Folks of Hefei (Yinn Yi)

The most popular religions are the Chinese ethnic religion, Chinese Buddhism and Taoism. Zhenfeng Pagoda is in Anqing, Dabeilou Temple and Huacheng Temple are on Mount Jiuhua, a sacred mountain of Buddhism. Hefei has the Temple of Lord Bao. There are Muslim minorities and one of the largest Christian populations of East Asia.

Buddhism

Buddhism spread from India to China some 2,000 years ago. Chinese Buddhism may be classified according to languages into three communities: Mandarin, Tibetan and Bali. Most of the Mandarin Buddhist believers are Han Chinese while Tibetan Buddhist (generally called Lamaist) believers are people of the Tibetan, Mongolian, Yugur, Lhoba, Moinba and Tujia nationalities, and Bali Buddhist believers are people of the Dai and Bulang ethnic groups that mainly live in Yunnan Province. The Buddhist communities are the largest religious communities in China. However, since quite a few of Han believers are not always steadfast followers of Buddhism, it is hard to count their exact numbers.

Taoism 

Taoism is native and has a history of more than 1,700 years. Its founder was Lao tzu and its doctrines are based on his writings, the tao teaching. Taoism, a polytheistic religion, is still quite influential in rural areas inhabited by Han Chinese. 

Islam 

Islam spread from the Arab Countries to China more than 1,300 years ago. It now has more than 14 million believers among the Hui, Yugur, Kazak, Ozbek, Tajik, Tatar, Kirgiz, Dongxiang Sala and Banan ethnic groups. The Islamic followers mainly live in Provinces of Xinjiang, Ningxia, Ganxu and Qinghai in northwest China. There are also Islamic communities scattered in almost every city. The Muslims do not not eat pork, dogs, horses, donkeys or mules. Read more on: History of Islam in China, Mosques in China, Halal food in China and Islamic holidays.

Christianity

Catholicism and other forms of Christianity began to make their way into China very early. In 635, a missionary of the Nestorian sect came to China from Persia, the then called JING. The religion withered long before gaining a strong foothold in China. It was after the Sino-British Opium War in 1840 that the Christian developed rapidly in China. After the founding of New China, Chinese Catholic and Christian communities took the path of independence and self administration. Now there are more than 3.3 million catholic and nearly 5 million protestants in the country. 

Effect of married women's beliefs about gender equity on their use of prenatal and delivery care in rural China.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of married women's beliefs regarding gender equity on their use of prenatal and delivery care in China's rural Xinjiang and Anhui provinces.

METHODS: In this survey, 1029 women aged from 15 to 69 years, living in rural Xinjiang and Anhui provinces, and married, answered a questionnaire designed to collect information on their demographic characteristics, reproductive history (number of pregnancies, level of prenatal care, and mode and place of delivery), and beliefs regarding gender equity. We quantified "belief in gender equity" based on responses to 7 specific statements and graded the responses according to a system scoring the strength of the overall belief (a total score ≥19, strong; 15-18, moderate; and ≤14, weak).

RESULTS: Only 34.3% of the women demonstrated strong convictions about gender equity. Even after adjusting for education and ethnicity, the percentage of women who received consistent prenatal care and were delivered at a maternity facility was highest among those scoring 19 or higher, and the reverse was true for women scoring 14 or less.

CONCLUSION: Overall, women in China's rural Xinjiang and Anhui provinces do not hold strong convictions about gender equity. There was a positive correlation between belief in gender equity and use of prenatal and delivery care.