WU-HU

Pinyin Wuhu city and river port in southeast Anhwei sheng (province), China. Wu-hu has long been a communication and strategic centre of some importance, being situated at the junction of the Yangtze River with three tributariesthe Yu-hsi River to the north and the Ch'ing-i and Shui-yang rivers to the south. The city is situated on the southeastern bank of the Yangtze, about 100 miles (160 km) upstream from Nanking in Kiangsu Province. Eastward from Wu-hu the Yangtze Delta consists predominantly of flatland, lakes, and canals. Wu-hu is located in an area of relatively ancient settlement, which, in the 6th century BC, was the site of the city of Chiu-tzu in the state of Wu. A hsien (county) named Wu-hu was founded in the 2nd century BC under the Han dynasty (206 BCAD 220) at a site some 9 miles (15 km) southwest of the modern town, and it became an administrative centre of some importance in the late 3rd and 4th centuries under the Chin. From the 5th century onward, however, it lost its county status and was merged with neighbouring districts. In the 8th and 9th centuries the area began to develop, and the garrison town of Wu-hu-chen was established on the present site. This became a county in the early 10th century under the rule of the Southern T'ang dynasty (937975/76). At first subordinated to Sheng-chou (Nanking), it was a part of the superior prefecture of T'ai-p'ing during Ming (13681644) and Ch'ing dynasty (16441911/12) times. From the 10th century onward, the surrounding area grew rapidly in importance, and its population increased. Under the Ming, from the 15th century onward, it developed into a major commercial centre and river port and was well-known as a centre of the rice trade. In 1876, as a result of the Chefoo Convention between China and the United Kingdom, it was opened to foreign trade, and a modern town began to develop. Before World War II it ranked third in volume of domestic trade after Shanghai and Nanking. Its foreign trade, however, was less than one-tenth of China's total; almost all of it was with Japan, to which it exported rice, tea, beans, oilseed, and iron ore. After its occupation by the Japanese Army in 1938, great quantities of its iron ore were shipped to the Yawata Iron and Steel Company, at Yawata (now part of Kitakyushu), Japan. In the 1930s Wu-hu's inland communications were improved, first by the construction of the highway network in the Nanking area and then by the construction of one rail link running from Nanking to T'ung-ling via the city and of another joining Y-hsi-k'ou on the opposite bank of the Yangtze with the Huai-nan coalfield in northwest Anhwei. Before World War II, however, there was virtually no industry in the city, apart from the Yu-chung cotton mill and several rice-polishing and oil-extracting plants. After 1949 the disappearance of the privately organized rice and tea trades considerably reduced Wu-hu's commercial importance, although its role as a communication centre remained. The port facilities both at Wu-hu and at Y-hsi-k'ou on the opposite bank were rebuilt and improved. The rail line from Wu-hu to Nanking has been double-tracked. Since the early 1950s the existing textile industry has been greatly developed. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, paper mills were also built and a large automobile factory and tractor repair and engineering works begun. Small plants making machine tools and instruments were also established. The developments envisaged under the Second Five-Year Plan (195862) laid increasing emphasis on heavy industry. Despite this goal, however, Wu-hu remains primarily a major commercial and collecting centre and in heavy industry is overshadowed by the growth of Ma-an-shan to the north and T'ung-ling to the south. Wu-hu is freely reached by deep-draft shipping carrying out the rice, silk, cotton, tea, wheat, and eggs brought in via the surrounding network of canals and roads. The city is a leading market for rice that is shipped regularly to the lower Yangtze and Canton areas. Pop. (1985 est.) 385,800.