Henan

Henan is a province in Central China. Henan is home to many heritage sites, including Yinxu, the ruins of the final capital of the Shang dynasty (c. 1600 – c. 1050 BC) and the Shaolin Temple. Four of the historical capitals of China, Luoyang, Anyang, Kaifeng and Zhengzhou, are in Henan.

While the province's name means 'south of the river', approximately a quarter of the province lies north of the Yellow River. With an area of 167,000 km² (64,000 sq mi), 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 and the most populous among inland provinces, with a population of over 99 million as of 2020. It is also the world's seventh-most populous administrative division; if it were a country by itself, Henan would be the 17th-most populous in the world, behind 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 CN¥5.88 trillion (US$926 billion) as of 2021, ahead of the nation of Turkey ($815 billion). If it were a country, it would be the 18th-largest economy as of 2021. However, its GDP per capita 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 institutions of higher education, 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.