Huainan, prefecture-level industrial city, north-central Anhui sheng (province), China. Until the 20th century Huainan was a minor town called Tianjia’an, under the jurisdiction of Shouxian, some 18 miles (30 km) to the west. Its development began with the discovery of coal deposits in the locality early in the 20th century, but exploitation of the mines did not begin in earnest until the 1930s. Their development was further advanced under the Japanese occupation (1937–45). After 1949 new coal deposits were discovered, and by the 1970s Huainan was the centre of one of China’s most important coalfields, with several mechanized deep pits. The city has a major thermal-power-generating plant, which supplies electricity to part of northern Anhui.
During the 1950s chemical and photochemical plants were established in the city, as well as an iron- and steelworks. Huainan’s industrial growth continued to boom and to diversify, with such other additional heavy industries as engineering and machine-building shops. Standing at the centre of a fertile agricultural region, it has benefited from irrigation projects established by the Huai River Conservancy Authority, and food- and tobacco-processing plants were established in the city. Huainan has railway connections with Hefei to the south, Xuzhou (in Jiangsu province) to the north, and Fuyang to the west. Pop. (2002 est.) city, 877,752; (2007 est.) urban agglom., 1,451,000.