Marching slowly towards the north, the wild elephants reached a place about 70 kilometers away from the downtown area of Kunming, capital of Southwest China's Yunnan province on June 1. Yunnan province sees the harmony between human and elephants. For Henan natives, elephants have a special meaning, not only because of the ivory products and elephant bones unearthed at the Yin Ruins in Anyang city of Central China's Henan province, but also the Chinese character "豫" ("Yu"), abbreviation of "河南" ("Henan"). Therefore, Henan natives also have a special emotion on elephants in Yunnan.
Henan, a place where wild elephants once lived. [Photo provided to Dahe Daily]
What's the relationship between Henan and elephants?
"河南" ("Henan") is abbreviated as "豫" ("Yu"), which contains a hieroglyph "象" ("elephant"). The dense forest and wild elephants in Henan in ancient times pushed forward the origin of the hieroglyph "豫" ("Yu"). Since Henan was also called the state of "豫" ("Yu") in history, "豫" ("Yu") becomes its abbreviation. (Chinese source: Dahe Daily Translator: Wei Wei Proofreader: Jiao Dan)
