Puning

Puning 普宁市 / 普寧市
County-level & Sub-prefectural city
Location of Puning within Guangdong
Puning Location of the city center in Guangdong
Coordinates: 23°17′53″N 116°09′58″E / 23.298°N 116.166°E / 23.298; 116.166
Country	People's Republic of China
Province	Guangdong
Prefecture-level city	Jieyang
Area
• Total	1,620 km2 (630 sq mi)
Elevation	10.5 m (34.4 ft)
Population  (2010)
• Total	2,054,703
• Density	1,300/km2 (3,300/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+8 (China Standard)
Postal code	5153**
Area code	(0)663
Licence plates	粤V (Yuè V)
Website	Puning Government Website

Puning (Chinese: 普宁 / 普寧; Mandarin: Pǔníng; Teochew: Pou2 leng5), officially Puning City, is a county-level city located in Eastern Guangdong, China, under the administration of the city, Jieyang. Nevertheless, its administrative power in economic matters is comparable to that of prefecture-level cities.^{[ref 1]} Puning is geographically situated on the west rim of Chaoshan Plain, leaning against the stretching branch of the Lianhua Mountains at its southwest border, and 90 percent of its territory sits on the south of the Tropic of Cancer. The city has a population of 2.5089 million under its household registration system hukou,^{[ref 2]} marking the largest in all county-level cities in China.^{[ref 3]} Puning's downtown residents amount to 581,900, behind Yiwu,^{[ref 4]} while the entire city's resident population of 1.9986 million is second to cities Kunshan and Jinjiang.^{[ref 5]} It is concurrently the ancestral hometown of 1.95 million overseas Chinese people and 1.4 million 'returned overseas Chinese people' (overseas Chinese who 'returned' to China and/or regained Chinese citizenship) and family members of overseas Chinese people.

Puning, having been a key trade hub in eastern Guangdong, was upgraded from county to city status in 1993.^{[ref 6]} It is one of the first 'Chinese textile cities'^{[ref 7]} and where the project 'Chinese TCM Cities' was first launched.^{[ref 8]} Textile and apparel and medicine industries are local pillars,^{[ref 9]} topping or coming second in Guangdong county economies since 2003. It also entered the list of the One Hundred Best Counties and Cities for Health Industry in 2020 by Xiaokang series of Qiushi magazine.^{[ref 10]}

Historically, Puning was one of the eight counties of Chaoshan. In the mid-1900s, the Hakka region, which was historically part of the Huizhou Prefecture, was incorporated into Puning's territory. Subsequently, the city also welcomed back 'returned overseas Chinese' and 'family members of overseas Chinese' due to the political situation in Southeast Asia. The cultures of the various clans formed the multilingual, multicultural landscape of Puning, where customs and traditions differ across the towns and villages. It is recognised as a Chinese Folk Culture Art Village by the Ministry of Culture, China.
Cite error: There are <ref group=ref> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=ref}} template (see the help page).