Economy

The city is the second largest economy in Anhui, after Hefei, the provincial capital. In 2015, Wuhu’s GDP reached RMB 245.7 billion. Its per capita GDP was RMB 67,250 (~$10,797).Wuhu Economic &Technological Development Area in the north of the city launched in 1993 is one of the first state-level economic & technological development area in Anhui province, also has the only export processing zone in the province. Chery Automobile and Anhui Conch Cement Company are both headquartered in this development area.Wuhu is the fifth largest port alongside Yangtze River. Yuxikou Pier is the largest inland river coal harbor in China.

Demographics

By the end of 2011, the total population was estimated to be 3,842,100，of whom 1,450,000 live in the 4 urban districts and the others live in the counties. Vast majority of the local population are Han Chinese, though there are some Muslim Hui people as minorities. Jiang-Huai Mandarin, a branch of Mandarin Chinese, was widely spoken in urban area, while some people in the counties spoke Wu Chinese. Putonghua, or Standard Mandarin was commonly used in this area.

History

A heritage building in the No.11 Middle School in WuhuWuhu is known to have been inhabited since at least 770 BCE. It became a strategically important town during the Three Kingdoms period (220-280 AD), when it was controlled by the Eastern Wu. At this time it was known as Jiuzi (Chiu-tzu 鸠兹). 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's Cathedral (圣若瑟主教座堂), dates from this time. Most of the downtown area alongside the Yangtze River was ceded in the British concession.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.At the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War, part of the Second World War, Wuhu was occupied by Japan on December 10, 1937. This was a prelude to the Battle of Nanjing, ending in the Nanjing Massacre. Under Japanese occupation, Chinese resistance fighters hid in the lakes around Wuhu by submerging themselves and breathing through reeds.Major industries began to be developed in Wuhu after the Second World War, with the development of the textile industry, shipbuilding, and paper mills. Despite this, Wuhu had been lagging behind Ma'anshan and Tongling in industrial production for decades after the establishment of the China, and remained primarily a commercial center for trade in rice, silk, cotton, tea, wheat and eggs. However, with recent years' economic rise, Wuhu has become a hub for manufacturing in the area.