Xiangtan City, a prefecture-level city in Hunan Province, is known as Xiangtan for short, and is nicknamed "Liancheng" (Lotus City) or "Tancheng" because of its abundance of Xianglian, with a general geomorphologic profile of high terrain in the north, west, and south, and low terrain in the central and eastern parts of the city. As of 2023, the city has two districts, one county, and two county-level cities under its jurisdiction, with a total area of 5,006 square kilometers. As of the end of 2022, the city had a resident population of 2,702,700. Xiangtan City has been established since the Southern Dynasty, more than 1,500 years ago, is the important birthplace of Hunan culture, the cradle of China's red culture, with the reputation of "small Nanjing" and "golden Xiangtan". "Xiangtan's great men and craftsmen are as brilliant as stars - Mao Zedong, the leader of the generation, Peng Dehuai, the founding father of the country, Jiang Wan, the famous prime minister of Shu Han, Zeng Guofan, the important minister of the late Qing Dynasty, Qi Baishi, the cultural celebrity, the famous generals, Chen Geng and Tan Zheng, etc. All of them are famous in Xiangtan. CHEN Geng and TAN Zheng were all born here. Xiangtan is a member of the city cluster in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and the central city of the national "two-type society" comprehensive supporting reform pilot zone of the ChangZhuTan city cluster, and has won the honors of China's excellent tourist city, national garden city, and national civilized city, etc. On December 7, 2016, Xiangtan was listed as the third batch of the national comprehensive pilot area for new-type urbanization. In November 2018, it was selected as one of the top 100 Chinese cities in the Comprehensive Well-being Index.On January 29, 2021, it was selected as one of the regions with obvious results in the 2020 Real Efforts announced by the Hunan Provincial People's Government.On February 24, 2022, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) issued the "Reply Letter of the National Development and Reform Commission on the Agreeing of the Development Plan for the Changzhutan Metropolitan Circle," officially approving the "Development Plan for the Changzhutan Metropolitan Circle ". In 2023, Xiangtan's gross regional product was 274.184 billion yuan, an increase of 5.1% over the previous year.