Hengyang is named after Mount Heng, the southern sacred mountain.
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culture
The name 衡阳 means 'south of Mount Heng' (阳 = sunny/south side of a mountain). 南岳衡山 (Mount Heng) is one of the Five Great Mountains (五岳) of China and the southern one of them.
history
The 1944 Battle of Hengyang (衡阳保卫战) saw Chinese forces hold the city against a much larger Japanese force for 47 days — one of the longest urban defenses of WWII in China.
