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Wuhu is a prefecture-level city in the southeastern Anhui province, People's Republic of China. Sitting on the southeast bank of the Yangtze River, Wuhu borders Xuancheng to the southeast, Chizhou and Tongling to the southwest, Chaohu to the northwest, Ma'anshan to the northeast, and the province of Jiangsu to the east.
Administration
* Xinwu District
* Matang District
* Jinghu District
* Jiujiang District
* Wuhu County
* Fangchang County
* Nanling County
History
Wuhu is known to have been inhabited since at least 770 BCE. It became a strategically important town during the Three Kingdoms period (220 BC-65 AD), when it was controlled by the Eastern Wu. At this time it was known as Qiuzu (Chiu-tzu). Under the Ming dynasty Wuhu developed into a major commercial center and river port, and since that time has been known as a center of the rice trade.
In 1644, the Hongguang Emperor (better known as the Prince of Fu), one of the last emperors of the Ming Dynasty, was captured by forces of the new Qing Dynasty in Wuhu. The city became a treaty port in 1876 and has remained a commercial center since that time. The city's Roman Catholic cathedral, St. Joseph Cathedral, dates from this time.
Trade in rice, wood, and tea flourished at Wuhu until the Warlord Era of the 1920s and 1930s, when bandits were active in the area. Under the Japanese occupation in the Second World War, Chinese resistance fighters hid in the lakes around Wuhu, by submerging themselves and breathing through reeds.
Major industries only began to be developed in Wuhu after the Second World War, with the development of the textile industry, paper mills, and a large automobile factory. Despite this, Wuhu has lagged behind Ma'anshan and Tongling in industrial production, and remains primarily a commercial and collecting center for trade in rice, silk, cotton, tea, wheat and eggs.
Culture
The great poet Li Bai spent his late life in Wuhu, it is said, due to its striking landscape. Li Bai was born in a Central Asian town and raised in the southwestern China. Xie Tiao, one of the most distinctive Six Dynasty poets whom he greatly admired, left many poems when holding positions here.
In the Tang dynasty (619-907), the poet Du Mu wrote a famous poem Thoughts on Staying Again at Wuhu. A factory in Wuhu carries on the local craft of making wrought iron pictures. Other local handicrafts are embossed lacquerware and rice straw pith patchwork. A famous stone tablet in Wuhu recording local events of the Song dynasty period (ca. 1000 AD) is considered to be a masterpiece of the renowned calligrapher Mi Fu. In the Western world, Wuhu is now known as the home city to many adopted Chinese children.
Folklore
An itinerant blacksmith named Tang Tianchi is reputed to have invented the wrought-iron picture in Wuhu, when a painter whom he admired chided him, "You will never make pictures by beating iron."
Another blacksmith of the Spring and Autumn period (770-476 BC) named Gan Jiang was famous for sword making. Zhe Shan (Reddish Brown Hill) is said to get its colour from the flames of Gan Jiang's furnace. Sheng Shan (Sacred Hill) is the legendary location of his sword grinding rock and tempering pool.
Food
Wuhu and Anqing are noted centers of the Yanjiang cuisine. It specializes in freshwater fish and poultry, and features special techniques of chopping, shaping, and colouring. The flavour of Yanjiang dishes is often enhanced by sweetening and smoking.
Tourism
* Mirror Lake
* Jiu Zi Plaza
* Mount Zhe, a hill park
* Wuhu Olympic Stadium
* Yangtze River Bridge Crossing
Education
* Anhui Normal University
* Anhui University of Technology and Science
* Wannan Medical College
* Wuhu Radio and TV University
* Wuhu Vocational Institute of Technology
Notable people
* Xiao Yuncong (1596 - 1673), Ming Dynasty painter
* Zhao Wei (b. 1976), Actress
Notable constructions
* 229 metre tall pylons of Yangtze River Crossing Wuhu, a part of HVDC Three Gorges-Changzhou. Tallest pylons used for HVDC.
