HPEC was founded in 1980 to serve as a college to prepare students in the Anhui region to teach preschool students. Over the years its role and reputation have been expanded and upgraded. It now works to train qualified teachers of early childhood education in a variety of disciplines from Special Education and English to Music and the Visual Arts. In the last decade the school moved to its present campus in the Yaohai district of northeast Hefei. As the school has developed its reputation has increased and its student body of 6000 students comes from throughout Anhui Province and other regions of China. There is also beginning to be a small but significant international student body. For its work, HPEC was recognized by the Ministry of Education for “remarkable achievements in fostering well-qualified preschool teachers for Chinese elementary education.”