SICHUAN
Excerpts from Wikipedia.org
Sichuan (四川) is a province in western China with its capital at Chengdu. The current name of the province, 四川, is an abbreviation of 四川路, or "Four circuits (political subdivisions) of rivers", which is itself abbreviated from 川峡四路, or "Four circuits of rivers and gorges", named after the division of the existing circuit into four during the Northern Song Dynasty.
History
The eastern territory of the province and its vicinity were the cradle of unique local civilizations, which can be dated back to at least the fifteenth century BC (i.e. the later years of Shang Dynasty). The western part have traditionally been part of Amdo and Kham provinces of Tibet, which were incorporated into Qinghai and Sichuan after World War II. Beginning from the ninth 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 an archaeological discovery in 1986 at a small village named Sanxingdui (三星堆) in Guanghan County. It is believed to be an ancient city of the Shu Kingdom, where excavations have yielded invaluable archaeological information.
Although the Qin Dynasty largely destroyed the civilizations of Shu and Ba, these cultures have to some degree persisted and been inherited by people in Sichuan up to the present day. The Qin government accelerated the technological and agricultural advancements of Sichuan making it comparable to that of the Huang He (Yellow River) Valley. The Dujiangyan Irrigation System, built in the 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 the Min Jiang, a major tributary of the Yangtze River, to fields, relieving 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-year siege of Xiangyang, which ended in 1273. 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.
During the Ming Dynasty major architectural works were created in Sichuan. Bao'en Temple is a well-preserved fifteenth century monastery complex built between 1440 and 1446 during Emperor Yingzong's reign (1427-64) in the Ming Dynasty. The Temple's Dabei Hall enshrines a thousand-armed wooden image of Avalokitesvara and Huayan Hall is a repository with a revolving sutra cabinet. The wall paintings, sculptures and other ornamental details are masterpieces of the Ming period.
Sichuan's borders have remained relatively constant for the past 500 years, except for the incorporation of Tibetan lands after World War II, which make up the western half of the province. 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.
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. Sichuan was China's most populous province before Chongqing was carved out of it, making Henan the current most populous. However, when including migrants, Guangdong has a higher population than Henan.
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.
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.
Giant Panda
The Giant Panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca, 大熊貓) is a mammal classified in the bear family, Ursidae, native to central-western and southwestern China. Though belonging to the order Carnivora, the panda has a diet which is 99% bamboo. Pandas may eat other foods such as honey, eggs, fish, yams, shrub leaves, oranges and bananas.
Giant pandas live in a few mountain ranges in central China, in Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu provinces. They once lived in lowland areas, but farming, forest clearing, and other development now restrict giant pandas to the mountains.
Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries
