Hefei

Hefei 合肥市 Hofei
Prefecture-level city
Swan Lake CBD Baogong Park Lord Bao Temple Temple on Chao Lake Hua Tuo Statue
Location of Hefei City jurisdiction in Anhui
Hefei Location in Eastern China Show map of Eastern China Hefei Hefei (China) Show map of China
Coordinates (Hefei municipal government): 31°49′14″N 117°13′38″E / 31.8206°N 117.2273°E / 31.8206; 117.2273
Country	China
Province	Anhui
County-level divisions	7
Municipal seat	Shushan District
Government
• Type	Prefecture-level city
• Body	Hefei Municipal People's Congress
• CCP Secretary	Yu Aihua
• Congress Chairman	Wang Weidong
• Mayor	Luo Yunfeng
• CPPCC Chairman	Han Bing
Area
• Prefecture-level city	11,434.25 km2 (4,414.79 sq mi)
• Urban	838.5 km2 (323.7 sq mi)
• Metro	7,055.6 km2 (2,724.2 sq mi)
Elevation	37 m (123 ft)
Population  (2022 census)[1]
• Prefecture-level city	9,465,881
• Density	830/km2 (2,100/sq mi)
• Urban	5,118,199
• Urban density	6,100/km2 (16,000/sq mi)
• Metro	7,754,481
• Metro density	1,100/km2 (2,800/sq mi)
GDP[2]
• Prefecture-level city	CN¥ 1.141 trillion US$ 145.0 billion
• Per capita	CN¥ 120,579 US$ 18,691
Time zone	UTC+8 (CST)
Postal code	230000
Area code	551
ISO 3166 code	CN-AH-01
License plate prefixes	皖A
Website	hefei.gov.cn
City trees Southern magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora L.) City flowers Sweet Osmanthus (Osmanthus fragrans Lour.) Blossom of pomegranate (Punica granatum L.)

Hefei (/həˈfeɪ/; Chinese: 合肥) is the capital and largest city of Anhui Province, People's Republic of China.^[3] A prefecture-level city, it is the political, economic, and cultural center of Anhui. Its population was 9,369,881 as of the 2020 census. Its built-up (or metro) area is made up of four urban districts plus Feidong, Feixi and Changfeng counties being urbanized, was home to 7,754,481 inhabitants.^{[clarification needed]} Located in the central portion of the province, it borders Huainan to the north, Chuzhou to the northeast, Wuhu to the southeast, Tongling to the south, Anqing to the southwest and Lu'an to the west. A natural hub of communications, Hefei is situated to the north of Chao Lake and stands on a low saddle crossing the northeastern extension of the Dabie Mountains, which forms the divide between the Huai and Yangtze rivers.^[4]

The present-day city dates from the Song dynasty. Before World War II, Hefei remained essentially an administrative centre and the regional market for the fertile plain to the south. It has gone through a growth in infrastructure in recent years.^[5] Hefei is the location of Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak, an experimental superconducting tokamak magnetic fusion energy reactor.

Hefei is a world leading city for scientific research, with its ranking placed at 13th globally, 8th in the Asia-Pacific and 6th in China (behind Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Guangzhou and Wuhan), as tracked by the Nature Index in 2023.^[6] The city is represented by several major universities, including the University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei University of Technology, Anhui University, Anhui Agricultural University and Anhui Medical University.^[7] Notably, the University of Science and Technology of China is one of the top 100 comprehensive public research universities in the world.^{[8][9][10][11][12]}