Meixian District () is a

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

of Meizhou City, in northeastern

Guangdong Province ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

, China. The district is an important

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka-speaking Chinese, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas, are a southern Han Chinese subgroup whose principal settlements and ancestral homes are dispersed widely across the provinces of southern China ...

settlement and is the ancestral home of many Hakka descendants living in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

and other countries worldwide.

History

Its original name was Chengxiang county () during the

southern Han Southern Han ( zh , t = 南漢 , p = Nán Hàn , j=Naam4 Hon3; 917–971), officially Han ( zh , t = 漢 , links=no), originally Yue ( zh , c = 越 , links=no), was a dynastic state of China and one of the Ten Kingdoms that existed during the ...

Dynasty where it was first created, all the way to the

Song A song is a musical composition performed by the human voice. The voice often carries the melody (a series of distinct and fixed pitches) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs have a structure, such as the common ABA form, and are usu ...

, Yuan and Ming dynasties, and then renamed Jiaying county during the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

. It only obtained the name Meixian in 1911 during the

Xinhai Revolution The 1911 Revolution, also known as the Xinhai Revolution or Hsinhai Revolution, ended China's last imperial dynasty, the Qing dynasty, and led to the establishment of the Republic of China (ROC). The revolution was the culmination of a decade ...

Geography

Meixian almost completely surrounds

Meizhou Meizhou ( zh, t=梅州, Hakka Chinese: Mòichû) is a prefecture-level city in eastern Guangdong province, China. It has an area of , and a population of 3,873,239 as of the 2020 census. It comprises Meijiang District, Meixian District, Xing ...

's central urban

Meijiang District Meijiang () is a district of Meizhou City, Guangdong Province, China. Administrative divisions * Subdistricts (): ** Jinshan () ** Jiangnan () ** Xijiao () *Towns: **Changsha () ** Sanjiao () ** Chengbei () Ethno-linguistic make-up Meijiang is ...

. This is due to the old urban core of Meixian becoming separated from the bulk of the county in the territorial reorganization following the 1949 establishment of the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, when it was given equal status.

Ethno-linguistic make-up

Meixian is noted for its large

population.

Administrative divisions

Meixian has administrative jurisdiction over one

subdistrict A subdistrict or sub-district is an administrative division that is generally smaller than a district. Equivalents * Administrative posts of East Timor, formerly Portuguese-language * Kelurahan, in Indonesia * Mukim, a township in Brunei, Ind ...

and 18

towns A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

. ;

Subdistrict A subdistrict or sub-district is an administrative division that is generally smaller than a district. Equivalents * Administrative posts of East Timor, formerly Portuguese-language * Kelurahan, in Indonesia * Mukim, a township in Brunei, Ind ...

: * Xincheng () ;

Towns A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

: * Chendong () * Shisan () * Meixi () * Daping () * Shikeng () * Shuiche () * Meinan () * Bincun () *

Baidu Baidu, Inc. ( ; ) is a Chinese multinational technology company specializing in Internet services and artificial intelligence. It holds a dominant position in China's search engine market (via Baidu Search), and provides a wide variety of o ...

() * Songyuan () * Longwen () * Taoyao () * Shejiang () * Yanyang () * Songkou () * Nankou () * Chengjiang () * Fuda ()

Culture

With a majority

population, Meixian, along with

Dabu County Dabu County () is a Counties of the People's Republic of China, county in Meizhou City, in the east of Guangdong Province, China. A center of Hakka people, Hakka culture, it has a population of 375,000. Dabu County has a long history of human s ...

, is known as the home of Standard Hakka.

References

External links

* County-level divisions of Guangdong Meizhou {{Guangdong-geo-stub