as Chen She , was the leader of the first rebellion, known as Daze Village Uprising, against the Qin Dynasty during the reign of Qin Er Shi.-Start of the rebellion:...
, (known in some sources as Chen She) and Wu GuangWu GuangWu Guang was a leader of the first rebellion against Qin Dynasty during the reign of Qin Er Shi, following the death of Qin Shi Huang. Less is known about him than Chen Sheng.-Biography:Wu was born in Yangxia...
(both d. 209 BC or 208 BC), leaders of the first rebellion against Qin Dynasty - Jia YiJia YiJia Yi was a Chinese poet and statesman of the Han Dynasty.- Life:Jia Yi was born in 201 BCE in Luoyang....
, a Chinese poet and statesman of the Han DynastyHan DynastyThe Han Dynasty was the second imperial dynasty of China, preceded by the Qin Dynasty and succeeded by the Three Kingdoms . It was founded by the rebel leader Liu Bang, known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu of Han. It was briefly interrupted by the Xin Dynasty of the former regent Wang Mang... - Zhang HengZhang HengZhang Heng was a Chinese astronomer, mathematician, inventor, geographer, cartographer, artist, poet, statesman, and literary scholar from Nanyang, Henan. He lived during the Eastern Han Dynasty of China. He was educated in the capital cities of Luoyang and Chang'an, and began his career as a...
, an astronomerAstronomerAn astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...
, mathematicianMathematicianA mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
, inventor, geographerGeographerA geographer is a scholar whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society.Although geographers are historically known as people who make maps, map making is actually the field of study of cartography, a subset of geography...
, artistArtistAn artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
, poetPoetA poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, statesmanStatesmanA statesman is usually a politician or other notable public figure who has had a long and respected career in politics or government at the national and international level. As a term of respect, it is usually left to supporters or commentators to use the term...
, and literary scholar of the Eastern Han Dynasty - Feng YiFeng YiFeng Yi was a Chinese general of the Eastern Han Dynasty. He was famous for his modest character; he would sit under a tree while the other generals were receiving rewards for their conquests. For this particular reason, he was called The Big Tree General...
, a general of the Eastern Han DynastyHan DynastyThe Han Dynasty was the second imperial dynasty of China, preceded by the Qin Dynasty and succeeded by the Three Kingdoms . It was founded by the rebel leader Liu Bang, known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu of Han. It was briefly interrupted by the Xin Dynasty of the former regent Wang Mang... - Zhang JiZhang ZhongjingZhang Zhongjing , formal name Zhang Ji, was a Han Dynasty physician and one of the most eminent Chinese physicians during the later years of the Han Dynasty...
(style-named Zhang ZhongjingZhang ZhongjingZhang Zhongjing , formal name Zhang Ji, was a Han Dynasty physician and one of the most eminent Chinese physicians during the later years of the Han Dynasty...
) (150–219), an Eastern Han physician, the author of the Shanghan Zabing Lun - Xu ShuXu ShuXu Shu was an advisor to the warlord Cao Cao during the late Han Dynasty period of Chinese history. He initially served Liu Bei before joining Cao Cao in 208.-Biography:...
, one of Liu Bei'sLiu BeiLiu Bei , also known as Liu Xuande, was a warlord, military general and later the founding emperor of the state of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms era of Chinese history...
advisors during the Three KingdomsThree KingdomsThe Three Kingdoms period was a period in Chinese history, part of an era of disunity called the "Six Dynasties" following immediately the loss of de facto power of the Han Dynasty rulers. In a strict academic sense it refers to the period between the foundation of the state of Wei in 220 and the...
period of China. - Sima YiSima YiSima Yi was a general and politician of the state of Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms era of Chinese history. He is perhaps best known for defending Wei from Zhuge Liang's Northern Expeditions...
, (179–251), a general, military strategist, and politician of Cao WeiCao WeiCao Wei was one of the states that competed for control of China during the Three Kingdoms period. With the capital at Luoyang, the state was established by Cao Pi in 220, based upon the foundations that his father Cao Cao laid...
during the Three Kingdoms period - Xun YuXun YuXun Yu was a strategist and statesman who served as an advisor to the warlord Cao Cao during the late Han Dynasty period of Chinese history.-Early life:...
, (styled-named Wenruo), an advisor to Cao CaoCao CaoCao Cao was a warlord and the penultimate chancellor of the Eastern Han Dynasty who rose to great power during the dynasty's final years. As one of the central figures of the Three Kingdoms period, he laid the foundations for what was to become the state of Cao Wei and was posthumously titled...
during the Three Kingdoms period - Xun YouXun YouXun You was an advisor to the warlord Cao Cao during the late Han Dynasty period of Chinese history. He later opposed Cao Cao taking the title of "King of Wei". His uncle, Xun Yu, was better known. In the Wade-Giles version of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, he and his uncle have the same name, Xun...
, an advisor to Cao Cao during the Three Kingdoms Period period - Deng AiDeng AiDeng Ai was a military general of Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms era of Chinese history. It was said that whenever he saw a hill or wide valley, he would immediately size up the best places to store grain and position troops. His talent was recognized by Sima Yi, who recommended him to take up...
, (?–264), an officer of Cao WeiCao WeiCao Wei was one of the states that competed for control of China during the Three Kingdoms period. With the capital at Luoyang, the state was established by Cao Pi in 220, based upon the foundations that his father Cao Cao laid...
during the Three Kingdoms period - Fan ZhenFan ZhenFan Zhen was a Chinese philosopher of the Southern Dynasty, remembered today for his treatise Shén Miè Lùn ....
, (circa 450–515), a Chinese philosopher of the Southern Dynasty, remembered today for the treatise Shen Mie Lun (On the Annihilation of the Soul) - Yue FeiYue FeiYue Fei , style name Pengju, was a military general of the Southern Song Dynasty. His ancestral home was in Xiaoti, Yonghe Village, Tangyin, Xiangzhou, Henan...
, (1103–1142) a famous Chinese patriot and military general who fought for the Southern Song Dynasty against the Jurchen
Miscellaneous topics
Professional sports teams in Henan include;- Chinese Basketball AssociationChinese Basketball AssociationThe Chinese Basketball Association , often abbreviated to the CBA, is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in China.The league is commonly known as the CBA, and this acronym is often used even in Chinese...
- Henan DragonsHenan DragonsThe Shanxi Zhongyu Brave Dragons are a basketball team in the North Division of the Chinese Basketball Association, based in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, China.-History:...
- Henan Dragons
- Chinese Football Association Jia LeagueChinese Football Association Jia LeagueThe China League One is the second tier professional league for Chinese football clubs. The league is under the auspices of the Chinese Football Association. Above the League One is Chinese Super League....
- Henan JianyeHenan JianyeHenan Construction is a Chinese professional association football club based in Zhengzhou , in the province of Henan , China. The clubs predecessor was the Henan Provincial Team who were founded in 1958 while the current professional football team was established on August 27, 1994...
- Henan Jianye
Other;
- Henan has one of the largest ChristianChristianity in HenanHenan province of China has one of the largest Christian populations of East Asia. Christianity is a population of millions in Henan, most of them attending Chinese house churches. Christianity in Henan is a notable proportion of Christianity in China at large. Henan has one of the largest...
populations in China.