History
Northern Henan, along the Yellow River, was the core area of ancient China for at least the first half of Chinese history. The two cities of Luoyang and Kaifeng each served as the capital city of a long list of dynasties.
The Ming Dynasty set up the equivalent of modern Henan province, with borders extremely similar to modern ones. The capital was, however, at Kaifeng instead of modern Zhengzhou. The Qing Dynasty did not make any significant changes to this arrangement.
The completion of the Pinghan Railway (Beijing-Hankou) made Zhengzhou, a previously unnoted county town, into a major transportation hub. In 1954, the new People’s Republic of China government moved the capital of Henan from Kaifeng to Zhengzhou. The PRC also established a short-lived Pingyuan Province consisting of what is now northern Henan and western Shandong, with capital Xinxiang. This province was abolished in 1952.
Culture
Most of Henan speaks dialects of the Mandarin group of dialects spoken in northern and southwestern China. Linguists put these dialects into the category of "Zhongyuan Mandarin". The northwestern corner of Henan is an exception, where people speak Jin dialects instead. The dialects of Henan are collectively called "the Henan dialect" in popular usage, with easily identifiable stereotypical features.
Henan opera (Yuju) is the local form of Chinese opera; it is also famous and popular across the rest of China. Henan Quju and Henan Yuediao are also important local opera forms.
Henan cuisine is the local cuisine, with traditions such as the Luoyang Shuixi (Luoyang "Water Table", consisting entirely of various soups, etc.); Xinyang Duncai (Xinyang brewed vegetables), and the traditional cuisine of Kaifeng.
Important traditional art and craft products include: Junci, a type of porcelain originating in Yuzhou noted for its unpredictable colour patterns; the jade carvings of Zhenping; and Luoyang’s Tangsancai ("Tang Three Colours"), which are earthenware figurines made in the traditional style of the Tang Dynasty.


Geography and climate
Henan borders Hebei to the north, Shandong to the northeast, Anhui to the southeast, Hubei to the south, Shaanxi to the west, and Shanxi to the northwest.
Henan is flat in the east and mountainous in the west and extreme south. The eastern and central parts of the province form part of the North China Plain. To the northwest the Taihang Mountains intrude partially into Henan’s borders; to the west the Qinling Mountains enter Henan from the west and end about halfway across Henan, with branches (such as the Funiu Mountains) extending northwards and southwards. To the far south, the Dabie Mountains separate Henan from neighbouring Hubei province.
The Yellow River passes through northern Henan. It enters from the northwest, via the Sanmenxia Reservoir. After it passes Luoyang, the Yellow River is raised via natural sedimentation and artificial construction onto a levee, higher than the surrounding land. From here onwards, the Yellow River divides the Hai He watershed to the north and the Huai He watershed to the south. The Huai He itself originates in southern Henan. The southwestern corner of Henan, around Nanyang, is part of the drainage basin of the Han Shui River across the border in Hubei.
There are many reservoirs in Henan. Major ones include the Danjiangkou Reservoir on the border with Hubei, the Sanmenxia Reservoir, the Suyahu Reservoir, the Baiguishan Reservoir, the Nanwan Reservoir, and the Banqiao Reservoir.
Henan has a temperate continental climate, with most rainfall in summer. Temperatures average about 0°C (32℉)in January, and 27 to 28°C(81 to 82℉) in July.


Henan is located in the central part of the country, with an area of 64,500 sq mi (167,000 sq km).
Its one-character abbreviation is Yu, named after Yuzhou Province, a Han Dynasty province that included parts of Henan. The name Henan means "south of the (Yellow) River"((Huang He). Henan is often called Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou, literally "central plains" or "midland"; this name is also broadly applied to the entire North China Plain. Henan is traditionally regarded as the cradle of Chinese civilization.
Administrative divisions
Henan is divided into seventeen prefecture-level divisions – all prefecture-level cities – and one directly administered county-level city.The prefecture-level cities are:
• Zhengzhou
• Sanmenxia
• Luoyang
• Jiaozuo
• Xinxiang
• Hebi
• Anyang
• Puyang
• Kaifeng
• Shangqiu
• Xuchang Luohe
• Pingdingshan
• Nanyang
• Xinyang
• Zhoukou
• Zhumadian
The directly administered county-level city (more accurately described as a sub-prefecture-level city) is:
• Jiyuan
The seventeen prefecture-level divisions and one directly administered county-level city of Henan are subdivided into 159 county-level divisions (50 districts, twenty-one county-level cities, and 88 counties; Jiyuan is counted as a county-level city here). Those are in turn divided into 2440 township-level divisions (866 towns, 1234 townships, twelve ethnic townships, and 328 subdistricts).


Economy
Henan is a relatively poor province. Since undergoing reform and being made more open, however, the speed of economic development has increased by an average of about 10% each year for the past twenty years. An industrial system with light textile, food, metallurgy, petrol, building materials, chemical industry, machinery and electronics as the main body has been formed. Nearly one hundred products, such as coal, industrial cord fabrics, fridges, aluminium, color glass cases, gold, meat products, tyres, chemical fibres, glass, cement, generated energy, and others take are an important part of the national market.
Henan is an agricultural province, leading the provinces of China in wheat and sesame production, and is third place overall in terms of total grain output. Cotton, rice, and maize are also important crops in Henan.
There are several important centers of coal production in Henan, including Pingdingshan, Yima, and Jiaozuo. Luanchuan County in western Henan is an important center of molybdenum extraction. Electricity generation is another important industry of Henan.


Ethnic group
The largest ethnic group of Henan is Han, while the main minority group is hui
Tourism
Henan is located in the Yellow River valley and in a place where people of ancient times grew and developed. Earlier in the New Stone Age, the light of civilization had appeared and the delicate potteries in the Peiligang Culture and Yangshao Culture, and the character signs and musical instruments 8,000 years ago have filled the present world and the ancient times with wonders. Three of the Seven Ancient Capitals of China are in Henan: Luoyang, Kaifeng and Anyang. Henan is one of the provinces which have the most historical relics in the country. There are 16 key national units of protecting historical relics and 267 provincial units of protecting historical relics. The over-ground historical relics are the second in China. Historical relics in museums take up one eighth of those in China. And the underground historical relics are the first in China. In Henan Museum there are 120,000 historical relics, including over 40,000 rare ones. Henan is a perfect place for tourists to yearn for the past.
• Gaocheng Astronomical Observatory, the oldest astronomical observatory in China.
• Annual Peony Show in Luoyang.
• Mount Jigong, on the southern border.
• Mount Song, near Dengfeng, one of the Five Sacred Mountains of China.
• Shaolin Temple, on Mount Song.
• The Longmen Grottoes, near Luoyang.
• White Horse Temple in Luoyang.
• Yinxu in Anyang.