Wuhu Intro
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Wuhu (simplified Chinese: 芜湖; traditional Chinese: 蕪湖; pinyin: Wúhú; literally “Weedy Lake”) is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Anhui province, China. Sitting on the southeast bank of the Yangtze River, Wuhu borders Xuancheng to the southeast, Chizhou and Tongling to the southwest, Hefei to the northwest, Ma’anshan to the northeast, and the province of Jiangsu to the east, and is approximately 90 km (56 mi) southwest of Nanjing. Its population was 3,845,100 inhabitants at the 2015 census whom 1,449,800 in the built-up (or metro) area made of 3 out of 4 urban districts (all but Sanshan not yet continuously urbanized).[clarification needed]
Demographics
By the end of 2015, the total population was estimated to be 3,845,100，of whom 1,449,800 live in the 4 urban districts and the others live in the counties. Vast majority of the local population are Han Chinese, though there are some Muslim Hui people as minorities. Jiang-Huai Mandarin, a branch of Mandarin Chinese, was widely spoken in urban area, while some people in the counties spoke Wu Chinese. Putonghua, or Standard Mandarin was commonly used in this area.
History
Wuhu is known to have been inhabited since at least 770 BCE. It became a strategically important town during the Three Kingdoms period (220-280 AD), when it was controlled by the Eastern Wu. At this time it was known as Jiuzi (Chiu-tzu 鸠兹). Under the Ming dynasty, Wuhu developed into a major commercial center and river port and since that time has been known as a center of the rice trade.
In 1644, the Hongguang Emperor (better known as the Prince of Fu), one of the last emperors of the Ming Dynasty, was captured by forces of the new Qing Dynasty in Wuhu. The city became a treaty port in 1876 and has remained a commercial center since that time. The city’s Roman Catholic cathedral, St. Joseph’s Cathedral (圣若瑟主教座堂), dates from this time. Most of the downtown area alongside the Yangtze River was ceded in the British concession.
Trade in rice, wood, and tea flourished at Wuhu until the Warlord Era of the 1920s and 1930s, when bandits were active in the area.
At the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War, part of the Second World War, Wuhu was occupied by Japan on December 10, 1937. This was a prelude to the Battle of Nanjing, ending in the Nanjing Massacre. Under Japanese occupation, Chinese resistance fighters hid in the lakes around Wuhu by submerging themselves and breathing through reeds[citation needed].
Major industries began to be developed in Wuhu after the Second World War, with the development of the textile industry, shipbuilding, and paper mills. Despite this, Wuhu had been lagging behind Ma’anshan and Tongling in industrial production for decades after the establishment of the China, and remained primarily a commercial center for trade in rice, silk, cotton, tea, wheat and eggs. However, with recent years’ economic rise, Wuhu has become a hub for manufacturing in the area.
Economy
The city is the second largest economy in Anhui, after Hefei, the provincial capital. In 2011, Wuhu’s GDP reached RMB 165.8 billion, an increase of 16.0% over the previous year. Its per capita GDP was RMB 47,028, with a year-on-year rise of 15.3%.[1]
Wuhu Economic &Technological Development Area in the north of the city launched in 1993 is one of the first state-level economic & technological development area in Anhui province, also has the only export processing zone in the province.[2][page needed] Chery Automobile and Anhui Conch Cement Company are both headquartered in this development area.
Wuhu is the fifth largest port alongside Yangtze River. Yuxikou Pier is the largest inland river coal harbor in China.
Folklore
An itinerant blacksmith named Tang Tianchi is reputed to have invented the wrought-iron picture in Wuhu, when a painter whom he admired chided him, “You will never make pictures by beating iron.”
Another blacksmith of the Spring and Autumn period (770-476 BC) named Gan Jiang was famous for sword making. Zhe Shan (Reddish Brown Hill) is said to get its colour from the flames of Gan Jiang’s furnace. Shen Shan (Sacred Hill) is the legendary location of his sword grinding rock and tempering pool.[/vc_column_text]
- Year 1876
- Year 1949
- 1990s
Trading port for foreign countries