Handan pinyin: ?hán dān

Name of the city. Located in the south of Hebei province, it is intersected by the Beijing-Guangzhou and Handan-Changsha railroads. Population 980,000 (1997). It is an industrial city with iron and steel, coal, and textiles as its main industries. There are ancient monuments such as the Congtai of Zhao Wuling Wang and the Rangtang Mountain Grottoes.

Handan is a city of great talent, the capital of Zhao in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods; the birthplace of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, the place where he grew up; during the eight years of the War of Resistance, Deng Xiaoping fought and lived here for six and a half years, and the second-generation nucleus of the leadership of the new China came out of here; after the liberation of the People's Republic of China, Mao Zedong visited Handan for 24 times; and the world-famous taijiquan, the two styles of Yang and Wu originated from here.

Handan's origin:

The Gan side of the character Handan is the reverse of Dan. The day to rise above the horizon is said to be Dan; and the day does not cross the horizon is said to be Gan. The day of Gan is not over the horizon, but the light of the day shines over the horizon, indicating that the day is about to rise. The single side of the character Dan is a fertile field on the horizon, and the two dots on top of the character Tian are symbolic of the field's lush growth of grain and grass.

The ear side of the character Handan symbolizes that the land is full of people, cattle and sheep. In a nutshell, Handan is the land where the sun is about to rise and the sun shines on the fertile land with prosperous people and flocks of cattle and sheep.