Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, the province of Hunan stretches from 108'47'' to 114'15'' east of longitude and from 24'39'' to 30'08'' north of latitude, covering a total area of 211, 800 km2. It is bordered by Jiangxi Province on the east, Guangdong Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on the south, Guizhou Province on the west and Hubei Province on the north. The bulk of its territory lies south of the Dongting Lake, hence its name "Hunan" ("South of the Lake").

As the Xiang River, the longest river within its boundaries, runs through it from south to north, the province is called "Xiang" for short; and thus we have "Xiang Cuisine", "Xiang Embroidery", "Xiang Opera", "Xiang Culture" and "Xiang Army". There in the province used to grow lotus flowers in profusion. A line from a Chinese poem of the Tang dynasty (618-907AD) reads, "the autumn breeze strokes the vast land of lotus blooms." And Mao Zedong, a master of classical poetry, speaks favorably of the beauty in his poem "Reply to A Friend" (1961): "The morning sunlight floods your Land of Lotus Blooms." Thus it has been reputed as "the Land of Lotus Blooms".