City in Hebei province, China
About Handan
Handan is a prefecture-level city located in the southwest of Hebei province, China. The southernmost prefecture-level city of the province, it borders Xingtai on the north, and the provinces of Shanxi on the west, Henan on the south and Shandong on the east. At the 2010 census, its population was 9,174,683 inhabitants of whom 2,845,790 lived in the built-up area made of 5 urban districts.By the end of 2024, the total resident population of the city is 9,182,100, and the urbanization rate of the resident population is 62.10%. Yongnian District in Handan and Shahe City in Xingtai have largely formed into a single conurbation.
Etymology
The city's name, Handan (Chinese: 邯郸), has remained unchanged for over 3,000 years. The name first appeared during the reign of King Zhou of Shang, in the chronicle Bamboo Annals. A dictionary from the Tang dynasty explained that "Han" (Chinese: 邯) is the name of a nearby mountain (Hanshan), and "Dan" (Chinese: 单) meant "the terminus of a mountain" with an added radical (Chinese: 阝) denoting a city. Together, "Handan" means "the city at the terminus of Mount Han". This explanation has been widely accepted until the discoveries of jade writings in Houma, Shanxi in 1965, where the "Dan" in Handan was spelt "丹", meaning red. This then lead to another explanation that Handan was named so because Mount Han appeared reddish-purple in color. The different spellings of the city's name consolidated into the modern spelling in Qin dynasty.
History
According to the Bamboo Annals, during the late Shang dynasty, the kings constructed palaces in the Handan area, with a time span of 3,050 to 3,100 years ago. In the early Western Zhou period, during the reign of King Cheng of Zhou, Handan was part of the Bei state and was inhabited by Wu Geng, the son of the last king of Shang. Later, it came under the control of the state of Wey. In 661 BCE, the Di people conquered Handan and ruled it for over 40 years after destroying Wey. In 588 BCE, the Jin state defeated the Di, and Handan was incorporated into Jin. In 546 BCE, after Wey's restoration, a rebellion forced members of the Wey royal family to flee to Handan for refuge. This event is recorded in The Spring and Autumn Annals (Guliang Commentary). During the Warring States period (5th–3rd centuries BCE), Handan was an important city of the state of Zhao. …
Climate
Handan has a monsoon-influenced humid continental climate/semi-arid climate (Köppen Dwa/BSk), with strong monsoonal influence, typical of the North China Plain. The normal monthly daily mean temperature ranges from −0.9 °C (30.4 °F) in January to 27.3 °C (81.1 °F) in July, while the annual mean temperature is 14.3 °C (57.7 °F). A majority of the normal annual precipitation of 502 mm (19.8 in) occurs in July and August.
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