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(; Postal map spelling: Szechwan and Szechuan) is a province in the central-western China with its capital at Chengdu.
History The territory of the province and its vicinity were the cradle of unique local civilizations, which can be dated to at least 15th century BC (i.e. later years of Shang Dynasty). Beginning from the 9th century BC, Shu (today Chengdu) and Ba (today Chongqing City) emerged as cultural and administrative centers where two rival kingdoms were established. Shu's existence was unknown until a 1986 archaeological discovery at a small village named Sanxingdui (三星堆 Sān Xīng Duī) in Guanghan County. Believed to be an ancient city of the Shu Kingdom, the excavations yielded invaluable archaeological information. Although the Qin Dynasty came to destroy the civilizations of Shu and Ba, the culture of Shu and Ba was preserved and inheritated by people in Sichuan until today. The Qin government also accelerated the technological and agricultural advancements of Sichuan comparable to that of the Huang He (Yellow River) Valley. The Dujiangyan irrigation system, built in 3rd century BC under the inspection of Li Bing, was the symbol of modernization of that period. Composed of a series of dams, it redirected the flow of Min Jiang, a major tributary of Yangtze River, to fields and relieved the damage of seasonal floods. The construction and various other projects greatly increased the harvest of the area which thus became the main source of provision and men for Qin's unification of China. Various ores were abundant. Adding to its significance, the area was also on the trade route from Huang He Valley to foreign countries of the southwest, especially India. Military importance matches the commercial and agricultural values. As the area is actually a basin and is surrounded by the Himalayas to the west, the Qinling Range to the north, and mountainous areas of Yunnan to the south, its climate is often heavily foggy. Since the Yangtze flows through the basin and thus is upstream to areas of eastern China, navies could be easily sailed downstream. Therefore the area was bases of numerous ambitious militarians and refuges of Chinese governments throughout history. A few independent regimes were founded; the most famous was Shu Han of the Three Kingdoms. The Jin Dynasty first conquered Shu Han on its path of unification. During the Tang Dynasty, it was a battlefront against Tibet. The Southern Song Dynasty established coordinated defense against the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty in Sichuan and Xiangyang.The line of defence was finally broken through after the first use of firearms in history during the six-years siege of Xiangyang. Foggy climate hindered the accuracy of Japanese bombing of the basin and the Chongqing city where the capital of Republic of China had moved to during World War II. Sichuan's borders have remained relatively constant for the past 500 years. This changed in 1997 when the city of Chongqing as well as the surrounding towns of Fuling and Wanxian were formed into the new Chongqing Municipality. The new municipality was formed to spearhead China's effort to develop its western regions as well as to coordinate the resettlement of refugees from the Three Gorges Dam project. Subdivisions The current immediate administrative divisions of Sichuan consist of 18 prefecture-level cities and 3 autonomous prefectures: Geography The area lies in the Sichuan basin and is surrounded by the Himalaya (喜玛拉雅山脉）to the west, Qinling (秦岭) range to the north, and mountainous areas of Yunnan to the south. The Yangtze River flows through the basin and thus is upstream to areas of eastern China. The Minjiang River, in central Sichuan is a tributary of the upper Yangtze River, which it joins at Yibin. The climate is often heavily foggy. Several cities are quite polluted and seldom get sunny days. Bordering provinces: Chongqing Municipality, Tibetan Autonomous Region, Qinghai, Gansu, Shaanxi, Guizhou and Yunnan. Economy
Demographics The majority of population is Han Chinese, who are found scattered throughout the province. Significant minorities of Tibetans, Yi, Qiang and Naxi reside in the western portion, which is a part of historic Tibet's Kham region. Culture The Li Bai Memorial, located at his birthplace, Zhongba Town of northern Jiangyou County in Sichuan Province, is a museum in memory of Li Bai, a Chinese poet in the Tang Dynasty (618-907). It was prepared in 1962 on the occasion of 1,200th anniversary of his death, completed in 1981 and opened to the public in October 1982. The memorial is built in the style of the classic garden of the Tang Dynasty. Languages Most dialects of the Chinese language spoken in Sichuan, including the Chengdu dialect of the provincial capital, belong to the southwestern subdivision of the Mandarin group, and are therefore very similar to the dialects of neighbouring Yunnan and Guizhou provinces as well as Chongqing Municipality. Typical features shared by many southwestern Mandarin dialects include the merger of the retroflex consonants into the alveolar consonants , the merger of and , as well as the merger of into . The prefectures of Garzê and Aba in western Sichuan are populated predominantly by Tibetans, who speak the Kham and Amdo dialects of Tibetan. The Qiang and other related ethnicities speak the Qiangic languages, also part of the Tibeto-Burman languages. The Yi of Liangshan prefecture in southern Sichuan speak the Yi language, which is more closely related to Burmese; Yi is written using the Yi script, a syllabary standardized in 1974. Colleges and universities Tourism UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Miscellaneous topics Professional sports teams in Sichuan include: See also | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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