| Yichang 宜昌 |
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| — Prefecture-level city — | |
| 宜昌市 | |
| Yichang skyline at the Yangtze River | |
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Yichang
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| Coordinates: | |
| Country | People's Republic of China |
| Province | Hubei |
| Seat of Government | Xiling District |
| Government | |
| • CPC Party Secretary | Guo Youming |
| • Mayor | Li Lecheng |
| Area | |
| • Prefecture-level city | 21,227 km2 (8,195.8 sq mi) |
| • Urban | 828 km2 (319.7 sq mi) |
| Highest elevation | 2,427 m (7,963 ft) |
| Lowest elevation | 35 m (115 ft) |
| Population (2008) | |
| • Prefecture-level city | 4,039,000 |
| • Density | 190.3/km2 (492.8/sq mi) |
| • Urban | 1,330,000 |
| • Urban density | 1,606.3/km2 (4,160.2/sq mi) |
| Time zone | China Standard (UTC+8) |
| Postal codes | 443000 |
| Area code(s) | 0717 |
| Administrative divisions | 420500 |
| Website | http://en.yichang.gov.cn/ |
Yichang (Chinese: 宜昌; pinyin: Yíchāng) is a prefecture-level city located in Hubei province of the People's Republic of China. It is the second largest city in Hubei province after the province capital, Wuhan. The Three Gorges Dam is located within its administrative area, in Yiling District.[1]
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In ancient times Yichang was known as Yiling. There are historical records telling that in the year 278 BC during the Warring States period, the Qin general Bai Qi set fire to Yiling. In 222 AD Yichang was also the site of the Battle of Yiling during the Three Kingdoms Period.
In 1876, under the Qing Guangxu Emperor, Yichang was opened to foreign trade as a trading port after the Second Opium War with Britain. The imperial government set up a navigation company there and built wharfs less than half a kilometer in length. Since 1949, more than 50 wharves have been constructed at the port so that its wharf area is now over 15 km long.
In 1940, during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Battle of Zaoyang-Yichang took place in the area.
Administratively, it is a prefecture-level city; its municipal government has jurisdiction over five counties, five urban districts, and three satellite county-level cities (Yidu, Dangyang, Zhijiang).
Like most prefecture-level cities, Yichang includes both an urban area (what's labeled on less detailed maps as "Yichang") and the surrounding country area. It covers 21,084 km2 in Western Hubei Province, on both sides of the Chang Jiang (Yangtze) River. The Xiling Gorge (西陵峡), the easternmost of the Three Gorges on the Yangtze River, is located within the prefecture-level city.
Within the prefecture-level city of Yichang, Chang Jiang's is joined by a number of tributaries, including the Qingjiang River (right), Xiang Xi and Huangbo Rivers (leftt).
The central urban area of Yichang is split between several districts. On the right (northeastern) bank of the Chang Jiang are located Xiling District (where the city center is located), Yiling District (neighborhoods north of the center) and Wujiagang District (southern area). The city area on the opposite (southeastern) bank of the river is included into Dianjun District. All these districts, with the exception of the central Xiling, also include a fair amount of suburban/rural area outside of the city urban core.
Yichang has a four-season, monsoon-influenced, humid subtropical climate (Koppen Cwa), with cool, damp and generally overcast winters, and hot, humid summers. Monthly mean temperatures range from 4.9 °C (40.8 °F) in January to 27.7 °C (81.9 °F) in July, with an annual mean of 16.9 °C (62.4 °F). Sunshine is a bit on the low end, with winter being the cloudiest season, yet rainfall is concentrated from May to September.
| Climate data for Yichang (1971—2000) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Average high °C (°F) | 8.6 (47.5) |
10.7 (51.3) |
15.1 (59.2) |
22.0 (71.6) |
26.6 (79.9) |
29.7 (85.5) |
32.3 (90.1) |
32.2 (90.0) |
27.8 (82.0) |
22.6 (72.7) |
16.7 (62.1) |
11.2 (52.2) |
21.29 (70.33) |
| Average low °C (°F) | 2.0 (35.6) |
3.6 (38.5) |
7.4 (45.3) |
13.3 (55.9) |
17.8 (64.0) |
21.5 (70.7) |
24.1 (75.4) |
23.9 (75.0) |
19.8 (67.6) |
14.6 (58.3) |
9.2 (48.6) |
4.1 (39.4) |
13.44 (56.20) |
| Precipitation mm (inches) | 22.6 (0.89) |
30.5 (1.201) |
58.4 (2.299) |
86.2 (3.394) |
129.7 (5.106) |
148.0 (5.827) |
216.3 (8.516) |
173.8 (6.843) |
123.0 (4.843) |
85.0 (3.346) |
46.8 (1.843) |
17.6 (0.693) |
1,137.9 (44.799) |
| % humidity | 74 | 72 | 74 | 74 | 74 | 77 | 80 | 78 | 76 | 75 | 74 | 73 | 75.1 |
| Avg. precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) | 7.5 | 8.7 | 12.2 | 12.9 | 13.5 | 14.1 | 15.1 | 13.1 | 11.4 | 11.4 | 8.6 | 6.9 | 135.4 |
| Sunshine hours | 77.0 | 78.9 | 96.8 | 133.2 | 154.1 | 153.0 | 186.2 | 201.3 | 143.6 | 132.6 | 113.6 | 97.2 | 1,567.5 |
| Source: 中国气象局 国家气象信息中心 | |||||||||||||
Several provincial highways connect Yichang center city with most counties.
Several bridges span the Yangtze River within the prefecture-level city of Yichang, including (upstream to downstream):
A railway bridge is constructed downstream of downtown for the new Yiwan Railway. (As of April 2010, Google Maps' satellite view shows a bridge still under construction at ; however, those photos may be many months out of date).
There are several ferry crossings as well.
Yichang is an important river port on the Yangtze river. Maoping Town (the county seat of Zigui County), has an active passenger wharf as well.
The Qingjiang River in the southern part of the prefecture, with its cascade of dams, is an important waterway as well.
The eastern part of the prefecture-level city has railway service. The passenger station in Yichang center city has daily trains to Wuhan (both to Hankou and Wuchang stations), Beijing, and a few other major cities.
Currently, Yichang is a dead-end station. However, construction work has started on the high-speed Hanyi Railway[2] and the Yiwan Railway (from Hankou (Wuhan) to Yichang to Wanzhou), which will be part of the Huhanrong Passenger Dedicated Line from Shanghai to Wuhan to Chengdu. Besides the new Yichang East Railway Station serving Yichang's main urban area, some the high-speed trains will stop elsewhere in the prefecture, namely at Zhijiang Railway Station on the Hanyi line (in Zhijiang City), and at some stations on the Yiwan line.
Yichang has a population of 4,150,000 with urban population of 1,338,000.[3] Yichang prefecture-level city, is home to many members of the Tujia ethnic group, who mostly live in several counties in the south-west of the prefecture.
Yichang also formed the border between the cultures of Ba in the west (an ancient state in the eastern part of what is now Sichuan Province) and the Chu State in the east (an ancient state in what is now Hubei Province and northern Hunan Province).
Since 2002, Yichang City has been home of the China Three Gorges University (the result of the merger of the University of Hydraulic & Electric Engineering, Yichang and of Hubei Sanxia University), the largest comprehensive university in Hubei Province outside Wuhan, with over 20,400 full-time students.
Yichang has long been a major transit port and distribution center of goods, and serves as the economic hub of western Hubei province and an intermediary between the major cities of Chongqing and Wuhan. Its primary industries are shipping and shipbuilding, taking advantage of its location on the Yangtze River.
Yichang prefecture is the site of many major hydroelectricity projects. The best known of them are the two huge dams on the Yangtze River: the Gezhouba Dam (located just upstream of Yichang central city) and Three Gorges Dam, which is 40 km upstream. The Geheyan Dam and Gaobazhou Dam on the Qingjiang are important as well. Besides those, a huge number of medium-sized and small power plants operate on smaller rivers and streams within the prefecture.
Yichang is twinned with:
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