Changsha

Geography

Changsha City (east longitude111°53'～114°15', north latitude 27°51'～28°41'), is the capital city of Hunan Province. It is the political, economic, scientific, educational, cultural and business center of the province.  It is located in the western margin of the Chang-Liu Basin and downstream of the Xiangjiang River.

To the east, Changsha's neighbors are Yichun City and Pingxiang City of Jiangxi Province. To its south sit Zhuzhou City and Xiangtan City, with Loudi City and Yiyang City in the west and Yueyang City and Yiyang City in the north. The length of the city from east to west is about 230 km, and the width from south to north is about 88 km. It covers an area of 11,819.5 square kilometers, of which the urban area occupies 948.23 square kilometers. The downtown area comprises 242.78 square kilometers.

Population

I. Ethnic Groups

Changsha is a multi-ethnic city. Fifty-three minority groups are represented in the city with a total population of 72,500. The largest ethnic groups in Changsha are the Tujia, Miao, Hui, Dong, Yao, Man and Zhuang. In addition, 50,000 more members of ethnic minority groups visit Changsha each year for business and tourism. These visitors include Uyghurs from Xinjiang; Zhuang and Qiang from Sichuan; Hui from Qinghai, Ningxia, Gansu, Shandong, Henan and Yunnan; Zhuang from Guangxi and Muslims from the Middle East. Changsha’s ethnic minority population is diverse and growing, and its members are scattered throughout the city. Furthermore, Changsha’s universities and colleges attract about 40,000 students from various ethnic minorities.

Hanhui Village, located in Laodaohe County of Kaifu District, is a multiethnic community in the city of Changsha. It was named a Model Unit for national unity by the State Council of the PRC in 1994. There are 338 households with a population of 1,253, one-third of whom are from the Hui nationality. There are over 40 Muslim enterprises of different sizes in Changsha’s halal food industry, and 12 of them were awarded the halal brand by the Provincial Government. For instance, there is one halal refrigerated storage center, two halal slaughter houses, and one halal food store. Altogether, the Muslim food enterprises occupy about 10, 000 square meters of commercial real estate. 

There are two cemeteries for the Muslims in Changsha with a total area of 130 mu, one Muslim mosque of 5.95 mu with more than 2,000 square meters of building space.

II. Religion

There are 17 patriotic religious groups in Changsha, among which seven are at the city level and ten at the county level. 202 venues for religious activities have been approved by the People’s Government above the county level while there are 497 authorized venues for civil religious activities. There is a religious teaching staff of over 500, more than 31,000 baptized and converted believers, and over 20,000 common religious believers. The number of religious believers accounts for 3% of the total population in the city.

There are 10 churches, Buddhist temples and Taoist temples in the city that have been listed as priviliged venues for religious activities above the provincial level. These are Lushan Temple, Kaifu Temple, Miyin Temple, Shishuang Temple, Yunlu Palace, Hetu Taoist Temple, Qingyangshan Monastery in Liuyang city, Muslim Temple, Catholic Church and Northern Christian Church. The first four are ancient monasteries with histories of more than 1,000 years. Lushan and Kaifu temples are nationally famous temples for Han Buddhism. (There are four more such temples in Hunan Province, all located in Nanyue.) Seven venues for religious activities in Changsha are listed as major historical and cultural sites under provincial protection, namely, Lushan Temple, Kaifu Temple, Miyin Temple, Tao Temple, Catholic Church, Northern Christian Church and the Beizheng Street Christian Church. There are 7 important religious districts at the county or city level.

As the capital city of Hunan, Changsha is home to patriotic religious groups at both the city and provincial levels. Most of the religious leaders in the city are in charge of their group for both the city and provincial levels. Some of these leaders are celebrities of high status and great influence in the religious community around the whole nation. For instance, the director of the Chinese Buddhist Association, Master Yicheng, has a great reputation among Buddhists both at home and abroad. He comes from Ningxiang County is also in charge of the Xixin Buddhist Temple in Wangcheng County.

1. Population and its distribution
According to the 2008 census, the total population of Changsha is 6,417,367. The downtown population was 2，907，423 individuals, among whom 408,441 are in Furong district, 412,586 in Tianxin district, 617,889 in Yuelu district, 411,404 in Kaifu district, and 515,499 in Yuhua district. Outside of the downtown, there are an additional 4,051,566 people living in Changsha county. They are distributed as follows: 775,815 in Changsha county, 1,353,826 in Ningxiang county and 1,380,303 in Liuyang city.In all of Changsha, there are 3,274,848 males and 3,142,519 females. The sex ratio (the ratio of males to females in a population) is 110.14:100.

2. Population density
The population density of Changsha is 543 persons per square kilometer. In the urban district, there are 2,500 people per square kilometer.

According to the 2008 census,there are 51 ethnic groups in Changsha city, namely, Tujia, Miao, Dong, Yao, Hui, Zhuang, Manchu, Mongolian, Bai etc.The minority population of Changsha consists of 65,700 people, with more than 10,000 representatives each of the Tujia and Miao nationalities.

3. Administrative division
Today's Changsha is the political, economic and cultural center of Hunan Province, China . Six districts (Furong, Tianxin, Yuelu, Kaifu, Yuhua and Wancheng), two counties (Changsha County and Ningxiang County) and Liuyang city all fall under its jurisdiction.Among its districts and counties, there are 84 towns, 30 townships and 53 streets. In the rural areas there are 1,243 villages and 568 communities

Natural Environment

Changsha's Geology, Topography and Plant Life
Changsha is located in east central Hunan, at 111°53'-114°5' east longitude and 27°51'-28°40' north latitude.

In the east and west banks of Xiangjiang River stretch the low-lying aggraded valley plains.To its east, west and southeast there are higher mountains and hills.

To the east of Changsha is Dawei Mountain, located in the Hunan-Jiangxi Border Region. Its peak,known as Qixing Peak (Seven-Star Peak), is 1607.9 meters above sea level and is the highest place in Changsha. Chen Lake in the west of Qiaokou Town, Wangcheng County, is 23.5 meters above sea level and is known the lowest place in Changsha.

The terrain in the downtown area is high in the south and low in the north.

Leopard Ridge and Golden Basin Ridge (Jinpen Ridge), located in the southern suburbs, are more than 100 metres above sea level. In the northern suburbs, the catchment area of Liuyang River,  Laodao River and  Xiangjiang River is only 30 meters above sea level. This is the lowest point in Changsha's urban area.

Rivers
Changsha has many rivers, all of which are tributaries of the main Xiangjiang River. The rivers stretch from Shao Mountain the southwest of Changsha County to Qiaokou,Wangcheng County. The Xiangjiang River passes through Changsha from south to north for about 74 km before joining into Dongting Lake. There are 15 of its tributaries in Changsha, among which the biggest are the Liuyang, Laodao, Jinjiang and Weishui rivers.

Mineral Resources
Fifty different varieties of minerals, especially non-metallic minerals, have been found in Changsha. These include iron, manganese, vanadium, bronze, zinc, sulfur, phosphorus, meerschaum, barite, calcareous clay slate and coal. There is a unique calcareous clay slate and the richest meerschaum deposits in China. Yonghe Phosphorite has the top production scale in the province. Altogether there are 10 big-scale mineral deposits, 16 small deposits and over 300 places with mineral resources.

The major vegetation in the city is subtropical evergreen forest, which consists of hundreds of different kinds of natural and imported vegetation. There are 462 kinds of evergreen trees, 515 kinds of deciduous trees, 457 kinds of arbors, 414 kinds of shrubs and 106 kinds of bamboos and rantans. The main woods are pines, firs, oak, camphor trees, nanmu, cedrela chinensis, tea, sasanqua, citrus and Phyllostachys pubescens. In 1987 the Rhododendron was made the city's official flower, while the camphor tree is the official tree.

Changsha tour