Changsha
Changsha[a] is the capital and the largest city of Hunan Province of China.[6] Changsha is the 17th most populous city in China with a population of over 10 million,[7] and the third-most populous city in Central China, located in the lower reaches of the Xiang River in northeastern Hunan. The city forms a part of the Greater Changsha Metropolitan Region along with Zhuzhou and Xiangtan, also known as Changzhutan City Cluster. Greater Changsha was named one of the 13 emerging mega-cities in China in 2012 by the Economist Intelligence Unit.[8] It is also a National Comprehensive Transportation Hub,[9] and one of the first National Famous Historical and Cultural Cities in China. Changshanese, a kind of Xiang Chinese, is spoken in the downtown, while Ningxiangnese and Liuyangnese are also spoken in the counties and cities under its jurisdiction.[10] As of the 2020 Chinese census, the prefecture-level city of Changsha had a population of 10,047,914 inhabitants.[11]
For other uses, see Changsha (disambiguation).
Changsha
长沙市
Xie Weidong
Zhou Haibing
Wen Shuxun
11,819 km2 (4,563 sq mi)
2,154.1 km2 (831.7 sq mi)
3,911.1 km2 (1,510.1 sq mi)
63 m (207 ft)
10,420,600
5,980,707
2,800/km2 (7,200/sq mi)
10,500,000
2,700/km2 (7,000/sq mi)
99.22%
0.78%
CN¥ 133,992
US$ 19,925
0731
0.817– very high[4]
湘A
湘O (police and authorities)
Chángshā
[tsã13 sɔ33] ()
"Long Sandbar"
Chángshā
Chángshā
ㄔㄤˊ ㄕㄚ
Chʻang2-sha1
[ʈʂʰǎŋ.ʂá] ()
Zan平-so平
[tsã13 sɔ33] ()
Chèuhngsā
Coeng4-saa1
Tn̂g-soa
Qīngyáng
Qīngyáng
Ching-yang
Overlooking the Xiang
Línxiāng
Línxiāng
Lin-hsiang
Tánzhōu
Tánzhōu
T‘an-chou
Changsha has a history of more than 2,400 years of urban construction,[12] and the name "Changsha" first appeared in the Yi Zhou Shu written in the pre-Qin era.[13] In the Qin dynasty, the Changsha Commandery was set up, and in the Western Han dynasty, the Changsha Kingdom was established. The Tongguan Kiln in Changsha during the Tang dynasty produced the world's earliest underglaze porcelain, which was exported to Western Asia, Africa and Europe.[14] In the period of the Five Dynasties, Changsha was the capital of Southern Chu. In the Northern Song dynasty, the Yuelu Academy (later Hunan University) was one of the four major private academies over the last 1000 years,[15] with the famous couplet "惟楚有才, 于斯为盛" (Only Chu has talent, and it is flourishing in this area) coming down to modern times. In the late Qing dynasty, Changsha was one of the four major trade cities for rice and tea in China.[16] In 1904, it was opened to foreign trade, and gradually became a revolutionary city. In Changsha, Tan Sitong established the School of Current Affairs, Huang Xing founded the China Arise Society with the slogan "Expel the Tatar barbarians and revive Zhonghua" (驱除鞑虏，复兴中华), and Mao Zedong also carried out his early political movements here. During the Republican Era, Changsha became one of the major home fronts in the Second Sino-Japanese War, but the subsequent Wenxi Fire in 1938 and the three Battles of Changsha from 1939 to 1942 (1939, 1941 and 1941–42) hit Changsha's economy and urban construction hard.[17]
Changsha is now one of the core cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the Belt and Road Initiative,[18][19] a Beta- (global second-tier) city by the GaWC,[20] a new Chinese first-tier city[21][22] and also a pioneering area for China-Africa economic and trade cooperation.[23] Known as the "Construction machinery capital of the world", Changsha has an industrial chain with construction machinery and new materials as the main industries, complemented by automobiles, electronic information, household appliances, and biomedicine.[24][25] Since the 1990s, Changsha has begun to accelerate economic development, and then achieved the highest growth rate among China's major cities during the 2000s.[26] The Xiangjiang New Area, the first state-level new area in Central China, was established in 2015.[27] As of 2020, more than 164 Global 500 companies have established branches in Changsha.[28] The city has the 27th largest skyline in the world.[29] The HDI of Changsha reached 0.817 (very high) in 2016, which is roughly comparable to a moderately developed country.[30][31]
As of 2023, Changsha hosts 59 institutions of higher education, ranking 8th nationwide among all cities in China.[32] The city also houses four Double First-Class Construction universities: Hunan, National University of Defense Technology, Central South, and Hunan Normal, making Changsha the seat of several highly ranked educational institutions,[33][34] and a major centre of research and innovation in the Asia-Pacific with a high level of scientific research, ranking 30th globally in 2023.[35] Changsha is the birthplace of super hybrid rice, the Tianhe-1 supercomputer, China's first laser 3D printer,[36] and China's first domestic medium-low speed maglev line.[37] Changsha has been named the first "UNESCO City of Media Arts" in China.[38] Changsha is home to the Hunan Broadcasting System (HBS), the most influential provincial TV station in China.[39][40]
Names[edit]
Chángshā is the pinyin romanization of the Mandarin pronunciation of the Chinese name 長沙 or 长沙, meaning "long sandy place". The name's origin is unknown. It is attested as early as the 11th century BC, when a vassal lord of the area sent King Cheng of Zhou a gift described as a "Changsha softshell turtle" (长沙鳖; 長沙鼈; Chángshā biē). In the 2nd century AD, historian Ying Shao wrote that the Qin use of the name "Changsha" for the area was a continuance of its old name.[41] The name originally described the area. The Chu metropolis was known as Qingyang. The capital of the Kingdom of Changsha—within the present-day city of Changsha—was known as Linxiang, meaning "[place] Overlooking the Xiang River".
Demographics[edit]
As of the 2020 Chinese census, Changsha was home to 10,047,914 people, whom 7,355,198 lived in its built-up (or metro) area made of the 6 urban Districts plus Changsha County largely conurbated. The majority of people living in Changsha are Han Chinese. A sizeable population of ethnic minority groups also live in Changsha. The three largest are the Hui, Tujia, and Miao peoples. The 2000 census showed that 48,564 members of ethnic minorities live in Changsha, 0.7% of the population. The other minorities make up a significantly smaller part of the population. Twenty ethnic minorities have fewer than 1,000 members living in the city.[78][79]
Education and research[edit]
Research and Innovation[edit]
Changsha is the birthplace of super hybrid rice, Yinhe-1, the first China's supercomputer built in the 1980s,[91] the Tianhe-1 supercomputer, China's first laser 3D printer,[36] and China's first domestic medium-low speed maglev line.[37] In November 2010, the National Supercomputing Changsha Center was established at Hunan University, becoming the first National Supercomputing Center in Central China and third National Supercomputing Center in China, after those in Tianjin and Shenzhen.[92]
Changsha is a major city for research and innovation in Central China, as well as in the Asia-Pacific region.[93][94] It ranked 30th globally, 17th in the Asia & Oceania region, 13th in China, 5th in the South Central region after (Guangzhou, Wuhan, Hong Kong and Shenzhen), and 2nd in the Central China region after Wuhan by scientific research outputs, as tracked by the Nature Index 2023 Science Cities.[35] Changsha was also ranked 37th globally in the "Top 100 Science & Technology Cluster Cities" rankings based on "publishing and patent performance" released by the Global Innovation Index 2023.[95]
As of 2020, Changsha ranked 8th in the top 10 China's innovation-oriented cities,[96] and 6th (behind Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Chengdu and Beijing) in the Top 10 China's most attractive cities for talent, according to the 21st Century Business Herald report.[97] Changsha has held the title "China's Leading Smart City" since 2021.[98] As of 2021, Changsha had 97 independent scientific research institutions, 14 national engineering and technology research centers, 15 national key engineering and technology laboratories, and 12 national enterprise technology centers.[99]
The following people are from the Greater Changsha Metropolitan Region:
Astronomy[edit]
Changsha is represented by the star Zeta Corvi in a Chinese constellation.[142]