Huanggang, Hubei
Huanggang City (
Chinese: 黃冈;
pinyin: Huánggāng) is a major municipality (also known as a Prefecture) in eastern
Hubei Province,
China. It is situated to the north of the middle reaches of the
Yangtze River and is bounded in the north by the
Dabie Shan mountain range.
Seven counties fall under its jurisdiction (
Tuanfeng,
Hongan,
Xishui,
Qichun,
Huangmei,
Luotian, and
Yingshan) plus two county-level cities (
Wuxue and
Macheng), as well as two direct administrative divisions (
Huangzhou and
Longganghu).
The complete municipality covers 9,861 square kilometers and the total population was 7,227,000 at the 2002 census.
Huanggang has a history of at least 2,000 years.
Huanggang is home to several significant cultural sites of historical interest, such as the Buddhist Ancestral Hall of
Sakyamuni at
Doufang Mountain,
Wuzu Temple and its
Changchun Nunnery, and
Dongpo Red Cliff.
Huanggang has a diversified economy, ranging from bio- and herbal medicine to manufacturing, agriculture, and tourism. Since ancient times, Huanggang has been renowned for local specialties such as the "
Qichun Four Treasures" (snake, turtle, bamboo, and moxa),
Huangmei "tiaohua" embroidery, and Wuxue "zhangshuiqian" bamboo products. Today, Huanggang at large is recognized for organic vegetables. With its "Guihuaxiang" brand of
chestnuts,
Luotian is the leading chestnut-growing county in all of China.
Yingshan is famous for its "cloud mist" green
tea.
Qichun, of course, is famous for
herbal medicine.
Macheng is a national model county for
cattle breeding.
Huangmei is a major center of freshwater
shrimp and fragrant
jade rice production. And
Hongan peanut production ranks the first in
Hubei Province.
Huanggang enjoys an excellent transportation infrastructure.
Wuhan airport is only 90 kilometers (km) to the west, while
Jiujiang airport in
Jiangxi Province to the east is only 160km away. Being on the
Yangtze River, Wuhan main port is within 80km and
Huangzhou city has a small bulk-handling port. There is an extensive road network, with three north-south and seven east-west major roads within the main city area. The city also is served by several new expressways, including the north-south "Jingzhu" (
Beijing to
Zhuhai, in
Guangdong Province) expressway and the east-west
Wuhan to
Shanghai expressway. Huanggang also is on the main north-south "Jingjiu" (
Beijing to
Hong Kong) and "Jingguang" (
Beijing to
Guangzhou, in
Guangdong) railway lines. And to cross the
Yangtze by road, there are three bridges routes: to
Ezhou,
Huangshi, and
Jiujiang.
Huanggang prefecture is the birthplace of several famous Chinese inventors, scientists, and scholars, including:
*
Bi Sheng, the inventor of movable type printing;
*
Cheng Yi, ancient idealist philosopher;
*
Li Shizhen, herbalist and author of the ancient medical classic
Compendium of Materia Medica;
*
Li Siguang, ecologist; and
*
Wen Yiduo, patriotic poet.
As well, Huanggang is famous for breeding military and political leaders.
Hongan County is known as the "County of Generals" in that more than 400 Chinese army generals have been born there, a total far greater than for any other county in all of China. In addition, former military leader and President of China,
Li Xiannian (1909-1992), was born in Hongan.
*
Huanggang Government Website (bilingual Chinese-English)
*
Huanggang Government website (Chinese)
