Definition of "Hofei"

In the fall of 1939 Miss Wilkinson returned to do mission work in Occupied China. She gave a year’s service to Nantungchow. In the fall of 1940 she returned to Hofei and had the experience of sharing for a brief period with folk who, in her own familiar setting, had undergone the experience of life under Japanese occupation. After only a short time in Hofei Miss Wilkinson joined others of the women missionaries of the Disciples of Christ who, in response to the consular request that American women and children leave China, returned home in January of 1941.

1948, They Went to China‎, United Christian Missionary Society, page 47

I spent a day and a night in Hofei, the provincial capital of Anhwei, thanks to one of those unforeseen incidents that make the Chinese airlines so charming.[...]Two hours later, we landed in Hofei, where we were stuck in the airport, flattened by an African heat (this was August) bristling with cicadas.[...]The authorities in charge decided that I would stay in the Hofei Guest House, a luxurious place recently built on a hill outside the city, with a very nice garden and a lotus-covered pond.[...]Though Hofei is the provincial capital and must have about a million inhabitants, it appears that it never receives foreign tourists; it has no model factories and no Maoist relics—nothing worth organizing a guided visit.[...]But Hofei did have—like Peking, Canton, Soochow, Loyang, Sian, and most of the other cities I visited—an exhibit of archaeological objects "found in the province during the Cultural Revolution."

1977, Simon Leys, Chinese Shadows‎, New York: Viking Press, pages 82–83

Three out of the four Chang sisters grew up in Soochow, yet they all considered themselves "natives of Hofei": they spoke Hofei dialect, had Hofei nurse-nannies, and could all recall details of that world, even though they had only heard about it from other people.Hofei sits in the middle of Anhwei province, between the Huai and the Yangtze Rivers.* The military first recognized its strategic importance twenty-seven hundred years ago. Then, Hofei straddled two rival kingdoms and so naturally became the venue of their seesaw struggles.

2002, Annping Chin, Four Sisters of Hofei‎, Scribner, page 23

Dr. and Mrs. Corpron returned to Hofei (formerly known as Luchow-fu) and at once began repairing the hospital.

2012, Tim L. Adsit, Seeds of Change‎, Tate Publishing, page 58