Henan (Chinese: 河南; pinyin: Hénán;), is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the central part of the country. Its one-character abbreviation is 豫 (pinyin: yù), named after Yuzhou Province (豫州 Yù Zhōu), a Han Dynasty province (zhou) that included parts of Henan. The name Henan means "south of the (Yellow) River" With nearly 100 million people, Henan is the most populous province of China by residency. Henan is traditionally regarded as the birthplace of the Chinese nation, the cradle of China's 5000-year-long civilization, and the place of origin of Chinese family names as well. From the Xia Dynasty (about 21st century B.C to 17th B.C),the first dynasty in China, to the Northern Song Dynasty (around 12th century A.D),more than 200 emperors from over 20 dynasties set up their capitals in or moved their capitals to Henan, making it the ancient political, economic and cultural center of China. Northern Henan, along the Yellow River, was the core area of ancient China for at least the first half of Chinese history. Three of the Seven Ancient Capitals of China are in Henan: Luoyang, Kaifeng and Anyang. Henan is one of the provinces that has the most historical relics in the country. There are 16 key national units of protecting historical relics and 267 provincial units of protecting historical relics. The over-ground historical relics are the second in China in number. Historical relics in museums take up one-eighth of those in China, and the underground historical relics are the first in China in number. In Henan Museum there are 120,000 historical relics, including over 40,000 rare ones.