Wuhu

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the historical nomadic tribes from northern China, see Wu Hu.

For the county of the same name administered by Wuhu City, see Wuhu County.

芜湖市
Wúhú Shì

Administration Type	Prefecture-level city
City Seat	Xinwu District (31°20′N 118°21′E)
Area	3,317 km²
Population Breanne Benson
GDP - Total - Per Capita	¥34.507 billion (2004) ¥15,366 (2004)
Major Nationalities	Han
County-level divisions	7
Township-level divisions
CPC Committee Secretary
Mayor	Shen Weiguo (沈卫国)
Area code	553
Postal Code	241000 (Urban center) 241100-241300 (Other areas)
License Plate Prefix	皖B

Wuhu (Simplified Chinese: 芜湖; pinyin: Wúhú; literally "Weedy Lake") is a prefecture-level city in the southeastern Anhui province, People's Republic of China. Sitting on the southeast bank of the Yangtze River, Wuhu borders Xuancheng to the southeast, Chizhou and Tongling to the southwest, Chaohu to the northwest, Ma'anshan to the northeast, and the province of Jiangsu to the east.

1 Administration
2 History
3 Culture
4 Folklore
5 Food
6 Tourism
7 Education
8 Notable people
9 Notable constructions
10 Orphanage and Nursing Home
11 External links

[edit] Administration

The prefecture-level city of Ma'anshan administers 7 county-level divisions, including 4 districts and 3 counties.

Xinwu District (新芜区) (232,400)
Matang District (马塘区)
Jinghu District (镜湖区)
Jiujiang District (鸠江区)
Wuhu County (芜湖县)
Fangchang County (繁昌县)
Nanling County (南陵县)

[edit] 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 BC-65 AD), when it was controlled by the Eastern Wu. At this time it was known as Qiuzu (Chiu-tzu). 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 Cathedral (圣若瑟主教座堂), dates from this time.

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. Under the Japanese occupation in the Second World War, Chinese resistance fighters hid in the lakes around Wuhu, by submerging themselves and breathing through reeds.

Major industries only began to be developed in Wuhu after the Second World War, with the development of the textile industry, paper mills, and a large automobile factory. Despite this, Wuhu has lagged behind Ma'anshan and Tongling in industrial production, and remains primarily a commercial and collecting center for trade in rice, silk, cotton, tea, wheat and eggs.

[edit] Culture

In the Western world, the Chinese city Wuhu is now known as the home city to many adopted Chinese children. However, the seemingly characterless litte town means different things to those natives who still feel about its history. The city was where the greatest Chinese poet Li Bai spent his late life. Li Bai was born in a Central Asian town and raised in the southwestern China. He determined to stay around Wuhu in his late years as he enjoyed the landscape of the district. Xie Tiao, one of the most distinctive Six Dynasty poets he greatly admired, left many poems when holding positions here.

In the Tang dynasty (619-907), the poet Du Mu wrote a famous poem Thoughts on Staying Again at Wuhu.

A factory in Wuhu carries on the local craft of making wrought iron pictures. Other local handicrafts are embossed lacquerware and rice straw pith patchwork.

A famous stone tablet in Wuhu recording local events of the Song dynasty period (ca. 1000 AD) is considered to be a masterpiece of the renowned calligrapher Mi Fu.

[edit] 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. Sheng Shan (Sacred Hill) is the legendary location of his sword grinding rock and tempering pool.

[edit] Food

Wuhu and Anqing are noted centers of the Yanjiang cuisine. It specializes in freshwater fish and poultry, and features special techniques of chopping, shaping, and colouring. The flavour of Yanjiang dishes is often enhanced by sweetening and smoking.

[edit] Tourism

The business district of Wuhu seen at night from across the Mirror Lake.

Mirror Lake (镜湖)
Mount Zhe, a hill park

[edit] Education

Anhui Normal University (安徽师笵大学)
Wannan Medical College (皖南医学院)
Wuhu Radio and TV University (芜湖广播电视大学)

[edit] Notable people

Xiao Yuncong (1596 - 1673), Ming Dynasty painter
Zhao Wei (b. 1976), actress

[edit] Notable constructions

229 metre tall pylons of Yangtze River Crossing Wuhu, a part of HVDC Three Gorges-Changzhou. Tallest pylons used for HVDC.

[edit] Orphanage and Nursing Home

For a time starting around 1995 all of the children from Wuhu Orphanage were given the Chinese surname Wu, but more recently other surnames have been used. The children's given names are based on a variety of sources, such as the street, location or time of day when they are found, or sometimes a wish for their well being, such as using the word "bridge" in the name of a child with a cleft palate.