Hefei

Old Hefei Map with wall

From the 8th to the 6th centuries BC, Hefei was the site of many small states, later a part of the Chu kingdom. Many archaeological finds dating from this period have been made. The name 'Hefei' was first given to the county set up in the area under the Han dynasty in the 2nd century BC.

In the 3rd century AD, the Battle of Xiaoyao Ford was fought at Xiaoyao Ford (逍遙津) in Hefei. Zhang Liao, a general of the Wei state, led 800 picked cavalry to defeat the 200,000-strong army from Wei's rival state Wu. Several decades of warring in Hefei between Wu and Wei followed this battle.

During the 4th to the 6th centuries AD, this crucial border region between northern and southern states was much fought over; its name and administrative status were consequently often changed. During the Sui (581–618) and Tang (618–907) periods, it became the seat of Lu prefecture—a title it kept until the 15th century, when it became a superior prefecture named Luzhou.

The present city dates from the Song dynasty (960–1126), the earlier Hefei having been some distance farther north. In the 10th year of Xining (熙宁, 1077 AD), the taxes collected from the Luchow Prefecture were 50315 Guan, approximately 25 million today's Chinese Yuan, with a ranking of the amount of taxes was the 11th(following Kaifeng, Hangzhou, Qinzhou, Chuzhou, Chengdu, Zizhou, Xingyuan, Mianzhou, Zhenzhou, Suzhou) among all the prefectures of Song Dynasty. During the 10th century, it was for a while the capital of the independent Wu kingdom (902–938) and was an important center of the Southern Tang state (937–975).

After 1127 it became a center of the defenses of the Southern Song dynasty (1126–1279) against the Jin (Jurchen) invaders in the Jin–Song wars, as well as a flourishing center of trade between the two states. When the Chinese Republic was founded in 1911, the superior prefecture was abolished, and the city took the name of Hefei. The city was known as Luchow or Liu-tcheou[12] (庐州, p Luzhou) during the Ming and Qing dynasties (after the 14th century to the 19th century). Hefei was the temporary capital for Anhui from 1853 to 1862. It was renamed as Hefei County in 1912. Following the Chinese victory in the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1945, Hefei was made the capital of Anhui.

Before World War II, Hefei remained essentially an administrative center and the regional market for the fertile plain to the south. It was a collecting center for grain, beans, cotton, and hemp, as well as a center for handicraft industries manufacturing cloth, leather, bamboo goods, and ironware.

The construction in 1912 of the Tianjin–Pukou railway, farther east, for a while made Hefei a provincial backwater, and much of its importance passed to Bengbu. In 1932–36, however, a Chinese company built a railway linking Hefei with Yuxikou (on the Yangtze opposite Wuhu) to the southeast and with the Huai River at Huainan to the north. While this railway was built primarily to exploit the rich coalfield in northern Anhui, it also did much to revive the economy of the Hefei area by taking much of its produce to Wuhu and Nanjing.

Although Hefei was a quiet market town of only about 30,000 in the mid-1930s, its population grew more than tenfold in the following 20 years. The city's administrative role was strengthened by the transfer of the provincial government from Anqing in 1945, but much of its new growth derived from its development as an industrial city. A cotton mill was opened in 1958, and a thermal generating plant, using coal from Huainan, was established in the early 1950s. It also became the seat of an industry producing industrial chemicals and chemical fertilizers. In the late 1950s an iron and steel complex was built. In addition to a machine-tool works and engineering and agricultural machinery factories, the city has developed an aluminum industry and a variety of light industries. There are several universities based in the city.

Map including Hefei (labeled as HO-FEI (LUCHOW) (walled) 合肥) (AMS, 1952)

Hefei is located 130 kilometres (81 mi) west of Nanjing in south-central Anhui. Chao Lake, a lake 15 km (9 mi) southeast of the city, is one of the largest fresh water lakes in China. Though, the lake has unfortunately been polluted with nitrogen and phosphorus, in recent decades,[13] the situation is improving due to efforts by both the government and the people.

The GDP was ¥1141.28 billion in 2021. The GDP per capita was ¥121187(ca.US$18784) in 2021.Ranked top 20 cities of China.[21]

Before the Chinese Civil War, Hefei's main industry was agriculture. After World War II, the capital of Anhui was moved from Anqing to Hefei. To assist the development of the city, many talented people were sent in from other parts of the country. Modern-day Hefei has machinery, electronics, chemistry, steel, textile, and cigarette industries, among others.

In the summer of 2005, the municipal government implemented changes designed to beautify the city by demolishing thousands of illegally built structures, and clearing away long-established marketplaces in many parts of the city. While these actions removed many unlicensed, and often poorly-constructed food stalls which had been contributing to the spread of disease and which posed fire hazards, these changes also removed longstanding businesses that had lined many streets throughout the city overnight. The impact on the local economy was felt immediately as hundreds, if not thousands, of low paid workers no longer had employment.

Hefei has been identified by the Economist Intelligence Unit in the November 2010 Access China White Paper as a member of the CHAMPS (Chongqing, Hefei, Anshan, Ma'anshan, Pingdingshan and Shenyang), an economic profile of the top 20 emerging cities in China.[22]

Hefei was identified by The Economist in December 2012 as the world's No.1 fastest growing metropolitan economy.[23]

Hefei South Railway Station

Hefei has been the provincial capital since 1945 (before it was Lihuang, which is today's Jinzhai) and is a natural center of transportation, being situated to the north of Lake Chao and standing on a low saddle crossing the northeastern extension of the Dabie Mountains, which form the divide between the Huai and Yangtze rivers. From Hefei there is easy water transport via the lake to the Yangtze River opposite Wuhu.

Hefei plays an important role in scientific research in China. It has seven national laboratories, second only to Beijing: The National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (Chinese: 国家同步辐射实验室; pinyin: Guójiā tóngbù fúshè shíyàn shì), the Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale (Chinese: 微尺度物质科学国家实验室; pinyin: Wēi chǐdù wùzhí kēxué guójiā shíyàn shì), both of which are under the University of Science and Technology of China. It also has the Institute of Solid State Physics, Institute of Plasma Physics, Institute of Intelligent Machines, High Magnetic Field Laboratory (founded in 2008), Anhui Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, all of which are under the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science which belongs to the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Hefei is the location of Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak, an experimental superconducting tokamak magnetic fusion energy reactor.

The No. 105 Hospital of the People's Liberation Army, located in Hefei, is reportedly the site of the first human trials using CRISPR genome editing, doing so in 2015.[25]

An overview of USTC, including the Teaching Building II and the library

• University of Science and Technology of China (USTC)
• Hefei University of Technology (HFUT)
• Anhui University (AHU)
• Anhui Agricultural University (AHAU)
• Anhui Medical University (AHMU)
• Anhui University of Chinese Medicine (AUCM)
• Anhui Jianzhu University (AHJU)
• Hefei Normal University (HNU)
• Hefei University (HU)
• Beihang University (BUAA) - Hefei Campus
• National University of Defense Technology (NUDT) - Hefei Campus
• Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) - Hefei Campus
• Tianjin University (TJU) - Hefei Graduate School
• Peking University (PKU) - Hefei Graduate School
• Tsinghua University (THU) - Hefei Institute of Public Safety Research

Yicheng Prison is located within the city. It was built during the 1983 "Strike Hard" campaign and was formerly Hefei Zhenxing Machine Parts Factory. On June 15, 1984, the Prov. Justice Dept. decided to change the name of the Machine Parts Factory's Internal Dept. to the Prov. Independent LRC. On March 17, 1986, the City's Party Committee and government agreed to the change. On April 26 more than 400 inmates were transferred to Hefei Shangzhangwei Farm and Baihu Farm. In February 1992 a secondary country level prison was created at the Shangzhangwei Farm. In August 1992 the Hefei City LRD level was upgraded by the government. June 1996 the prison was changed to its present name. It is currently controlled by Hefei city. It mainly houses prisoners with sentences of less than 5 years and houses up to 1000 prisoners a year. In the past 20 years, nearly 20,000 inmates have completed their sentences here. The prison mainly cultivates vegetables and rice but also cooperates with the Zhejiang Rongguang Group and produces soccer training shoes, soccer balls, tourism products, and other products.[26]

Hefei has its own football team called Anhui Jiufang, who in the 2007–08 season were promoted from the Chinese Football Association Yi League to the Chinese Football Association Jia League which is the second highest tier of Chinese football. It was acquired by Tianjin Runyulong in 2011.

Baohe Village (simplified Chinese: 包河浮庄; traditional Chinese: 包河浮莊; pinyin: Bāo hé fú zhuāng)

Fuzhuang in winter

• Sanhe Town, ancient town which has a history of more than 2,500 years.
• Xiaoyaojin Park, a public park sitting on the ancient site of the Battle of Xiaoyao Ford.
• Temple of Lord Bao, built in 1066 near the tomb of Lord Bao.
• Li Hongzhang's Former Residence (Chinese: 李鸿章故居; pinyin: Lǐhóngzhāng gùjū), built in the late 19th century and fully restored by the 1990s.
• Hui Garden (Chinese: 徽园; pinyin: Huī yuán) (Opened to the public in September 2001)
• Children's Welfare Institute (a.k.a. "Social Welfare Institute"), children's orphanage
• Anhui Laomingguang Stadium, the home ground of Anhui Jiufang, but also used for other public sporting events.

• Bao Zheng (999–1062), Northern Song dynasty bureaucrat and judge whose name has become synonymous with judicial wisdom and uprightness.
• Li Hongzhang (1823–1901), prominent late Qing dynasty bureaucrat and diplomat.
• Liu Mingchuan (1836–1896). Statesman during the late Qing dynasty, first governor of Taiwan.
• Duan Qirui (1865–1936), the Provisional Chief Executive of Republic of China (in Beijing) from November 24, 1924, to April 20, 1926.
• Susan Wu Rathbone (1921–2019), community leader in Queens, New York.
• Yang Chen-Ning, (b. 1922), 1957 Nobel Physics Prize laureate, for their work on parity nonconservation of weak interaction. One of the two earliest Chinese to receive the prize.
• Wu Bangguo(b. 1941), Chinese politician.
• Li Keqiang(b. 1955), PM of Chinese government.
• Yang Yuanqing (b. 1964), Chairman of Board of Lenovo.
• Han Qizhi, (b. 1970), first person to climb the Jin Mao Tower, then the tallest building in China.[27]
• Jin Jing (b. 1981), Paralympic fencer.
• Xu Song (b. 1986), Chinese singer.
• Chen Xiao (b. 1987), actor.
• Yang Yang (b. 1991), actor.
• Hu Bingqing (b. 1992), actress.

• Kurume, Fukuoka, Japan (1980)[28]
• Freetown, Sierra Leone (1984)
• Bujumbura, Burundi (1986)
• Columbus, Ohio, United States (1988)[29]
• Aalborg, Denmark (1989)
• Lleida, Catalonia, Spain (1998)
• Wonju, Gwandong, South Korea (2002)
• Darebin, Victoria, Australia (2003)
• Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom (2005)
• Osnabrück, Lower Saxony, Germany (2006)
• Ufa, Bashkortostan, Russia (2016)[30]

• List of twin towns and sister cities in China

Look up hefei in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hefei.

• Hefei travel guide from Wikivoyage
• Hefei Online Government