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Places in China: Sichuan Province

Located in western central China, Sichuan is located where one can find three of the large forest regions in the country as well as one of five large pasture areas. Four rivers surge through the province, the Yalong, the Dadu, the Yinsha, and the Minjiang. Large, snow-covered mountain peaks form the backdrop to great forested regions.

Bordering provinces include Tibet, Chongqing, Guizhou, Yunan, Shaanxi, Qinghai, Gansu, Hubei and Hunan. Chonqing used to be a part of Sichuan Province but became an independent municipality in 1997.

Chengdu is the capital city of the province and has a city population of 9.6 million people. This large city became the capital of the Shu State in 316 BC when it acquired its present name. It is an old but modernizing city with Daoist and Buddhist temples, a highly regarded zoo where giant pandas are studied and nice parks. It is a central area for visitors to the Three Gorges of the Yangzi River, the sacred Emei Buddhist Mountain or a jaunt into Tibet.

A second city in the province draws visitors seeking Buddhist pilgrimage sites or the Giant Buddha is Leshan. Many minority ethnic peoples are found in this city with rather mild temperatures considering the location of the province.

The weather in much of Sichuan is mild winters but hot summers. If one is visiting the high Tibetan Plateau, summer is the better time to come.

The province is 570,000 square kilometres in size with a population of 114 million people, making an average population density of 180 per square kilometre. This 114 million people are ninety-five percent Han Chinese with Yi comprising over 2.5 percent and Tibetans around 1.5 percent. The remaining ethnic groups include Miao, Naxi, Qiang and Hui.

Sichuan is a land with fertile soil. Thus, farming is important there. Twenty percent of China's wine comes from Sichuan as well. Other important industries include iron, steel, coal and energy. There are several automobile producing plants in the province. Tourism is another good income producer for Sichuan. Man-made landscapes plus the natural landscapes bring in many visitors. The province GDP ranks in the top ten of provinces and municipalities in China although its large population uses a great percentage of the production.

Many people visit Sichuan Province during the various festivals held there. Much can be learned about the culture of the Sichuan people by attending any of the festivals. Some of them in Sichuan are the Torch Festival, the Lantern Festival, the Flower Festival in addition to attending horse races or pilgrimages into the mountains.

Sichuan cuisine is known worldwide. The best place to sample it is in the province where it originated. The Giant Panda is a native of Sichuan and is cared for and studied extensively within the province, but is hardly seen outside the zoos or wildlife reserves in the province.