Economy

Rice fields south of Xianning center cityAgriculture and forestry are two of Xianning's biggest industries. It is known by the three names, "City of Osmanthus", "City of Nan Bamboo", and "City of Tea". There are more than 1 million mu (~151,822 English acres) of "Nan" Bamboo, 30,000 Chinese acres of osmanthus, and more than 150,000 Chinese acres of tea.Mineral resources are also an important part of Xianning's economy. Niobium, gold, magnesium, antimony, monazite, coal, manganese, vanadium, mica, and marble are all mined or quarried in Xianning.Xianning Nuclear Power Plant is under construction near Dafan Town, Tongshan County. On 17 August 2010, the Shaw Group announced an agreement with State Nuclear Power Engineering Corp. Ltd., a subsidiary of China’s State Nuclear Power Technology Corp. Ltd. (SNPTC), to add two new AP1000 units at the Xianning Nuclear Power Plant.TransportationXianning has major rail lines, including the Beijing-Guangzhou line, many national highways, and a large stretch of the Yangtze River, making it an important transportation and shipping center.As of 2015, four different train stations located in or near Xianning's main urban area have "Xianning" in their name; several other stations are located elsewhere within the prefecture-level city.There are two passenger train stations on the "conventional" Beijing-Guangzhou line within the Prefecture-level city of Xianning - the Xianning Railway Station in urban area itself (80 kilometres (50 mi) from Wuhan's Wuchang train station), and the one in Chibi (118 kilometres (73 mi) from Wuchang) - are usually the first and the second stops for the slower trains leaving Wuchang toward Changsha and Guangzhou. Typical travel times from Wuchang is 40-50 min and 1 hour 20 min, respectively.The new Wuhan–Guangzhou High-Speed Railway has Xianning North Railway Station, which is located on the northern outskirts of the city's main urban area, about 2 km (1.2 mi) northeast of Xianning Railway Station.The Wuhan–Xianning Intercity Railway (part of the future Wuhan Metropolitan Area Intercity Railway system), opened in December 2013, provides direct rail service from Wuhan's Wuchang Railway Station to Xianning city center. It has two stations in the city's main urban area: Xianning East Railway Station in the downtown Xianning, and Xianning South, the end-of-line (dead-end) station in the industrial area south of downtown. When the system was under construction, the expected travel time from Wuchang to Xianning was stated to be 28 min, but as of 2015, the typical scheduled time from Wuchang to Xianning South (91 km) is more like 70 to 100 min.

Demographics

Xianning has a population of 2,772,000 people. Most of the inhabitants of Xianning are Han; only 4,785 are from other ethnic groups including Hui, Tujia, Zhuang, Miao, Manchu, and Dong. The place with the largest ethnic minority population is in Chibi City.

History

Xianning was under the jurisdiction of Nanjun County during the Qin dynasty. At the end of the Han dynasty, Xianning became a strategic point where conflict occurred. During the Cultural Revolution, it was an important area for the Hunan, Hubei and Jiangxi Revolutionary Bases.