Which provinces in China do you know almost nothing about?

[tooironic]

Just curious, so I thought I'd ask: which provinces in China do you know almost nothing about?

The full list of provinces (including autonomous regions, directly controlled municipalities and self-governing special administrative regions) are listed here for convenience:

安徽 Anhuī (capital: 合肥 Héféi)

北京 Běijīng

重庆 Chóngqìng

福建 Fújiàn (capital: 福州 Fúzhōu)

甘肃 Gānsù (capital: 兰州 Lánzhōu)

广东 Guǎngdōng (capital: 广州 Guǎngzhōu)

广西 Guǎngxī (capital: 南宁 Nánníng)

贵州 Guìzhōu (capital: 贵阳 Guìyáng)

海南 Hǎinán (capital: 海口 Hǎikǒu)

河北 Héběi (capital: 石家庄 Shíjiāzhuāng)

黑龙江 Hēilóngjiāng (capital: 哈尔滨 Hā’ěrbīn)

河南 Hénán (capital: 郑州 Zhèngzhōu)

湖北 Húběi (capital: 武汉 Wǔhàn)

湖南 Húnán (capital: 长沙 Chángshā)

内蒙古 Inner Mongolia (Nèiměnggǔ) (capital: 呼和浩特 Hūhéhàotè)

江西 Jiāngxī (capital: 南昌 Nánchāng)

江苏 Jiāngsū (capital: 南京 Nánjīng)

吉林 Jílín (capital: 长春 Chángchūn)

辽宁 Liáoníng (capital: 沈阳 Shěnyáng)

澳门 Macao (Aòmén)

宁夏 Níngxià (capital: 银川 Yínchuān)

青海 Qīnghǎi (capital: 西宁 Xīníng)

山东 Shāndōng (capital: 济南 Jǐnán)

陕西 Shǎnxī (Shaanxi) (capital: 西安 Xī’ān)

山西 Shānxī (capital: 太原 Tàiyuán)

上海 Shànghǎi

四川 Sìchuān (capital: 成都 Chéngdū)

台湾 Táiwān (capital: 台北 Táiběi/Taipei)*

天津 Tiānjīn

香港 Xiānggǎng (Hong Kong)

新疆 Xīnjiāng (capital: 乌鲁木齐 Wūlǔmùqí)

西藏 Xīzàng (Tibet) (capital: 拉萨Lhasa/Lāsà)

云南 Yúnnán (capital: 昆明 Kūnmíng)

浙江 Zhèjiāng (capital: 杭州 Hángzhōu)

* If you presume that it is a province of the PRC - let's not debate that here.

Since this forum only allows 20 questions per topic poll, I've only included 20 of which I believe are the least famous, but of course you can vote "other" and discuss your option in the post.

[Guest realmayo]

Interesting .... I ticked five. It's possible I might know of some famous places located within them, but beyond that I'm pretty much a blank.

[roddy]

Anything with a cardinal compass point in the name is a mystery to me.

[WestTexas]

江西 is a mystery to me. Despite an effort to learn all the provinces I feel I've never heard of it. I've definitely never heard of the capitol city.

[WestTexas]

I also did not vote for 安徽 but I feel I know nothing about it either.

[rezaf]

I think 江西 will win the prize. Why is it so unknown?

[yonglin]

Going through the list, I have some kind of association to every province apart from Jiangxi. I have heard the name of the capital -- would even know how to write it -- but wouldn't know it was in Jiangxi...

Looks like these people need to do more marketing.

[roddy]

Ah, but if you've ever heard of Jingdezhen, you've heard of Jiangxi.

Oh. Never heard of Jingdezhen, huh?

[creamyhorror]

Funnily, Nanchang and Jingdezhen are two of the few cities I've visited in China. The others are Beijing, Hong Kong, and Shenzhen. I know barely anything about the rest of the provinces.

Jingdezhen's porcelain is nice enough; you can do some handpainting on vases if you like, and get them fired and packaged/sent to you. I also went to one of the ancient cradles of porcelain-making - a village called Yaoli - where you may learn the rather unique character ��.

edit: Okay, looks like it can't be displayed. Here's the Zdic link, along with an image:

[Nakura]

is quite similar to 不i believe most of chinese don't know the meaning.

[skylee]

So the character means a tree without the trunk? That is exactly what it looks like (木 without the part above the ground / 木無頭).

[creamyhorror]

@skylee: Yup, that's what the 说文解字 and 康熙字典 say. Really 象形, huh? I can't remember what these stumps were used for, but they were involved in the porcelain process somehow. has a different stroke order from 不, which corresponds to the difference in its appearance.

I'm not sure what else Jiangxi is famous for. I did pick up some delicious sliced sesame rock-candy in Nanchang, but that's probably found in various places.

[xiaocai]

I thought 江西 is more famous than this... No one has heard of 婺源 and 鄱阳湖? Or at least 庐山? And how about 井冈山 and 瑞金?

[jkhsu]

Just curious, so I thought I'd ask: which provinces in China do you know almost nothing about?

What does the "almost nothing" mean? Is it:

1. Have never heard of the name at all.

2. Have only heard of the name but don't know if it's a province, city or a street name.

3. Have heard of the name and know it's a province, but can't point it out on a map or know anything particular about it.

4. Can point the province out on a map (general area) but don't know anything particular about it.

For me, 贵州 Guìzhōu and 宁夏 Níngxià fall into #1. Most of the remaining are split among #2, #3, and #4.

If the "almost nothing" includes 1,2,3 and 4, then I guess I know almost nothing about most provinces in China!

Or at least 庐山? And how about 井冈山 and 瑞金?

I've heard of 庐山 and know it's a mountain but didn't know it was in 江西. 瑞金 falls into #2 above for me.

[Guest realmayo]

No matter how one understands the question, the pooled polled results should indicate if there are a clutch of provinces which many readers of this website feel they know little about. Maybe tooironic is planning to hit those provinces' government leaders and offer to do some laowai PR?

[yonglin]

jhksu, I'm sure everyone applies their own standard on what "almost nothing" means. I think this is OK, because that means we have a chance at getting at the relative fame of the province in the eyes of Chinese learners, rather than the absolute level of anyone's knowledge.

This also means that it would be best to poll people on, say, the n provinces they know the least about, where n is fixed for all poll participants. ;)

I personally find the 5 (and counting) votes for Qinghai a little surprising given that there was an earthquake there in 2010 which was widely reported about in western media -- I would have thought this would be fresh in mind for most people (with some interest in China).

[bhchao]

Anyone familiar with 20th century revolutionary Chinese history will know that Jiangxi was extensively used by both parties. It was the Communist base before Yanan. Chiang and Song Meiling vacationed at Lushan, and owned a villa there.

Jiang Jingguo administered the province. Deng Xiaoping was exiled there during the CR.

[jkhsu]

Anyone familiar with 20th century revolutionary Chinese history will know that Jiangxi was extensively used by both parties.

That's the problem though. Anyone who knows this fact or is familiar with Chinese history through reading or school will know about most of these provinces.

[Takeshi]

I voted Anhui, Henan, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, and Zhejiang.

Out of those though, Jiangxi definitely takes the cake. I at least knew the approximate position of most of the other provinces, but when I looked up Jiangxi I was like "wut, it has a border with Guangdong".

I live in Guangdong. I knew that to the north there is Hunan, and to the east there is Fujian, but I had no clue there was another province in between them. (Serious)

[wushijiao]

I chose Hainan. Besides knowing a bit about the tourism industry there, I can't say that I know much.

By the way, this list reminds me that I'd like to visit every Chinese province and 直辖市 that I have not yet been to.