Hubei
(2002 est. pop. 63.3 million). Hubei (Hupei, Hupeh), a central China province that covers an area of 185,900 square kilometers, borders on Sichuan and Shaanxi in the west, on Henan in the north, on Anhui in the east, and on Hunan and Jiangxi in the south. The province is traversed by the Chang (Yangtze) River from west to east, with the greater part of the province located north of the river. More than three-fourths of the province is hilly and mountainous, with peaks in the western parts reaching to more than 3,000 meters, while the eastern part mainly consists of low-lying plains.
The climate is subtropical, with monsoon rain in spring and summer. Summers are hot and humid; winters generally are mild. The annual average precipitation varies between 700 and 1,700 millimeters, which is the highest average in the southeast. The vast majority of Hubei's population lives in rural areas along the rivers and in the lake district in the eastern part where the capital, Wuhan (4.4 million, 1994), also is situated.
Wuhan was originally three cities separated by the Han and Chang Rivers, but these were joined by bridges in the 1950s. During the Eastern Zhou dynasty (770–221 BCE), the Hubei area was the center of the Chu kingdom, and copper mines were operating near present Daye County, not far from Wuhan. With the unification of China in 221 BCE, Hubei became part of the Chinese empire, but it was not until the Tang dynasty (618–907 CE) that immigration from the north accelerated and the province became a wealthy rice-producing area. In the nineteenth century, the province suffered greatly under the Taiping Rebellion (1851–1864). Cities along the Chang River were opened for trade with the Europeans, and tea became a major commodity. The rebellion that ended the Qing dynasty (1644–1912) originated in Hubei. During the Japanese occupation of eastern China, parts of Hubei were controlled by Japanese troops, and industrial works were bombed.
Large areas of the province are well suited for agriculture; the major crops are rice, wheat, corn, sweet potatoes, cotton, and rapeseed. Products indigenous to Hubei include lacquer, tangerines, tremella, camphor trees, and various sorts of medical herbs and tea. The iron works and steel yards of Wuhan are among the largest in China, and its industry manufactures farm machines, railcars, engines, transport machinery, and so forth. In 1994 the Chinese government initiated the so-called "Three Gorges Dam," a gigantic dam to be built just west of Sandouping, located about thirty-five kilometers west of the river port of Yichang. The project is scheduled to be completed in 2009, by which time the reservoir behind the dam will extend about 500 kilometers upstream, having displaced an estimated 1.9 million people in western Hubei and the neighboring province of Sichuan.
Further Reading
Chen, Anna Gustafsson. (1998) Dreams of the Future: Communal Experiments in May Fourth China. Lund, Sweden: Department of East Asian Languages, Lund University. Esherick, Joseph W. (1976) Reform and Revolution in China:
The 1911 Revolution in Hunan and Hubei. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
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