Intro to Sichuan
Sichuan (四川) is a province located at the southwestern part of China and its capital is Chengdu. The Sichuan Province is located geographically in the Sichuan Basin surrounded by Himalayas at the far west, Tibetan Plateau at the northeast and the Yunnan mountains at the south. Its highest point is Gongga Shan located at the Daxue Shan. The main river that flows through the basin is known as the Yangtze river while the Minjiang river is a tributary river in central Sichuan.
The climate in Sichuan changes all the time where the eastern part of the province experience subtropical monsoon with long hot humid summers and short cool dry winters. The western part of the province has a mountainous climate where it has cold winters and mild summers with a lot of sunshine. The southern region usually has a sunny subtropical climate that has mild winters and hot summers.
Historically, Sichuan is known as the Province of Abundance as it is one of China’s main agricultural production bases. Grains are the major product from this province while other commercial crops such as citrus fruits, sweet potatoes, grapeseeds, sugar cane and peaches are also in production. It also holds the largest production of pork and second largest production of silkworm cocoons.
Not only that, it is also rich in mineral resources where it has more than 132 proven underground resources which includes vanadium, titanium and lithium. This region holds the largest reserves in China.
As for the language of this province, most dialects of Chinese are spoken here and that includes the Chengdu dialect. On top of that, the Sichuanese are very proud of their cuisine where it is known as one of the Four Great Traditions of Chinese cuisine. The traits of common Sichuan cuisine consists of four characteristics: hot, spicy, fragrant and fresh. Two of the most famous Sichuan chefs appeared on the television series known as the Iron Chef and they are Chen Kenmin and his son Chen Kenichi.
The majority of the population in the Sichuan province are Han Chinese although there would be an exception at the far western areas due to the significant population of the minorities such as the Tibetans, Yi,Qiang and Naxi. This indirectly forms a traditional transition zone of cultures between the Central and East Asian.
The main tourist attractions of the Sichuan province are mainly the UNESCO World Heritage sites such as the Dazu Rock Carvings, Huanglong Scenic and Historic Interest Area, Jiuzhaigou Valley, Mount Emei, Mount Qincheng and the Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries.
History of Sichuan
The province and its vicinity were the cradle of unique local civilizations, which can be dated back to at least the fifteenth century BC (coinciding with the later years of Shang Dynasty). 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; Sān Xīng Duī) 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 destroyed the civilizations of Shu and Ba, their cultures were preserved and inherited by people in Sichuan until today. 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 provisions 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 the Huang He Valley to foreign countries of the southwest, especially India.
The area's military importance matches its commercial and agricultural significance. As a basin surrounded by the Himalayas to the west, the Qinling Range to the north, and mountainous areas of Yunnan to the south, Sichuan is prone to fog. Since the Yangtze flows through the basin and is thus upstream of eastern China, navies could be easily sailed downstream. Therefore Sichuan was the base for numerous amphibious military forces and also served as the refuge 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.
A stone-carved pillar-gate, or que (闕), 6 m (20 ft) in total height, located at the tomb of Gao Yi in Ya'an, Sichuan, built during the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 AD) The Leshan Giant Buddha of Mount Emei, built during the latter half of the Tang Dynasty (618–907). The Southern Song Dynasty established coordinated defenses against the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty in Sichuan and Xiangyang. The line of defense was finally broken through after the first use of firearms in history during the six-year siege of Xiangyang, which ended in 1273.
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 (1368-1644). Dabei Hall enshrines a thousand-armed wooden image of Guanyin 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. The Qing general Zhang Xianzhong, nicknamed Yellow Tiger, conquered Sichuan Province in the middle of the 17th century. A landslide dam on the Dadu River caused by an earthquake gave way on 10 June 1786. The resulting flood killed 100,000 people. In the 20th century, as Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, and Wuhan had all been lost to the Japanese during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the capital of the Republic of China had been temporary relocated to Chongqing. The difficulty of accessing the region overland from the eastern China and the foggy climate hindering the accuracy of Japanese bombing of the Sichuan basin and the city of Chongqing made the region the stronghold of Chiang Kai-Shek's Guomindang government during 1938-45.
As the Second Sino-Japanese War was soon followed by the resumed Chinese Civil War, and the cities of the east fell to the Communists one after another, the Guomindang government again tried to make Sichuan its stronghold on the mainland. Chiang Kai-Shek himself flew to Chongqing from Taiwan in November 1949 to lead the defense. But the same month Chongqing fell to the Communists, followed by Chengdu on December 10. The Guomindang general Wang Sheng wanted to stay behind with his troops to continue anticommunist guerilla war in Sichuan, but was recalled to Taiwan, many of his soldiers making their way there as well, via Burma.
On Monday, May 12, 2008 at 2:28:01 PM local time, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.9/8.0 hit just 79km northwest of the provincial capital of Chengdu. As of May 14, the official Xinhua news agency reported: 14,463 people were dead, another 14,051 were missing, 25,788 were buried in the debris and 64,746 had been injured,On May 31, the death toll was updated to 68,467 in Sichuan with a further ~17,000 people missing, and 354,045 injured.
Culture of Sichuan
The majority of the province's population is Han Chinese, who are found scattered throughout the region. Significant minorities of Tibetans, Yi, Qiang and Naxi reside in the western portion. The Eastern Lipo, included with either Yi people or Lisu people as well as the A-Hmao also are among the ethnic groups of the provinces. 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. It was the third most populous sub-national entity in the world, after Uttar Pradesh, India and the Russian SFSR until 1991 when the Soviet Union was dissolved. It is also one of the only four to ever reach 100 million people (Uttar Pradesh, Russian RSFSR, Maharashtra, and Sichuan). It is currently 6th.
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 neighboring Yunnan and Guizhou provinces as well as Chongqing Municipality. Typical features shared by many southwestern Mandarin dialects include the merger of the retroflex consonants /tʂ tʂʰ ʂ/ into the alveolar consonants /ts tsʰ s/, the merger of /n/ and /l/, as well as the merger of /ɤŋ iɤŋ/ into /ən in/.
The prefectures of Garzê and Ngawa (Aba) in western Sichuan are populated predominantly by ethnic Tibetans, who speak the Kham and Amdo dialects of Tibetan. The Qiang and other related ethnicities speak the Qiangic languages, which are 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.
Cuisine
Szechuan cuisine, Szechwan cuisine, or Sichuan cuisine (Chinese: 四川菜 or 川菜) is a style of Chinese cuisine originating in Sichuan Province of southwestern China famed for bold flavors, particularly the pungency and spiciness resulting from liberal use of garlic and chili peppers, as well as the unique flavour of the Sichuan peppercorn (花椒). Peanuts are also a prominent ingredient in Szechuan cooking. Although the region is now romanized as Sichuan, the cuisine is still sometimes spelled 'Szechuan' or 'Szechwan' in the West. There are many local variations of Sichuan cuisine within Sichuan Province and Chongqing Municipality, which was politically part of Sichuan until 1997. The four best known regional sub-styles are Chongqing style, Chengdu style, Zigong style, and Buddhist vegetarian style.
Preparations
Szechuan cuisine often contains food preserved through pickling, salting, drying and smoking, and is generally spicy. The Sichuan peppercorn is commonly used; it is an indigenous plant producing peppercorns which has an intensively fragrant, citrus-like flavour and produces a "tingly-numbing" (Chinese: 麻) sensation in the mouth. Also common are garlic, chili, ginger, star anise and other spicy herbs, plants and spices. Broad bean chili paste (simplified Chinese: 豆瓣酱; traditional Chinese: 豆瓣 or dòubànjiàng) is also a staple seasoning in Sichuan cuisine. The region's cuisine has also been the originator of several prominent seasoning mixes widely used in Chinese cuisine as a whole today, including yuxiang (魚香), mala (麻辣), and guaiwei (怪味).
Common preparation techniques in Szechuan cuisine include stir frying, steaming and braising, but a complete list would include more than 20 distinct techniques. Beef is somewhat more common in Szechuan cuisine than it is in other Chinese cuisines, perhaps due to the prevalence of oxen in the region. Stir-fried beef is often cooked until chewy, while steamed beef is sometimes coated with rice flour to produce a very rich gravy.
Representative dishes
Some well-known Szechuan dishes include Kung Pao chicken and Twice Cooked Pork. Although many dishes live up to their spicy reputation, often ignored are the large percentage of recipes that use little or no hot spices at all, including dishes such as Tea Smoked Duck.
- Tea smoked duck (simplified Chinese: 樟茶鸭; traditional Chinese: 樟茶鴨; pinyin: zhāngchá yā)
- Twice cooked pork (simplified Chinese: 回锅肉; traditional Chinese: 回鍋肉; pinyin: huíguōròu)
- Mapo dofu (Chinese: 麻婆豆腐; pinyin: mápó dòufǔ)
- Sichuan hotpot (simplified Chinese: 四川火锅; traditional Chinese: 四川火鍋; pinyin: Sìchuān huǒguō)
- Fuqi Feipian (Chinese: 夫妻肺片; pinyin: fūqī fèipiàn)
- Spicy deep-fried chicken (simplified Chinese: 辣子鸡; traditional Chinese: 辣子雞; pinyin: làzǐjī)
- Shuizhu, or literally "Water cooked", dishes (Chinese: 水煮; pinyin: shuǐzhǔ)
- Dan dan noodles (Chinese: 担担面; pinyin: dàndàn miàn)
- Bon bon chicken (Chinese: 棒棒鸡; pinyin: Bàngbàng jī)
Industry of Sichuan
Sichuan has been historically known as the "Province of Abundance". It is one of the major agricultural production bases of China. Grain, including rice and wheat, is the major product with output that ranked first in China in 1999. Commercial crops include citrus fruits, sugar canes, sweet potatoes, peaches and grapeseeds. Sichuan also had the largest output of pork among all the provinces and the second largest output of silkworm cocoons in China in 1999. Sichuan is rich in mineral resources. It has more than 132 kinds of proven underground mineral resources of which reserves of 11 kinds including vanadium, titanium, and lithium are the largest in China. The Panxi region alone possesses 13.3% of the reserves of iron, 93% of titanium, 69% of vanadium, and 83% of the cobalt of the whole country.
Sichuan is one of the major industrial centers of China. In addition to heavy industries such as coal, energy, iron and steel, the province has also established a light industrial sector comprising building materials, wood processing, food and silk processing. Chengdu and Mianyang are the production centers for textiles and electronics products. Deyang, Panzhihua, and Yibin are the production centers for machinery, metallurgical industries, and wine, respectively. Sichuan's wine production accounted for 21.9% of the country’s total production in 2000.
Great strides have been made in developing Sichuan into a modern hi-tech industrial base, by encouraging both domestic and foreign investments in electronics and information technology (such as software), machinery and metallurgy (including automobiles), hydropower, pharmaceutical, food and beverage industries.
The auto industry is an important and key sector of the machinery industry in Sichuan. Most of the auto manufacturing companies are located in Chengdu, Mianyang, Nanchong, and Luzhou.
Other important industries in Sichuan include aerospace and defense (military) industries. A number of China's rockets (Long March rockets) and satellites were launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, located in the city of Xichang. Sichuan's beautiful landscapes and rich historical relics have also made the province a major center for tourism.
The Three Gorges Dam, the largest dam ever constructed, is being built on the Yangtze River in nearby Hubei province to control flooding in the Sichuan Basin, neighboring Yunnan province, and downstream. The plan is hailed by some as China's efforts to shift towards alternative energy sources and to further develop its industrial and commercial bases, but others have criticised it for its potentially harmful effects, such as massive resettlement of residents in the reservoir areas, loss of archeological sites, and ecological damages.
Sichuan's nominal GDP for 2008 was 1.25 trillion yuan (US$180 billion), equivalent to 15,378 RMB (US$2,214) per capita. In 2008, the per capita net income of rural residents was 4,121 yuan (US$593), up 16.2% from 2007. The per capita disposable income of the urbanites averaged 12,633 yuan (US$1,819), up 13.8% from 2007.
Foreign trade
According to the Sichuan Department of Commerce, the province's total foreign trade was US$22.04 billion in 2008, a year on year increase of 53.3 percent. Exports were US$13.1 billion, a year on year increase of 52.3 percent, while imports were US$8.93 billion, a year on year increase of 54.7 percent. These achievements were accomplished because of significant changes in China's foreign trade policy, acceleration of the yuan's appreciation, increase of commercial incentives and increase in production costs. The 18 cities and counties witnessed a steady rate of increase. Chengdu, Suining, Nanchong, Dazhou, Ya'an, Abazhou, and Liangshan all saw an increase of more than 40 percent while Leshan, Neijiang, Luzhou, Meishan, Ziyang, and Yibin saw an increase of more than 20 percent. Foreign trade in Zigong, Panzhihua, Guang'an, Bazhong and Ganzi remained constant.
Minimum wage
The Sichuan government raised the minimum wage in the province by 12.5 percent at the end of December 2007. The monthly minimum wage went up from 400 to 450 yuan, with a minimum of 4.9 yuan per hour for part-time work, effective Dec. 26 2007. The government also reduced the four-tier minimum wage structure to three. The top tier mandates a minimum of 650 yuan per month, or 7.1 yuan per hour. National law allows each province to set minimum wages independently, but with a floor of 450 yuan per month.
Xichang Satellite Launch Center (XSLC)
The Xichang Satellite Launch Center (XSLC) (Chinese: 西昌卫星发射中心; pinyin: Xīchāng Weìxīng Fāshè Zhōngxīn) also known as Base 27 (27基地), is a People’s Republic of China space vehicle launch facility (spaceport) approximately 64 km northwest of Xichang City in Sichuan Province.
The facility became operational in 1984 and is primarily used to launch powerful thrust rockets and geostationary communications and weather satellites. It is notable as the site of Sino-European space cooperation, with the launch of the first of two Double Star scientific satellites in December 2003. Chinese officials have indicated interest in conducting additional international satellite launches from XSLC.
In 1996, a fatal accident occurred when the rocket carrying the Intelsat 708 satellite failed on launch from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center. It is also believed that a 2007 test of an anti-satellite missile occurred from the center.
In order to support the Chinese Project 714 manned space program in the 1960s, the construction of a new space center at Xichang in the Sichuan province was decided, located farther from the Soviet border, thus safer. The Shuguang One spacecraft was expected to be launched from the launch pad number one. After the cancellation of the program the launch pad was never completed. Today a viewing platform for officials has been built at the site.
China launched its first Long March-2E carrier rocket on July 16, 1990, sending into orbit Pakistan's first indigenously developed Badr-1 satellite and HS-601.
This occurred on February 15, 1996 when the first new Long March 3 B heavy carrier rocket carrying Intelsat 708 veered off course 22 seconds after launch, crashing 1850 meters away from the launch pad in a nearby mountain village and destroying 80 houses, according to the official count, and killing more than 500 civilians according to unofficial Chinese sources.
China conducted on January 11, 2007 an anti-satellite missile test with a SC-19 ASAT weapon.
A Chinese weather satellite — the FY-1C polar orbit satellite of the Fengyun series, at an altitude of 865 kilometres (537 mi), with a mass of 750 kg — was destroyed by a kinetic kill vehicle.
The SC-19 have been described as being based on a modified DF-21 ballistic missile or its commercial derivative, the KT-2 with a Kinetic Kill Vehicle and is fully mobile.
On October 24, 2007, Chang'e 1, an un-manned Moon orbiter of the Chang'e program, was successfully launched from the facility, marking the beginning of China’s lunar exploration program.
China launched its first Long March-3C carrier rocket on April 25, 2008. This was the 105th mission of China's Long March series of rockets, and also the launch of the nation's first data relay satellite (数据中继卫星) Tianlian I (天链一号).
With the completion of the upgrade of Wenchang Satellite Launch Center scheduled for 2013, all the GEO missions will be transferred to this new space center. Indeed, presenting too many inconvenients such as higher latitude, falling rocket stages on inhabited areas (Guizhou), limited transport infrastructures, the Xichang Satellite Launch Center should no longer be used for civilian duties. Nonetheless, it will not be closed but be kept to serve as a backup launch site.
As recently as 2008-06-09 the China Great Wall Industrial Corporation has used pad LA-2 at XSLC to launch a Long March 3B.
The launch pad number 3 has specially been upgraded in order to support the Chang'e lunar exploration program.
XSLC’s Technical Center is state of the art and is equipped for testing and integration of the payload and launch vehicle. Its Mission Command and Control Center is located 7 km southwest of the launch pad and provides flight and safety control during overall system rehearsal and launch. It is serviced by a dedicated railway and highway directly from Xichang Qingshan Airport, which is 50 kilometers away from the launch site. Two launch complexes at the facility support flight operations.
