Our country is vast, and the provincial administrative units in four corners are far apart. For example, from Heilongjiang in the northeast to Tibet in the southwest, Harbin drove on the highway to Lhasa, almost 5,000 kilometers, separated by many provinces and regions.
However, there is a province in our country that is very special, not counting this province, there are 31 provincial units on the mainland (not counting two island provinces), and there are at most two provinces between this province and any provincial administrative unit.
Where? Hubei Province.
Some people say how is it possible, although Hubei Province is located in the middle of China, from Hubei to Heilongjiang, it also passes through Henan, Hebei, Tianjin, Liaoning, and Jilin. You should be talking about a road or rail road map, and we are talking about a pure geographical concept here, for example, North Korea and Norway are thousands of miles apart, but there is only one Russia in between. Hubei to Heilongjiang, only according to the number of provinces, go northwest into Shaanxi, and then go all the way north in Shaanxi territory, out of Yulin into Inner Mongolia, and then all the way northwest to the Border of Mongolia and Montenegro.
The same is true from Hubei to Xinjiang. There are not many provinces that naturally pass by car or train, that is, Shaanxi, Gansu and then enter Xinjiang. If we walk according to the nearest distance on the map, we will only pass through Shaanxi and Gansu, of course, the east and west of Gansu are narrow and long, but after all, it can only be regarded as a provincial administrative unit.
To go from Hubei to Tibet, there is only Chongqing City and Sichuan Province in the middle, because Sichuan is adjacent to Tibet. Speaking of Chongqing, here's a turning point to talk about another topic in Chongqing and Hubei – both provinces and cities are double inland provinces.
We all know that there are two double landlocked countries in the world, one is Liechtenstein in Europe and the other is Uzbekistan in Central Asia. The so-called double landlocked country means that all the neighbors of these two countries are landlocked countries. Liechtenstein is neighbouring two landlocked countries, Switzerland and Austria, and Uzbekistan is neighbouring kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. The Caspian Sea is recognized as the largest lake in the world, not the ocean.
When we say double inland provinces, we mean that the neighboring provinces of Hubei and Chongqing are not coastal or border (along the border) with foreign countries. First of all, Chongqing is adjacent to Hubei, Hunan, Guizhou, Sichuan, and Shaanxi, and these provinces are neither coastal nor border. Hubei is adjacent to Henan, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hunan, Chongqing and Shaanxi, and these provinces are also not coastal or borderline.
China has two special provincial-level administrative units, Hong Kong and Macao, and in fact, hubei is only two provinces apart. To travel from other provinces to Hong Kong or Macao, you must first enter Guangdong Province, while Hubei Province enters Guangdong Province, you can go to Hunan Province, and you can also go to Jiangxi Province.
The reason why Hubei Province can have this unique in the country is mainly due to the border with Shaanxi Inner Mongolia and Gansu. Looking to the north, the east and west of Inner Mongolia are too narrow and long, and the three northeastern provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning all border Inner Mongolia. With the big wings of Inner Mongolia, although Hubei is far away from the northeast, it is only separated by two provincial-level administrative units. Looking west, Hubei borders Gansu through Shaanxi, so Xinjiang and Qinghai, which border Gansu, are far away from Hubei and are only separated by two provinces.
China also has two island provinces, if you put aside the marine factor, Hubei Province and these two provinces can also be said to be separated by only two provinces. Taking Hainan Province as an example, Hubei Province to Hainan Province, out of Hunan and Guangdong is across the sea from Hainan Island.
Hubei Province is the only province in the country that is separated from any province (administrative unit at the level) by only two provinces, but there are more than three provinces, such as Shaanxi and Henan. Shaanxi and the provinces on the mainland are at most separated by no more than two provinces, except for Shanghai, Hong Kong and Macao, which are not provincial-level administrative units. Not counting Shanghai, Hong Kong and Macao, Shaanxi and Fujian are only separated by Hubei and Jiangxi, between Zhejiang and Zhejiang only between Henan and Anhui, between Beijing and Tianjin only between Shanxi and Hebei, between Guangdong and Guangdong only between Hubei and Hunan, and between Guangxi and Chongqing and Guizhou.
Henan is separated from Hong Kong and Macao by three provinces: Hubei, Jiangxi and Guangdong, and except for Hong Kong and Macao, there are no more than two provinces in the middle of Henan and any one province on the mainland. Even Tibet, which seems to be far away from Henan, is separated only by Shaanxi and Sichuan, and between Xinjiang and Henan is Shaanxi and Gansu.
Provinces on the mainland, in general, are separated by up to five provinces. For example, from Xinjiang to Hong Kong and Macao, it is necessary to pass through Gansu, Shaanxi, Hubei, Hunan, Guangdong, or Ganchuan Qianguiyue, or Qingchuan Yunguiyue.
From Heilongjiang to Hong Kong and Macao, there are also five places in the near future: Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Hubei, Hunan and Guangdong. If it is from Beijing and Tianjin to Hong Kong and Macao, there are also five: Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Hunan or Jiangxi and Guangdong.
The motherland is very big, and the motherland is great.