Local Profile: Anhui Province

Anhui Province lies in the hinterland of Yangtze Delta where there is great economic development potential. The Province covers an area of 139,600 square kilometers. The population of Anhui province reached 66.75million by the end of 2007. Anhui has 16 main cities, namely Hefei, Huaibei, Suzhou, Bozhou, Bengbu, Fuyang, Huannan, Chuzhou, Liu’an, Ma’anshan, Wuhu, Xuancheng, Tongling, Chizhou, Anqing and Huangshan.

Anhui's History

Anhui Province was set up in the sixth year of Kangxi Reign of Qing Dynasty (A.D. 1667). “Anhui”, the name of the province, comes from the combination of the first character of two prefectures' names at that time: Anqing and Huizhou. Because there was a mountain called “Wan Mountain” and an ancient nation named “Wan” in Spring and Autumn period in Anhui (722 B.C. – 481 B.C.), “Anhui” is also called “Wan” for short.

Anhui is one of the most important cradles of China's pre-historical civilization. It has been discovered that even 2.5 million years ago, human beings already inhabited the site in the Inverted V Cave (the shape of the Chinese character of "man") in Fanchang County.The Hexian County's Sinanthropus Site of the Paleolithic Age (300,000 or 400,000 years ago) was excavated in the Dragon Pool Cave of Hexian County. These excavations have demonstrated that many generationsof people have lived in this area since remote antiquity. During the Neolithic Age (between 4,000 and 10,000 years ago), Anhui belonged to the cultural domains of Yangshao, Longshan, Qingnianand Veined Chinaware.