Tongling (simplified Chinese: 铜陵; traditional Chinese: 銅陵; pinyin: Tónglíng; Wade–Giles: T'ung-ling; lit. 'Copper Hillock') is a prefecture-level city in southern Anhui province of China. A river port along the Yangtze River, Tongling borders Wuhu to the east, Chizhou to the southwest and Anqing to the west.[3] As of the 2020 census, its population was 1,311,726 inhabitants whom 842,675 lived in the built-up (or metro) area made of 3 urban districts. The asteroid 12418 Tongling was named after the city. Tongling has been famous as a beautiful mountain city since its origins in the Han dynasty over 1500 years ago. Owing to its copper and tin deposits, it was an important center in the past for bronze production. The scale of industrial activity gradually increased through the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) dynasties, the Japanese occupation of 1938–45, and especially under the Communist government since 1949.