Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to the east, Guangdong and Guangxi to the south, and Guizhou and Chongqing to the northwest.

Its nominal GDP per capita exceeded US$10,900 (CN¥69,300), making it the third-richest province in South Central China, after Guangdong and Hubei.

Hunan today is home to some ethnic minorities, including the Tujia and Miao, along with the Han Chinese, who make up a majority of the population.

[13] Changsha, the capital, is located in the eastern part of the province; it is now an important commercial, manufacturing, and transportation center.

[18] Hunan's primeval forests were first occupied by the ancestors of the modern Miao, Tujia, Dong and Yao peoples.

At this time, and for hundreds of years thereafter, the province was a magnet for settlement of Han Chinese from the north, who displaced and assimilated the original indigenous inhabitants, cleared forests and began farming rice in the valleys and plains.

[19] The agricultural colonization of the lowlands was carried out in part by the Han people, which managed river dikes to protect farmland from floods.

During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, Hunan was home to its own independent regime, Ma Chu.

The population continued to climb until, by the nineteenth century, Hunan became overcrowded and prone to peasant uprisings.

Under pressure from the Nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) forces, they began the Long March to bases in Shaanxi Province.

Japan launched Operation Ichigo, a plan to control the railroad from Wuchang to Guangzhou (Yuehan Railway).

In the 1950s, General Wang Zhen coerced thousands of Hunanese women into sexual servitude at PLA units in Xinjiang.

[citation needed] However, it was slower than most provinces in adopting the reforms implemented by Deng Xiaoping in the years that followed Mao's death in 1976.

In addition to CCP Chairman Mao Zedong, a number of other first-generation communist leaders were also from Hunan: Chinese President Liu Shaoqi; CCP Secretaries-General Ren Bishi and Hu Yaobang; Marshals Peng Dehuai, He Long, and Luo Ronghuan; Wang Zhen, one of the Eight Elders; Xiang Jingyu, the first female member of the CCP's central committee; Senior General Huang Kecheng; and veteran diplomat Lin Boqu.

Hunan is located on the south bank of the Yangtze River, about halfway along its length, situated between 108° 47'–114° 16' east longitude and 24° 37'–30° 08' north latitude.

The Xiaoxiang area and Lake Dongting figure prominently in Chinese poetry and paintings, particularly during the Song dynasty when they were associated with officials who had been unjustly dismissed.

[26] Changsha (which means "long sands") was an active ceramics district during the Tang dynasty, its tea bowls, ewers and other products mass-produced and shipped to China's coastal cities for export abroad.

[1] The politics of Hunan is structured in a dual party-government system like all other governing institutions in mainland China.

[35]: 298 In recent years, Hunan has grown to become an important center for steel, machinery and electronics production, especially as China's manufacturing sector moves away from coastal provinces such as Guangdong and Zhejiang.

The zone has good infrastructure, and the enterprises inside could enjoy the preferential policies of tax-exemption, tax-guarantee and tax-refunding.

By the end of the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan", the CEPZ achieved a total export and import volume of over US$1 billion and provided more than 50,000 jobs.

In 2007, the park signed a cooperation contract with Beijing Automobile Industry, one of the largest auto makers in China, which will set up a manufacturing base in Zhuzhou HTP.

[59][60][61] In addition to eating pork, the Uygurs of Changde practice other Han Chinese customs, like ancestor worship at graves.

[54] The reports didn't give figures for other types of religion; 79.04% of the population may be either irreligious or involved in worship of nature deities, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, folk religious sects.

[64] Being the educational and political in the late Qing Era, Hunan became the center of revolution and reformation, and it was the birthplace of many famous Chinese scholars, politicians, and generals, including the most influential and controversial figure of China in the 20th century, Mao Zedong.

[65] In 2023, there are 655 art groups, 149 mass art galleries and cultural centers, 148 public libraries, 180 museums and memorial halls, 108 radio and television stations, 5.853 million cable TV users, and 27.441 million fiber optic Internet broadband users all connected to cable TV.

These ingredients give rise to a distinctive dry-and-spicy (干辣; gānlà) taste,[66] with dishes such as smoked cured ham and stir-fried spicy beef being prime examples of the flavor.

Located in the south central part of the Chinese mainland, Hunan has long been known for its natural environment.

China's first all glass suspension bridge was also opened in Hunan, in Shiniuzhai National Geological Park.

As of 2023, Hunan hosts 137 institutions of higher education, ranking fifth together with Sichuan (137) among all Chinese provinces after Jiangsu (168), Henan (168), Guangdong (162), and Shandong (156).