Sze-chwan

Sze-chwan, the largest province of China, 185,000 sq. m. in area, is situated in the west, having Tibet on the north-west and Yunnan on the south-west; the remaining boundaries are conterminous with various provinces of China. It is traversed and watered by the Yang-tsze-Kiang and its affluents, is hilly throughout, mountainous in the west, and rich in natural products, including coal, iron, and other minerals. Opium, silk, salt, sugar, medicines, tobacco, hides, musk, rhubarb, and white wax (produced by an insect) are exported to the annual value of £5,000,000; and European cottons and woollens are imported to the value of £3,000,000 annually. The capital is Ching-tu, the chief commercial town Chung-king, on the Great River, which was opened to British trade in the end of 1889. Ichang (q.v.) was thrown open to foreign trade in 1877. Pop. (1895) 71,000,000, a prosperous, peaceful, and contented people. See A. Hosie, Three Years in Western China (1890).