| Yiyang | |
| Settlement Type: | Prefecture-level city |
| Other Name: | I-yang |
| Native Name: | 益阳市 |
| Native Name Lang: | zh-Hans |
| Pushpin Map: | China Hunan |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location of the city centre in Hunan |
| Pushpin Label Position: | left |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | People's Republic of China |
| Subdivision Type1: | Province |
| Subdivision Name1: | Hunan |
| Seat Type: | Municipal seat |
| Seat: | Heshan District |
| Area Total Km2: | 12144 |
| Area Blank1 Title: | Districts |
| Area Blank1 Km2: | 1851.0 |
| Area Urban Km2: | 109.00 |
| Area Urban Footnotes: | (2017)[1] |
| Population Blank1 Title: | Districts |
| Population Blank1: | 1459000 |
| Population Urban: | 666600 |
| Population Urban Footnotes: | (2017) |
| Population As Of: | 2010 Census |
| Population Total: | 4313084 |
| Population Density Km2: | auto |
| Demographics Type2: | GDP[2] |
| Demographics2 Info1: | CN¥ 210.8 billion US$ 31.3 billion |
| Demographics2 Title2: | Per capita |
| Demographics2 Info2: | CN¥ 55,567 US$ 8,263 |
| Timezone: | China Standard |
| Utc Offset: | +8 |
| Coor Pinpoint: | Yiyang municipal government |
| Coordinates: | 28.5549°N 112.356°W |
| Postal Code Type: | Postal code |
| Postal Code: | 413000 |
| Area Code: | 0737 |
| Iso Code: | CN-HN-09 |
Yiyang is a prefecture-level city on the Zi River in Hunan province, China, straddling Lake Dongting and bordering Hubei to the north. According to the 2010 Census, Yiyang has a population of 4,313,084 inhabitants residing in an area of 12144km2. The previous census was in 2000 when it was recorded there were 4,309,143 inhabitants.[3]
Yiyang county was founded in 221 BC after Qin conquest Chu state. It is designated Yiyang as the county seat was situated at the north bank of the Yi River (modern Zi River). Then the present-day jurisdiction mostly became a part of the Principality of Changsha commandery during the Western Han.[4]
Yiyang administers two districts, one county-level city, and three counties. The information here presented uses the metric system and data from 2010 national census.
| English Name | Simplified | Traditional | Pinyin | Area | Population | Density | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ziyang District | Chinese: 资阳区 | Chinese: 資陽區 | 680 | 410,542 | 604 | ||
| Heshan District | Chinese: 赫山区 | Chinese: 赫山區 | 1,379 | 839,265 | 609 | ||
| Yuanjiang City | Chinese: 沅江市 | 2,071 | 667,104 | 322 | |||
| Nan County | Chinese: 南县 | Chinese: 南縣 | 1,075 | 725,562 | 675 | ||
| Taojiang County | Chinese: 桃江县 | Chinese: 桃江縣 | 2,063 | 769,568 | 373 | ||
| Anhua County | Chinese: 安化县 | Chinese: 安化縣 | 4,950 | 901,043 | 182 | ||
Yiyang has many hilly farmlands in its vicinity. The primary crop around Yiyang is rice, with tea, and bamboo is also grown.
See main article: Politics of Yiyang.
The current CPC Party Secretary of Yiyang is Qu Hai and the current Mayor is Zhang Zhiheng.
Huaguxi, the local Hunanese opera is very popular in Yiyang. The cuisine of Yiyang (a species of Xiang cuisine) is very famous for its spicy food made from pure Chili peppers.
Yiyang has many famous people in the modern time of China. Ho Feng-Shan is very famous in the history of Chinese foreign affairs since he had saved many Jewish families in Europe and China when he worked as a diplomat for China during World War II. Libo Zhou is a well-known writer in China, who was born in Yiyang.
The Language in Yiyang is "Yiyong-Wa" (Yiyang Dialect), which belongs to New Xiang dialect of the Chinese language. This dialect is very prevalent in all of Yiyang. But the western area of Anhua County of Yiyang has a slightly different accent, which is close to the Old Xiang accent of the Loudi District. Yiyang Dialect retains many ancient words and pronunciations and is influenced surprisingly little by Mandarin Chinese. Consequently, the Yiyang Dialect is very hard to understand for outsiders, although its speakers can communicate well with the speakers of other New Xiang dialects.
Historically, Buddhism and Taoism both played very important roles in the life of Yiyang people. In modern times, both of these religions experienced a decline, as in many other places in China. But nowadays, however, Buddhism and Christianity have many adherents in Yiyang, respectively 340,500 and 238,100 registered members.
See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in China.
Yiyang is twinned with:
Namhae County, South Korea (2006)
Petah Tikva, Israel (2011)
Guarulhos, Brazil (2019)White Deer Temple is a popular attraction.
The Former Residence of Zhou Libo is a well known tourist spot.