Introduction of Xinyang

Xinyang City is located at the junction of Hubei, Henan, and Anhui, which is a strategic area linking to Yangtze River, Huai River, Yellow River and Han River, and also a transition zone in terms of geography, climate and culture between North and South. The city has a total area of 18,900 square kilometers and a population of 9.12 million. There are 8 counties and 2 districts under the city’s jurisdiction.

       Xinyang is an ancient city with profound and inclusive cultural characteristics, combining cultural traits of Central Plain culture and Chu culture. It is one of the birthplaces of Chinese civilization. During the Western Zhou Dynasty, Xinyang was the fief of Shen Bo. In the Qin Dynasty, Yiyang Village was set up, which was renamed as Xinyang in the Northern Song Dynasty. Xinyang is a city, where different cultures converge. After Shang and Zhou Dynasties, Spring and Autumn Period, and the Warring States Period, the Chu culture and the Central Plains culture blended here, forming a unique cultural phenomenon called “Yu Feng Chu Yun”, which means that it embraces cultural traits of Central Plains culture and Chu culture. Xinyang is the origin of surnames. Among the 100 popular Han surnames today, 13 surnames including Huang, Lai, Luo, and Jiang originated from Xinyang or one of their branches originated from Xinyang, for which Xinyang is known as the “Hometown of Domestic Migrants in the Central Plains”. Xinyang is rich in culture, with the existing sites of Peiligang Culture, Yangshao Culture, Qujialing Culture and Longshan Culture, and it gave birth to many famous idiom stories and historical allusions including “Zi Lu inquiring for ford”, “mend the fold after the sheep have been stolen”, “ Sima Guang Breaking the Vat”, “act a part”, “rise up upon hearing the crow of a rooster and practise with the sword” and so on. China’s first and the most complete Warring States chimes and ancient wines of the Shang Dynasty recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records have been unearthed here. Many famous historical figures were born in here including Sun Shuao, Huang Xie, Fei Bang, Wei Yan, Ma Zuchang, He Jingming, Zhou Zupei and others. Various Dabie Mountain folk customs flourished here, including Xinyang folk songs, Shadow play, flower drum opera, drum play, painted clay sculpture, paper cutting and feather ornaments. The history is profound and long, and the stories are magnificent and attractive.

        Xinyang is a red city with shining stars appeared during the revolution. Xinyang is a famous old revolutionary base, known as “the cradle of the Red Army and the hometown of generals”. During the Agrarian Revolution, Xinyang was the capital of the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Revolutionary Base Area; during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, it was an important battlefield for the New Fourth Army to resist Japanese army; during the Liberation War, it was the place where Central Plains field army of PLA stationed in the Dabie Mountain and where it signified turning point for the victory. In the long-term revolutionary struggle, many powerful brigades such as the Red Fourth Front Army, the Red 25th Army, and the Red 28th Army appeared here, and nearly 100 founding generals fought their battles here, such as Xu Xiangqian, Xu Haidong, Chen Geng, Wang Shusheng, Xu Shiyou, and Li Desheng. More than 400 important revolutionary memorial sites and old revolutionary sites formed, and more than 300,000 heroes sacrificed their lives for the founding of the People’s Republic of China, creating the miracle of “the red spirit of the Party lasts long over 28 years” and forming the “Dabie Moutain Spirit” with “keep the faith, have the overall situation in mind, forge ahead in unity and be brave to take the lead” as its connotation.

        Xinyang is an ecological green city with beautiful mountains and rivers. It has a beautiful environment and pleasant climate, and is known as the “Jiangnan in Northern China, and Jiangnan with Northern China’s characteristics” (it means that Xinyang has the characteristics of Northern cities and Southern cities in terms of climate and environment, typically Jiangnan). Xinyang is a pilot demonstration city for the construction of national main functional areas. 5 counties and districts within its jurisdiction have been included in the national key ecological functional areas. Among those counties, Xin County has won the title of National Ecological County and the national practice and innovation base of “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets”. The forest coverage rate there reaches 42.19%; the three main indicators of ambient air quality all rank first in the province; there are 1,082 large, medium and small reservoirs, for which it is known as the “Qianhu City” (city with a thousand lakes); there are 2,031 kinds of wild animals and 2,726 kinds of higher plants across the city. Jigong Mountain, known as Park of Clouds, is a national natural scenic area and one of the four major summer resorts in China. It is known as the “Museum of Architecture of All Nations”. Nanwan Lake, the Pearl of Southern Henan, is a national forest park and enjoys the reputation of “the first lake in the Central Plains”. It has successively won the National Ecological Demonstration City, National Sanitary City, National Garden City, National Green Model City, China Excellent Tourism City, nominated city of National Civilized City, and National Forest City.

       Xinyang is an important transportation hub connecting three provinces. It is an important channel for economic and cultural exchanges in the central region, which is the hinterland of the convergence if three national economic growth sectors, the Central Plains City Cluster, Wuhan City Circle and Wanjiang City Belt, and “two vertical” (Beijing-Guangzhou and Beijing-Kowloon ) economic belt. There are three provincial capital cities of Zhengzhou, Wuhan and Hefei within the radius of one kilometer, which have great potential for the development, being a center city. Xinyang is an important comprehensive transportation hub and a modern logistics hub in China, linking the east to the west and connecting the south to the north. Railways, expressways, national highways and high-speed railways are intersecting within the city, including Beijing-Guangzhou, Beijing-Kowloon and Nanjing-Xi’an railways, Beijing-Hong Kong-Macao, Daguang, Shanghai-Shaanxi expressways, 106, 107, 312 national highways and Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed railway, and a highway network composed of 18 national and provincial highways  basically covers all towns and villages. All the administrative villages of Xinyang have clear roads. Shipping is available through Huaibin Port at Huaihe River to Shanghai. Xinyang has formed a comprehensive transportation system that are well-tired, safe and efficient, covering urban and rural areas, connecting to the places within and outside the city, and having mature transportation means by water or road. Minggang Airport was officially opened to traffic in October 2018. By the end of 2019, direct flights to 21 large and medium-sized cities were available, including Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Xi’an, Kunming, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Foshan, Luzhou, and Wenzhou, and the passenger throughput exceeded 720,000 passengers, which had far exceeded the original design goal of “reaching 300,000 of passenger throughput by 2020”. Xinyang has become the fourth city in the province to have a civil aviation transport airport.

        Xinyang is city which is abundant in resources. It is known as the capital of Maojian tea in China. Xinyang Maojian is one of the top ten famous tea in China. In 2017, it was rated as “China’s Top Ten Public Brand of Tea”. In 2020, the brand value of Xinyang Maojian reached 6.886 billion yuan, ranking third in China. Xinyang’s average water resources total 8.676 billion cubic meters for many years, accounting for 22% of the province’s average total water resources. The city’s per capita water resources are 1,003 cubic meters, which is 2.5 times the province’s per capita water resources. It is rich in rice, wheat, camellia, chestnut, ginkgo, red jute and other crops. The grain output has exceeded 11 billion kilograms for 12 consecutive years. Luoshan County won the title of the National Agricultural Product Quality and Safety County. After thousands of years of accumulation and development, Xinyang’s health-preserving cuisines have been famous for their fresh, fragrant, appetizing, rich and unique taste, stewing-based cooking skills and ecological ingredients, obtaining great reputation in 16 provinces and 56 cities across the country. Xinyang is rich in mineral resources. The scale and quality of non-metallic minerals such as perlite, bentonite and zeolite are famous at home and abroad. The reserves of perlite resources reach 139 million tons; the reserves of bentonite resources reach 509 million tons; the reserves of fluorite ore reach 1.79 million tons; the reserves of titanium ore resources reach 858,000 tons; the reserves of molybdenum ore resources reach 362,000 tons.

        Xinyang is an open new city, which is full of innovative development. Xinyang is a national rural reform pilot area, one of the core development areas determined by the “Dabie Mountain Revolutionary Old Area Revitalization and Development Plan”, one of the regional central cities determined by the “Huaihe Ecological Economic Belt Development Plan”, and the key support areas identified in the “Guiding Opinions on Supporting the Development and Construction of Old Revolutionary Areas Through Intensification of Poverty Alleviation Efforts”. In recent years, the city has thoroughly implemented Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, seized opportunities, worked hard, and insisted on promoting high-quality socio-economic development through high-quality party building. Xinyang placed great importance on the construction of “one city, one district and three hubs” and maintained good momentum of sustainable and healthy development of the society. In 2020, the city’s GDP was 280.568 billion yuan, ranking ninth in the province.

        Xinyang City will thoroughly study and implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important speech during the inspection in Henan, keep “two better” in mind which is the general secretary’s expectation, and earnestly implement the “Several Opinions” of the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial Government to vigorously support and accelerate the revitalization and development of the Dabie Mountain old revolutionary area in Henan. Focusing on the strategic positioning of “four districts, one barrier and one hub”, Xinyang will take the initiative to shoulder the responsibility of making good use of red resources and inheriting red genes and promoting the revitalization of old areas and benefiting the people of old areas. With a high degree of ideological, political and behavioral consciousness, Xinyang is determined to transform the general secretary’s expectations, instructions, and earnest entrustment into political beliefs of absolute loyalty to the party, a huge driving force for high-quality development, and practical measures for the benefit of the people, and strive to achieve “two better” and write a brilliant chapter in the Central Plains in the new era.