Hunan

Yueyang Tower

Hunan, Wade-Giles romanization Hu-nan, landlocked sheng (province) of southern China. A major rice-producing area, Hunan is situated to the south of the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang). It is bounded by the provinces of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to the east, and Guangdong to the southeast; by the Zhuang Autonomous Region of Guangxi to the southwest; and by the province of Guizhou and Chongqing municipality to the west. The name Hunan is formed from the Chinese words hu (“lake”) and nan (“south”), meaning the land to the south of Dongting Lake. The capital and most important city of the province is Changsha, situated in the northeast, on the banks of the Xiang River. Area 81,300 square miles (210,500 square km). Pop. (2020) 66,444,864.