Hefei is the capital of Anhui Province and hometown of the famous honest and upright official in Chinese history——Bao Zheng, featuring a landscape of half mountain and half lake. The city has a total area of 7,500 km2, with a population of 4,460,000, of which 1,650,000 people are permanent residents. The city proper area is 596.01 km2.

Founded as a county seat in the Qin Dynasty, Hefei has a history of more than 2,200 years. The city boasts many places of historical interest and scenic spots such as Xiaoyaojin——an ancient battlefield in the Three Kingdoms Period, the Archers' Training Rostrum built by Cao Cao, the Mingjiao Temple with an ancient bell, the Cultural Park of Bao Gong assuming the architectural style of the Song Dynasty, the thousand-year-old town of rivers and lakes——Sanhe, the former residence of Li Hongzhang, the former residence of Liu Mingchuan, the Yaogang Village——site of the former General Front Committee for the Crossing-the-Yangtze Campaign, and so on.

Standing in picturesque surroundings, Hefei is known as “a modern garden city” and “the most suitable city for people to live in”. It is the among the first three cities winning the honorable title of “city of gardens and parks”. The city's Belt Park looks like a green necklace, which “embraces both the old town and the new urban developments”. The Shushan Lake, lying at the foot of the Dashu Hill, looks like a green bright pearl. Hefei Wildlife Field, characterized by “naturalness, wildness and lingering charm of forest”, has become a space shared by men and animals. On Mountain Zipeng, one can not only hear the soughing of the wind flowing through the pines, but also see flocks of auspicious birds. With blue waves rippling in its immense waters, the Chaohu is a magnificent lake of myriad scenes.

The surrounding areas of Hefei abound with tourist resources. There are many tourist attractions known nation-wide within a radius of 300 kilometers of Hefei such as Mountain Huangshan, Mountain Jiuhua, the Taiping Lake, Mountain Tianzhu, Mountain Tiantangzhai, the ancient town of Shouxian, the Imperial Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty, Mountain Langya, etc. With mature regional tourist routes, Hefei is an ideal transfer station for tourists from north China who head for tourist attractions in East China.