Huainan City

Huainan City is situated in the middle reaches of the Huaihe River, a new energy city. As a city with prefectural administrative authority, its jurisdiction covers 5 districts -- Tianjia’an, Xiejiaji, Datong, Maoji, Panji -- and Fengtai County. With an area of 2112 km² and a population of 2.081 million people (urban population:1.375 million), Huainan was assigned local legislative right by the State Council. It was approved by the State Council as open city in 1985. The same year witnessed Comrade Li Peng’s visit and inscription “Ancient Battlefield of Defeating Superior Enemy and a City of Healthy Energy”. Jiang Zemin, the former General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, also made three inspections and bestowed the inscription “Developing Coal, Electricity, and Chemistry; Building the Energy City”.

Huainan has a long history. Since ancient times it has been a junction of southern and northern Chinese sub-cultures. As early as 5000 years ago in the neolithic Age, there were human ancestors living there. During Xia and Shang Dynasty, the people of “Huai Yi” formed a tribe. In Warring States period, it belonged to the Chu State. In early Han Dynasty, the kingdom of Huainan came into existence. Liu’an, the king of Huainan in western Han Dynasty patroned many talented scholars to compile books, among which is the codification of classical “Huainan Zi”. He also invented bean curd. Huainan homed many relics extensively praised by Chinese and foreign archeologists -- ancient battlefield of Feishui, ancient tombs of historical figures such as Lian Po and Huang Xie, Shou Zhou kion, Mao Xian cave and paleontology of the fossil. Huainan boasts of excellent natural environment. The climate is of temperate monsoon, with four distinct seasons and plentiful rainfall. The annual average temperature is 15℃ with an average annual rainfall of 970mm. Huaihe River runs 51 km through the city from west to east. To the south of Huaihe River is a hilly area which belongs to Jianghuai hilly region. To the north lies the smooth terrain of Huaibei Plain. Huainan plays an important role in the transition between eastern and western economic zones in China. Its railway reaches Shanghai to the east; accessing Beijing-Kowloon Railway to the west. It’s also a corridor leading coastal cities to central and western China. Huainan is rich in resources. Its prospective coal reserve is expected to reach 44.4 billion tones with 15.3 billion tons identified, accounting for 32％ in East China. Its coalbed methane reserves are at 592.8 billion cubic meters, Huainan mining history can be traced back to Miny and Qing Dynasty. It was one of the five Zombies in 1950s. Currently, it has 13 pairs of large and medium-sized mines, with an annual output of 20 milion ton of coal. With rapid develepment of coal industry, Huainan power industry has been advancing. There are Tianjia’an, Luohe and Pingwei -- the three power plants -- with total installed capacity of 319 million kilowatts.The power-generating capacity has reached 162.48 billion kilowatt-hours.