Hunan's natural geographical environment;
Hunan is surrounded by mountains in the east, south and west, and the middle and north are low and flat, showing a horseshoe-shaped hilly basin. There are Wuling Mountains in the northwest, Xuefeng Mountains in the southwest, Wuling Mountains (Nanling Mountains) in the south and Luo Xiao Mountains at the junction of Hunan and Jiangxi in the east. Most areas in Hunan are alluvial plains of hills, basins and river valleys. Except the elevation of Hengshan Mountain in Nanyue is as high as 1000 meters, the rest are below 500 meters above sea level. The highest peak is Jinggangshan at the junction of Yanling and Jinggangshan, with an altitude of 2 122 meters. North Hunan is the alluvial plain of Dongting Lake, with Hunan, Guizhou, Yuan and Li. The terrain is very low, generally below 50 meters above sea level. Therefore, the water system in Hunan flows into Dongting Lake in a fan shape.
Hunan is dominated by low mountains and hills, with an area of about149,000 square kilometers, accounting for 70.2%; The hillside and Pingyuan are about 52,000 square kilometers, accounting for 24.5%; The water area of rivers and lakes is about 1. 1 ten thousand square kilometers, accounting for 5.3%. The river network in this province is vertical and horizontal, almost all of which are Dongting Lake, with 534 1 river over 5 kilometers, among which Xiangjiang River, Zijiang River, Yuanshui River and Lishui River are the largest. Xiangjiang River, which originates from the western foot of Haiyang Mountain in northeast Guangxi, is 856 kilometers long. It is the river with the largest flow, the highest economic value and the widest basin in the province. Shui Yuan, which originated in Wu Yun, Guizhou, is the longest river in Hunan with a total length of1033km, and its flow is second only to that of Xiangjiang River. Dongting Lake is the most important lake in Hunan. It is connected to Songzi, Taiping, ouchi and Diaoxian (blocked) in the north and flows into the Yangtze River from Chenglingji, Yueyang. It plays an important role in regulating the water quantity of the Yangtze River. Due to the erosion and siltation of rivers and artificial reclamation, the lake surface has shrunk year by year. The neighboring provinces are Guangdong, Jiangxi, Hubei, Guizhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Chongqing.
Hunan belongs to the transition zone between the middle and lower reaches of rivers such as the plain (Yangtze River and Xiangjiang River) and the plateau platform (Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau), so the geographical landscape is unique and the humanities are also very distinctive: the economically developed plain culture blends with the closed mountain culture.
Hunan's social and humanistic environment;
Hunan is one of the most populous provinces in People's Republic of China (PRC). At the end of 2007, the total population of Hunan was about 68.057 million, ranking seventh among 34 provinces and cities in China. Hunan is also one of the densely populated provinces, with an average population of 3 19 per square kilometer, which is more than 1 times higher than the national average population density. The population of the province is 27,5291in urban areas and 40,527,900 in rural areas, and the elderly population accounts for 8.98% of the total population of the province. In 2007, the birth rate was 1 1.96‰, the mortality rate was 6.7 1‰, and the natural population growth rate was 5.25‰.
There are 1 megacities in Hunan and 4 megacities in Hengyang, Zhuzhou, Xiangtan and Yueyang.
Hunan is a multi-ethnic province with 56 ethnic groups living in it. The total population of ethnic minorities is 6.58 million (ranking sixth in China, next to Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, Xinjiang and Liaoning), accounting for about 10.2 1% of the total population. Among the ethnic minorities, Tujia (2.64 million), Miao (654.38+0.92 million), Dong (840,000), Yao (700,000), Bai (654.38+0.3 million), Hui (97,000), Zhuang (24,000) and Mongolian (24,000) However, most of them have 1 ethnic autonomous prefecture (Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture governs 1 7 counties in a city), 7 ethnic autonomous counties (namely Chengbu, Mayang Miao Autonomous County, Xinhuang, Zhijiang, Tongdao Dong Autonomous County, Jingzhou Miao and Dong Autonomous County, Jianghua Yao Autonomous County) and 100 ethnic townships. In addition, Sangzhi County and Yongding County of Zhangjiajie City also enjoy preferential policies for autonomous areas. The land area of ethnic areas in the province accounts for about 28% of the total area of the province.