Henan

Henan; or ; ; ; alternatively Honan}} is an inland province of China. Henan is home to many heritage sites, including the ruins of Shang dynasty capital city Yin and the Shaolin Temple. Four of the historical capitals of China, Luoyang, Anyang, Kaifeng and Zhengzhou, are in Henan.

Although the name of the province means "south of the river", approximately a quarter of the province lies north of the Yellow River, also known as the Huang He. With an area of , Henan covers a large part of the fertile and densely populated North China Plain. Its neighboring provinces are Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, Anhui, and Hubei.

Henan is China's third-most populous province with a population of over 99 million as of 2020. It is also the world's seventh-most populous subnational entity, and, if it were a country by itself, Henan would be the 14th-most populous country in the world, ahead of Egypt and Vietnam. People from Henan often suffer from regional discrimination.

Henan is the 5th-largest provincial economy of China, the second largest in South Central China after Guangdong, and the largest among inland provinces, with a nominal GDP of 5.88 trillion RMB (US$926 billion) as of 2021, ahead of the GDP of Turkey of 815 billion. If it were a country, it would be the 18th-largest economy as of 2021. However, per capita GDP is low compared to other eastern and central provinces. The economy continues to grow based on aluminum and coal prices, as well as agriculture, heavy industry, tourism and retail. High-tech industries and the service sector are concentrated around Zhengzhou and Luoyang.

Henan hosts more than 150 higher education institutions, ranking first in the Central China region. As of 2023, three major cities in the province ranked in the top 200 cities in the world (Zhengzhou 76th, Kaifeng 154th and Xinxiang 195th) by scientific research output, as tracked by the Nature Index. Provided by Wikipedia