Huai'an
prefecture-level city in Jiangsu, China
Huai'an, formerly Huaiyin, is a prefecture-level city in Jiangsu in Eastern China. As of 2020, the built-up area (metro) of its 3 central urban districts had 2,544,767 inhabitants and the prefecture-level city as a whole had 4,556,230 inhabitants.
Long an important regional center, Huai'an lies on and is named for the Huai River, the historical boundary between northern and southern Chinese culture. Once much closer to the East China Sea, it now lies in the middle of Jianghuai, the vast alluvial plain created by silt from the Huai and the Yellow River, which flowed nearby for centuries prior to the massive floods in the mid-19th century which returned it to its old course north of Shandong. Huai'an is known as the birthplace of Han Xin, a famed general who helped found the Han dynasty and overwhelm Xiang Yu in the Chu-han Contention; Wu Cheng'en, the Ming dynasty author of Journey to the West; and Zhou Enlai, a prominent Communist leader who served as premier of the PRC from 1949 until his death in 1976.
Names
Huai'an is the atonal pinyin romanization of the Mandarin pronunciation of the Chinese name 淮安 (Huái'ān), the name of the River Huai and the Chinese word for "peaceful" or "pacified". The apostrophe is necessary because the second character begins with a vowel and pinyin generally avoids hyphens. The same name was previously romanized as Huai-an in Wade-Giles.
For much of the 20th century, Huai'an was officially known as Huaiyin in pinyin, Huai-yin in Wade–Giles, and Hwaiyin in Postal Map, all romanizing the Chinese name written 淮陰 in traditional characters and 淮阴 in simplified ones, meaning "area on the yin, shady, or south bank of the Huai".
Geography
Huai'an lies on the Huai River in the alluvial Jianghuai Plain.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Huai'an” as prefecture-level city in Jiangsu, China. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as prefecture-level city in Jiangsu, China. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q57818. Authority coordinates are 33.589, 119.019. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2020, 1949 and 1976.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
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Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Huai'an”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Huai'an primary sources, Huai'an archive and Huai'an research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Huai'an” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.