Sichuan Province (Shu for short) is located in southwest China, covering an area of 537,000 square kilometers, and with a population of 94.5 million.
Its eastern part is the Sichuan Basin surrounded by lofty mountains, with 7% territory being plain in the bottom, and the rest hilly land and low hills. Its west area is highland of West Sichuan, and the north area, part of the main body of Qinghai and Tibet plateau, while the south area is northern section of Hengduan Mountain Ranges.
Most of the rivers belong to the Yangtze River System. The Jinsha River runs across South Sichuan from southwest to northeast until Yibin and then changes into the name of the Yangtze. The Jaling River, Min River, Tuo River and Wujiang River flow into the Yangtze River from both south and north sides. The Sichuan Basin and West Sichuan have sub-tropical humid and sub-tropical highland climate respectively. Its main mineral deposits comprise iron, coal, natural gas, petroleum, well salt, asbestos, vanadium, titanium, phosphorus etc. It abounds in agricultural and water resources.
Sichuans major industrial products are metals, coal, petroleum, machinery, electric power, chemicals, electronics, textiles, foodstuff etc. among which natural gas, salt, canned food, beverage, iron and steel, paper, fertilizer, alloyed iron, motor-cycles, power-generating equipments and others stand in the forefront either in production output or in value in China. Rice, wheat, cotton, rape seeds and raw silk are its principal farm produces. Sichuan is listed as one of Chinas primary producers in output of rice, wheat, oil-bearing crops,, meat, and fruit, and also hold a significant place in production of tong oil, medicinal herbs, pigs and cattle.
Railway plays major role in Sichuans transport, while there are convenient highway and inland-water communications.
Sichuan is gifted with lush mountains and exquisite waters, and abounds in historical and cultural resources. Its main scenic spots and historical sites include Mount Emei, Huangling Temple, Jiuzhaigou and Golden Buddha Mountain. Among its chief famous traditional specialties are Sichuan brocade and embroidery, bamboo wares, wines and liquors such as Wuliangye, Jiannanchun and Luzhoulaojiao.
Recommended Scenic Spots
Chengdu Panda Breeding and Research Center
Located just 10km (6miles) away from downtown Chengdu, the Chengdu Panda Breeding Research Center has been created and imitates the pandas natural habitat in order that they might have a the best possible environment for rearing and breeding. The Center cares also for other rare and endangered wild animals. The Research Center covers an area of 560 mus (92 acres), 96% of which is verdure. Giant pandas, lesser pandas, black-necked cranes, white storks as well as over 20 species of rare animals are fed and bred there throughout the year. Verdant bamboo, bright flowers, fresh air, a natural hill scene and a beautiful artificial view are merged ingeniously at the base
Mt. Emei
Mt.
Emei is one of the 4 most sacred Buddhist mountains in China. The undulating peaks, covered with lush forests and green bamboo, occupy an area of more than 300 sq km in the southwest of Sichuan province.
Mt. Emei is the general name for 3 mountains, Dae (Great E), Ere (Second E) and Sane (Third E). The mountains are majestic, quiet and serene and acclaimed in China as "a Beauty under Heaven".
Visitors are drawn to Mt. Emei either as a place of pilgrimage or simply to scale the magnificent heights. Most of the monasteries and temples at Mt. Emei were built during the Eastern Han dynasty (25-220AD), while others were added later. As a well-known Buddhist sanctuary of Samantabhadra, Mt. Emei once had more than 100 monasteries.
The main temples and scenic areas are: Baoguo Monastery, Wannian Monastery, Fuhu (Ambushing Tiger) Monastery, Leiyin (Thunder Sound) Monastery, Chunyang Hall, Qingyin (Pure Tone) Tower, Heilongjiang plank road, Hongchun Ping, Xianfeng (Fairy Peak) Monastery, Xixiang (Wash Elephant) Pool, Golden Summit, Huayan Top, and White Dragon Cave.
Visitors often choose to spend a couple of days in this area.
The Ancient Town of Yellow Dragon Brook
The Ancient Town of Yellow Dragon Brook was known as the “Red Water” in ancient times. A place of the Chinese folk art (Fire Dragon), it has a long history and is one of the most famous ten ancient towns of China.
The ancient steles, ancient temples, ancient residences in the towns naturally mingle with the ancient banyan trees and ancient cliff tombs. The archaic flavor makes a sharp contrast to the modern metropolises.
In the ancient town, the streets and shops of Qing style are preserved intact. There are seven streets of typical Ming and Qing styles of the total length of 1146 meters. There are 76 residence houses of Qing Dynasty which bring about an air of serenity. And there are six Huangjue trees over 300 years old; the branches and foliage block the sky and sun, making the town even more inspiring.
Jiuzhaigou
In northern Sichuan, close to the Gansu border, is Jiuzhaigou (literally: Nine Stockade Gully), which was discovered in the 1970s and is now being groomed for an annual influx of 300,000 visitors.
In 1984 Zhao Ziyang made the famous comment which all Sichuanese tourism officials love to quote: Guilins scenery ranks top in the world, but Jiuzhaigous scenery even tops Guilins. Jiuzhaigou, which has several Tibetan settlements, offers a number of dazzling features - it is a nature reserve area (with some panda conservation zones) with North
American-type alpine scenes (peaks, hundreds of clear lakes, forests). Scattered throughout the region are Tibetan prayer wheels and chortens, Tibetan stupas.
The remoteness of the region and the chaotic transport connections has kept it clean and relatively untrod. Despite the good intentions of the authorities, all this looks certain to change fast. A helicopter landing pad is under construction even though the mountain ranges between Chengdu and Jiuzhaigou are not ideal terrain for helicopters. And Chinese resorts style hotels, though as yet largely empty, line the road leading to the park entrance.
You should calculate between a week and 10 days for the round trip by road. It takes from two to three days to get there and you can easily spend three or four days - or even weeks - doing superb hikes along trails which cross a spectacular scenery of waterfalls, ponds, lakes and forests - its just the place to rejuvenate polluted urban senses.
In a bid to prevent the forest from being trampled by hordes of tourists, park authorities have stationed locals on some of the off-road trails to rum back wandering hikers. If you run into one, its best to be friendly and head back to the road. Youll even get the chance to nose around the Tibetan Zaru Temple just inside the entrance; the monks are a friendly lot and seem pleased to see foreign tourists.