| Sìchuān Shěng | |
| Abbreviations: 川 or 蜀 (Pinyin: Chuān or Shǔ) | |
| [image] | |
| Origin of Name | 四 sì - four 川 chuān - rivers literally "four rivers"; see text for further explanation |
| Administration Type | Province |
| Capital and Largest City | Chengdu |
| CPC Sichuan Committee Secretary | Zhang Xuezhong |
| Governor | Zhang Zhongwei |
| Area | 485,000 km² (5th) |
| Population (2002) - Density | 86,730,000 (3rd) 179/km² (21st) |
| GDP (2003) - per capita | 545.6 billion ¥ (9th) 6270 ¥ (26th) |
| Major Nationalities (2000) | Han - 95% Yi - 2.6% Tibetan - 1.5% Qiang - 0.4% |
| Prefecture-level divisions | 21 |
| County-level divisions | 181 |
| Township-level divisions | 5144 |
| ISO 3166-2 | CN-51 |
Shu's existence was unknown until a 1986 archaeological discovery at a small village named Sanxingdui (三星堆 Sān Xīng Duī) in Guanghan (廣漢 Guǎng Hàn) County. Believed to be an ancient city of the Shu Kingdom, the excavations yielded invaluable archaeological information.
Although the Qin Kingdom destroyed the civilizations of Shu and Ba, the Qin government 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 (李冰 Lǐ Bīng), 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, which proved successful as Mongke Khan died of illness in Sichuan. 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.
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.
Sichuan's nominal GDP for 2003 was about 545 billion Yuan (about 66 billion USD) and a per capita of 6270 RMB (757 USD).
| Province-level divisions administered by the People's Republic of China | [image] | |||||||||||
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