Southwest China (Chinese :西南; pinyin :Xīnán) is a region in the south of the People's Republic of China.
Southwest China is a rugged and mountainous region, transitioning between the Tibetan Plateau to the west and the Chinese coastal hills (东南丘陵) and plains to the east. Key geographic features in the region include the Hengduan Mountains in the west, the Sichuan Basin in the northeast, and the karstic Yungui Plateau in the east. The majority of the region is drained by the Yangtze River which forms the Three Gorges in the northeast of the region. [1]
The narrowest concept of Southwest China consists of Sichuan, Chongqing, Yunnan, and Guizhou, while wider definitions often include Guangxi and western portions of Hunan. [2] The official government definition of Southwest China includes the core provinces of Sichuan, Chongqing, Yunnan, and Guizhou, in addition to the Tibet Autonomous Region.
Portions of Southwest China were incorporated in the 3nd century BCE into the Qin dynasty. Independent states would continue to exert influence within the region, with notable examples being the Nanzhao Kingdom in the 8th and 9th centuries CE and the Dali Kingdom in 10th and 11th centuries CE. The region was largely pacified and incorporated into Ming domain. [2] During the Second Sino-Japanese War, the city of Chongqing served as the capital of Chinese resistance to imperial Japanese expansion.
The diverse areas of Southwest China carry strong regional identities and have been historically considered more rural than the more developed eastern regions of China. [2] Rapid development since the late 1970s has helped transform many parts of the region with modern advancements. In the early 21st century, Southwest China contained 50% of the country's ethnic minority population which in turn formed 37% of the region's population. [2] Han Chinese migration has been largely concentrated in the urban centres while the rural areas are still predominantly made up by minority populations including the Zhuang, Miao, Yi, and others.
Inhabitants of Southwest China primarily speak a variant of Mandarin Chinese known as Southwestern Mandarin. This variant uses the same written language as Mandarin but is only approximately 50% mutually intelligible with Standard Chinese. As of 2012, there were approximately 260 million speakers of Southwestern Mandarin. [3]
GB [4] | ISO № [5] | Province | Chinese Name | Capital | Population | Density | Area | Abbreviation/Symbol | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Yú | 50 | Chongqing Municipality | 重庆市 Chóngqìng Shì | Chongqing | 28,846,170 | 350.50 | 82,300 | CQ | 渝 |
Chuān (Shǔ) | 51 | Sichuan Province | 四川省 Sìchuān Shěng | Chengdu | 80,418,200 | 165.81 | 485,000 | SC | 川(蜀) |
Guì (Qián) | 52 | Guizhou Province | 贵州省 Gùizhōu Shěng | Guiyang | 34,746,468 | 197.42 | 176,000 | GZ | 贵(黔) |
Yún (Diān) | 53 | Yunnan Province | 云南省 Yúnnán Shěng | Kunming | 45,966,239 | 116.67 | 394,000 | YN | 云(滇) |
Zàng | 54 | Tibet Autonomous Region Xizang Autonomous Region | 西藏自治区 Xīzàng Zìzhìqū | Lhasa | 3,002,166 | 2.44 | 1,228,400 | XZ | 藏 |
# | City | Urban area [6] | District area [6] | City proper [6] | Prov. | Census date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Chongqing [lower-alpha 1] | 8,894,757 | 12,084,385 | 16,044,027 | CQ | 2010-11-01 |
2 | Chengdu | 6,316,922 | 7,415,590 | 14,047,625 | SC | 2010-11-01 |
3 | Kunming [lower-alpha 2] | 3,140,777 | 3,272,586 | 6,432,209 | YN | 2010-11-01 |
4 | Guiyang | 2,520,061 | 3,034,750 | 4,322,611 | GZ | 2010-11-01 |
Sichuan is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the Sichuan Basin and the easternmost part of the Tibetan Plateau between the Jinsha River on the west, the Daba Mountains in the north and the Yungui Plateau to the south. Sichuan's capital city is Chengdu. The population of Sichuan stands at 83 million. Sichuan neighbors 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.
Hubei is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The provincial capital, Wuhan, serves as a major transportation hub and the political, cultural, and economic hub of central China.
Shaanxi is a province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi, Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichuan (SW), Gansu (W), Ningxia (NW) and Inner Mongolia (N).
Yunnan, is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately 394,000 km2 (152,000 sq mi) and has a population of 48.3 million. The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces of Guizhou, Sichuan, autonomous regions of Guangxi, and Tibet as well as Southeast Asian countries: Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar. Yunnan is China's fourth least developed province based on disposable income per capita in 2014.
Jilin is one of the three provinces of Northeast China. Its capital and largest city is Changchun. Jilin borders North Korea and Russia to the east, Heilongjiang to the north, Liaoning to the south, and Inner Mongolia to the west. Along with the rest of Northeast China, Jilin underwent an early period of industrialization. However, Jilin's economy, characterized by heavy industry, has been facing economic difficulties with privatization. This prompted the central government to undertake a campaign called "Revitalize the Northeast". The region contains large deposits of oil shale.
Guizhou is a landlocked province in the southwest region of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Guiyang, in the center of the province. Guizhou borders the autonomous region of Guangxi to the south, Yunnan to the west, Sichuan to the northwest, the municipality of Chongqing to the north, and Hunan to the east. The population of Guizhou stands at 38.5 million, ranking 18th among the provinces in China.
Heilongjiang, formerly romanized as Heilungkiang, is a province in northeast China. The standard one-character abbreviation for the province is 黑. It was formerly romanized as "Heilungkiang". It is the northernmost and easternmost province of the country and contains China's northernmost point and easternmost point.
East China is a geographical and a loosely defined cultural region that covers the eastern coastal area of China.
North China, or Huabei is a geographical region of China, consisting of the provinces of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi and Inner Mongolia. Part of the larger region of Northern China (Beifang), it lies north of the Qinling–Huaihe Line, with its heartland in the North China Plain.
Sichuanese or Szechwanese (simplified Chinese: 四川话; traditional Chinese: 四川話; Sichuanese Pinyin: Si4cuan1hua4; pinyin: Sìchuānhuà; Wade–Giles: Szŭ4-ch'uan1-hua4), also called Sichuanese/Szechwanese Mandarin (simplified Chinese: 四川官话; traditional Chinese: 四川官話; pinyin: Sìchuān Guānhuà) is a branch of Southwestern Mandarin spoken mainly in Sichuan and Chongqing, which was part of Sichuan Province until 1997, and the adjacent regions of their neighboring provinces, such as Hubei, Guizhou, Yunnan, Hunan and Shaanxi. Although "Sichuanese" is often synonymous with the Chengdu-Chongqing dialect, there is still a great amount of diversity among the Sichuanese dialects, some of which are mutually unintelligible with each other. In addition, because Sichuanese is the lingua franca in Sichuan, Chongqing and part of Tibet, it is also used by many Tibetan, Yi, Qiang and other ethnic minority groups as a second language.
Southwestern Mandarin, also known as Upper Yangtze Mandarin, is a Mandarin Chinese language spoken in much of Southwest China, including in Sichuan, Yunnan, Chongqing, Guizhou, most parts of Hubei, the northwestern part of Hunan, the northern part of Guangxi and some southern parts of Shaanxi and Gansu.
South Central China or South-Central China is a region of the People's Republic of China defined by State Council that includes the provinces of Guangdong, Hainan, Henan, Hubei and Hunan, as well as the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region; in addition, the two provincial-level special administrative regions (SARs), Hong Kong and Macau, are also included under South Central China.
Western China is the west of China. In the definition of the Chinese government, Western China covers one municipality (Chongqing), six provinces, and three autonomous regions.
Central China is a geographical and a loosely defined cultural region that includes the provinces of Henan, Hubei and Hunan. Jiangxi is sometimes also regarded to be part of this region. Central China is now officially part of South Central China governed by the People's Republic of China. In the context of the Rise of Central China Plan by the State Council of the People's Republic of China in 2004, surrounding provinces including Shanxi, Anhui, are also defined as regions of Central China development zones.
Wuming District is one of 7 districts of the prefecture-level city of Nanning, the capital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, South China. The district was approved to build from the dissolution of the former Wuming County (武鸣县) by the Chinese State Council on February 16, 2015. Located north of the city proper, it borders the prefecture-level city of Baise to the west.
Nasu, or Nasu proper, is a Loloish language spoken by a quarter million Yi people of China. Nasu proper and Wusa Nasu are two of six Yi languages recognized by the government of China. Unlike most written Yi languages, Nasu proper uses the Pollard (Miao) script. A distinct form of the Yi script was traditionally used for Wusa, though few can still read it.
The Hani languages are a group of closely related but distinct languages of the Loloish (Yi) branch of the Tibeto-Burman linguistic group. They are also referred to as the Hanoid languages by Lama (2012) and as the Akoid languages by Bradley (2007).
South China is a geographical and cultural region that covers the southernmost part of China. Its precise meaning varies with context. A notable feature of South China in comparison to the rest of China is that most of its citizens are not native speakers of Standard Chinese. Cantonese is the most common language in the region while the Guangxi region contains the largest concentration of China's ethnic minorities, each with their own language.
Guangxi, officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in South China and bordering Vietnam and the Gulf of Tonkin. Formerly a province, Guangxi became an autonomous region in 1958. Its current capital is Nanning.