Sichuan – China
Executive summary by darmansjah
Sichuan (Chinese:
About this sound Sìchuān, known formerly in the West by its postal map
spellings of Szechwan or Szechuan) is a province of the People's
Republic of China, located in the southwest of the country. The capital is Chengdu, a key economic centre of
Western China.
Sichuan was referred to in ancient Chinese sources as
Ba-Shuby combining the names two independent states within the Sichuan Basin —
the kingdoms of Ba and Shu. This and other discoveries in Sichuan contest the
conventional historiography that the local culture and technology of Sichuan
were undeveloped in comparison to the technologically and culturally
"advanced" China Proper in the Yellow River valley.The region had its
own distinct religious beliefs and worldview. Since the Yangtze River flows
through the basin and is thus upstream of eastern and southern China, navies
could easily sail downstream. Therefore Sichuan was the base for numerous
amphibious military forces and also served as the ideal hiding frontier for
political refugees of Chinese governments throughout history. Sichuan was
subjected to the autonomous control of kings named by the imperial family of
Han Dynasty. In 221, during the partition following the fall of the Eastern Han
Dynasty, i.e. the era of the Three Kingdoms, Liu Bei founded the southwest
kingdom of Shu-Han in the region with Chengdu as its capital.
Sichuan, within its present borders, consists of two very
geographically distinct parts. The eastern part of the province is mostly
within the fertile Sichuan basin (which is shared by Sichuan with the now-separate
Chongqing Municipality). The western Sichuan consists of the numerous mountain
ranges forming the easternmost part of the Tibetan Plateau, which are known
generically as Hengduan Mountains. Lesser
mountain ranges surround the Sichuan Basin from north, east, and south. Among
them are the Daba Mountains, in the
province's northeast.
Plate tectonics formed the Longmen Shan fault, which runs
under the north-easterly mountain location of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.
The Yangtze River and its tributaries flows through the
mountains of western Sichuan and the Sichuan Basin; thus, the province is
upstream of the great cities that stand along the Yangtze River further to the
east, such as Chongqing, Wuhan, Nanjing and Shanghai. One of the major
tributaries of the Yangtze within the province is the Min River of central
Sichuan, which joins the Yangtze at Yibin.
Under the Köppen climate classification, the Sichuan Basin
(including Chengdu) in the eastern half of the province experiences a humid
subtropical climate (Köppen Cwa or Cfa), with long, hot, humid summers and
short, mild to cool, dry and cloudy winters, and China's lowest sunshine
totals. The southern part of the province, including Panzhihua and Xichang, has
a sunny climate with short, very mild winters and very warm to hot summers.
Sichuan borders Qinghai to the northwest, Gansu to the
north, Shaanxi to the northeast, Chongqing to the east, Guizhou to the
southeast, Yunnan to the south, and the Tibet Autonomous Region to the west.
Expressways
On 3 November 2007, the Sichuan Transportation Bureau
announced that the Sui-Yu Expressway was completed after three years of
construction. After completion of the Chongqing section of the road, the 36.64
km (22.77 mi) expressway connected Cheng-Nan Expressway and formed the shortest
expressway from Chengdu to Chongqing. The total investment was 1.045 billion
yuan.Major railways in Sichuan include the Baoji–Chengdu, Chengdu–Chongqing,
Chengdu–Kunming, Neijiang–Kunming, Suining-Chongqing and Chengdu–Dazhou
Railways. A high-speed rail line connects Chengdu and Dujiangyan.
Cuisine
The most prominent traits of Sichuanese cuisine are
described by four words: spicy, hot, fresh and fragrant. Sichuan cuisine is
popular in the whole nation of China, so are Sichuan chefs. Two famous Sichuan
chefs are Chen Kenmin and his son Chen Kenichi, who was Iron Chef Chinese on
the Japanese television series "Iron Chef".
UNESCO World Heritage Sites
Dazu Rock Carvings,
listed as property of the Chongqing municipality
Jiuzhaigou Valley
Scenic and Historic Interest Area
Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries
Mount Emei Scenic
Area, including Leshan Giant Buddha Scenic Area
Mount Qincheng and
the Dujiangyan Irrigation System
Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries
In 263, the Jin Dynasty from north China conquered the
Kingdom of Shu-Han as its first step on the path to unify China again, under
their rule.
In the early 20th century, the newly founded Republic of
China established Chuanbian Special Administrative District, which acknowledged
the unique culture and economy of the region largely differing from that of
mainstream northern China in the Yellow River region. The Special District
later became the province of Xikang, incorporating the areas inhabited by Yi, Tibetan
and Qiang ethnic minorities to its west, and eastern part of today's Tibet
Autonomous Region.
The difficulty of accessing the region overland from the
eastern part of China and the foggy climate hindering the accuracy of Japanese
bombing of the Sichuan Basin, made the region the stronghold of Chiang
Kai-Shek's Kuomintang government during 1938-45, and led to the Bombing of
Chongqing.
The Second Sino-Japanese War was soon followed by the
resumed Chinese Civil War, and the cities of East China fell to the Communists
one after another, the Kuomintang government again tried to make Sichuan its
stronghold on the mainland. In 1978, when Deng Xiaoping took power, Sichuan was
one of the first provinces to undergo limited experimentation with market
economic enterprise.
From 1955 until 1997 Sichuan had been China's most populous
province, hitting 100 million mark shortly after the 1982 census figure of
99,730,000. This changed in 1997 when the city of Chongqing as well as the
surrounding counties of Fuling and Wanxian were split off into the new
Chongqing Municipality. Official figures recorded a death toll of nearly 70,000
people, and millions of people were left homeless
