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Guangxi, officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the China, located in South China and bordering Vietnam (Tuyên Quang, Cao Bằng, Lạng Sơn, and Quảng Ninh Provinces) and the Gulf of Tonkin. Formerly a province, Guangxi became an autonomous region in 1958. Its current capital is Nanning.
Guangxi's location, in mountainous terrain in the far south of China, has placed it on the frontier of Chinese civilization throughout much of Chinese history. The current name "Guang" means "expanse" and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in 226 AD. It was given provincial level status during the Yuan dynasty, but even into the 20th century, it was considered an open, wild territory. The abbreviation of the region is labels = no (Hanyu pinyin: ; Zhuang: Gvei), which comes from the name of the city of Guilin, the provincial capital during both the Ming and Qing dynasties.
Guangxi contains the largest population of China's ethnic minorities after Yunnan, in particular, the Zhuang people, who make up 34% of the population. Various regional languages and dialects such as Pinghua, Zhuang languages, Kam language, Cantonese, Hakka Chinese, and Min Chinese are spoken alongside Mandarin Chinese.
Guangxi was also previously spelled as Kwangsi in postal and Wade–Giles romanizations. The spelling of the province was replaced by the pinyin spelling of Guangxi in 1958 and has been widely used internationally after 1986. The official name was also known as Kwangsi Chuang Autonomous Region in a number of Western publications outside of China published in the 1950s to 1970s.
The name "Guangxi" can be traced to the "Expansive" or "Wide" province (廣州) of the Eastern Wu, which controlled southeastern China during the Three Kingdoms period. Guilin formed one of its commanderies.
Under the Tang dynasty, the Zhuang moved to support Piluoge's kingdom of Nanzhao in Yunnan, which successfully repulsed imperial armies in 751 and 754. Guangxi was then divided into an area of Zhuang ascendancy west of Nanning and an area of Han ascendancy east of Nanning.
After the collapse of the Southern Zhao, Liu Yan established the Southern Han (Nanhan) in Xingwangfu (modern Guangdong). Although this state gained minimal control over Guangxi, it was plagued by instability and annexed by the Song dynasty in 971. The name "Guangxi" itself can be traced to the Song, who administered the area as the Guangnanxi ("West Southern Expanse") Circuit. Harassed by both Song and the Jiaozhi in modern Vietnam, the Zhuang leader Nong Zhigao led a revolt in 1052 for which he is still remembered by the Zhuang people. His independent kingdom was short-lived, however, and the tattooed Song general Di Qing returned Guangxi to China.
The Yuan dynasty established control over Yunnan during its conquest of the Dali Kingdom in 1253 and eliminated the Southern Song following the Battle of Yamen in 1279. Rather than ruling Lingnan as a subject territory or military district, the Mongolians then established Guangxi ("Western Expanse") as a proper province. The area nonetheless continued to be unruly, leading the Ming dynasty to employ the different local groups against one another. At the Battle of Big Rattan Gorge between the Zhuang and the Yao people in 1465, 20,000 deaths were reported.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, parts of Guangxi were ruled by the powerful Cen (岑) clan. The Cen were of Zhuang ethnicity and were recognized as tusi or local rulers by the Chinese emperors.
The Qing dynasty left the region alone until the imposition of direct rule in 1726, but the 19th century was one of constant unrest. A Yao people revolt in 1831 was followed by the Jintian Uprising, the beginning of the Taiping Rebellion, in January 1851 and the Da Cheng Rebellion in April 1854. The execution of St. Auguste Chapdelaine by local officials in Guangxi provoked the Second Opium War in 1858 and the legalization of foreign interference in the interior. Although Louis Brière de l'Isle was unable to invade its depot at Longzhou County, the Guangxi Army saw a great deal of action in the 1884 Sino-French War. Largely ineffective within Vietnam, it was still able to repulse the French from China itself at the Battle of Zhennan Pass (modern Friendship Pass) on 23 March 1885.
Following the Wuchang Uprising, Guangxi seceded from the Qing Empire on 6 November 1911. The Qing governor, Shen Bingdan, initially remained in place but was subsequently removed by a mutiny commanded by General Lu Rongting. General Lu's Old Guangxi clique overran Hunan and Guangdong as well and helped lead the National Protection War against Yuan Shikai's attempt to re-establish an imperial government. Zhuang's loyalty made his Self-Government Army cohesive but reluctant to move far beyond its own provinces. Subsequent feuding with Sun Yat-sen led to defeat in the 1920 and 1921 Guangdong–Guangxi War. After a brief occupation by Chen Jiongming's Cantonese forces, Guangxi fell into disunity and profound banditry for several yearsBonavia, David. China's Warlords. New York: Oxford University Press. 1995. . until Li Zongren's Guangxi Pacification Army established the New Guangxi clique dominated by Li, Huang Shaohong, and Bai Chongxi.
Successful action in Hunan against Wu Peifu led to the Zhuang GPA becoming known as the "Flying Army" and the "Army of Steel". After the death of Sun Yat-sen, Li also repulsed Tang Jiyao's revolt and joined the Northern Expedition establishing control over other warlords by the Republic of China. His was one of the few Kuomintang units free from serious Chinese Communist Party (CCP) influence and was therefore employed by Chiang Kai-shek for the Shanghai massacre of 1927. Within the People's Republic of China, Guangxi is also noted for the Baise Uprising, a failed CCP revolt led by Chen Zhaoli and Deng Xiaoping in 1929.
In 1937, the Guangxi Women's Battalion was founded as a response to Soong Mei-ling's appeal for women to support the Sino-Japanese War. Reports on the size of the battalion vary from 130 students, to 500, to 800.
Being in the far south, Guangxi did not fall during the Chinese Civil War, but joined the People's Republic in December 1949, two months after its founding.
In 1952, a small section of Guangdong's coastline (Qinzhou, Lianzhou (now Hepu County), Fangchenggang and Beihai) was given to Guangxi, giving it access to the sea. This was reversed in 1955, and then restored in 1965. This made Guangxi the only autonomous region which is not landlocked.
The Guangxi Massacre, during the Cultural Revolution, involved the killing of 100,000 to 150,000 in the region in 1967 and 1968.
While some development of heavy industry occurred in the 1960s and 1970s, the region remained largely a scenic tourist destination. Even the economic growth of the 1990s seemed to leave Guangxi behind. However, in recent years, there has been a growing amount of industrialization and increasing concentration on cash crops. Per capita GDP has risen as industries in Guangdong transfer production to comparatively lower-wage areas in Guangxi.
During the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War, Guangxi communities were important to the Chinese war effort. They supplied logistical support to the People's Liberation Army, including food and housing. Militia members from Guangxi performed tasks including building roads, bridges, trenches, other logistical efforts, and caring for the wounded.
Large portions of Guangxi are hilly and mountainous. The northwest portion of Guangxi includes part of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, the Jiuwan Mountains and the Fenghuang Mountains both run through the north, the Nanling Mountains form the region's north-east border, and the Yuecheng and Haiyang Mountains both branch from the Nanling Mountains. Also in the north are the Duyao Mountains. The Duyang Mountains run through the west of Guangxi. Near the center of the region are the Dayao Mountains and Daming Mountains. On the southeastern border are the Yunkai Mountains. Guangxi's highest point is Kitten Mountain, in the Yuecheng Mountains, at .
Karst, characterized by steep mountains and large caverns, are common in Guangxi, accounting for 37.8 percent of its total land area.
Guangxi is also home to several river systems, which flow into several different bodies of water: the Qin River and the Nanliu River both flow into the Gulf of Tonkin, several tributary rivers flow into the larger Xiang River in neighbouring Hunan province, and the Xi River system flows southeast through the autonomous region into the South China Sea.
| He River (贺江) | Xi River | |||
| Li River | Gui River (桂江) | |||
| Beipan River | Hongshui River | Qian River | Xun River | |
| Nanpan River | ||||
| Rong River | Liu River | |||
| Long River | ||||
| You River | Yongjiang | Yu River | ||
| Zuo River |
About one-quarter of Guangxi's area is forested.
Due to frequent rain-bearing monsoon winds, average annual precipitation is quite high in Guangxi, ranging from in drier zones to in wetter zones. The region also experiences monsoons, blowing from south-southwest from late April to the beginning of October. Most of the precipitation occurs between May and August. Microbursts can also occasionally occur in the extreme south of the region, from July to September. This is caused by blowing from the South China Sea.
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These 14 prefecture-level cities are in turn subdivided into 111 county-level divisions (41 districts, 10 county-level cities, 48 counties, and 12 autonomous counties). At the year-end of 2021, the total population is 48.85 million.http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjsj/ndsj/2018/indexch.htm
| 8,741,584 |
| 4,157,934 |
| 4,931,137 |
| 4,316,262 |
| 5,796,766 |
| 3,302,238 |
| 1,853,227 |
| 2,820,977 |
| 2,007,858 |
| 2,074,611 |
| 3,571,505 |
| 3,417,945 |
| 1,046,068 |
| 2,088,692 |
Guangxi has over 16 million Zhuang people, the largest minority ethnicity in China. Over 90 percent of Zhuang in China live in Guangxi, especially in the central and western regions. High concentrations of Zhuang people can be found in Nanning, Liuzhou, Chongzuo, Baise, Hechi, and Laibin. The highest concentration of ethnic Zhuang people is found in the county-level city of Jingxi, with a 2021 publication by the People's Government of Guangxi stating that Jingxi's population is 99.7% Zhuang.
The autonomous region also has sizable populations of indigenous Yao people, Miao people, Kam people, Mulao people, Maonan people, Hui people, Bouyei people, Gin people, Yi people, Sui people and Gelao people peoples. Other ethnic minorities in Guangxi include the Manchu people, Mongols, Koreans, Tibetan people, Hlai people, and Tujia people people.
| + Ethnic makeup of the Guanxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (2020 Seventh National Census) |
The reports did not give figures for other types of religion; 59.26% of the population may be either irreligious or involved in worship of nature deities, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, folk religious sects. The Yao people, another numerous ethnic group inhabiting the province, mostly practices a form of Yao Taoism.
Today, there are 21 mosques in Guangxi This may include:
85 percent of the world's star anise is grown in Guangxi. It is a major ingredient in the antiviral oseltamivir.[1]
Guangxi is one of China's key production centers for nonferrous metals. The region holds approximately 1/3 of all tin and manganese deposits in China.
Liuzhou is the main industrial center and a major motor vehicle manufacturing center. General Motors have a manufacturing base here in a joint venture as SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile. The city also has a large steel factory and several related industries. The local government of Guangxi hopes to expand the region's manufacturing sector, and during the drafting of China's Five Year Plan in 2011, earmarked 2.6 trillion RMB for investment in the region's Beibu Gulf Economic Zone(See Below).
In recent years Guangxi's economy has languished behind that of its wealthy neighbor and twin, Guangdong. Guangxi's 2017 nominal GDP was about 2039.63 billion yuan (US$302.09 billion) and ranked 17th in China. Its per capita GDP was 38,102 yuan (US$5,770).
Due to its lack of a major manufacturing industry in comparison to other provincial-level regions, Guangxi is the fourth most energy efficient provincial-level region in China, helping to further boost its green image.
As the only coastal region in China with close proximity to Southeast Asia, Guangxi holds a strategic position in China's trade with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Due to a lack of investment in construction in the power grid net in rural areas, more than 400 villages in Guangxi Province were not included in the projects. Around 500,000 cannot participate in the policy known as "The Same Grid, the Same Price". Guangxi Power Grid will invest 4.6 billion yuan in improving the power grid during the 11th Five Year Plan.
Guangxi Power Grid invested 2.5 billion yuan in building an electric power system in the first half of 2007. Of the total investment, 2.3 billion yuan has been put into the project of the main power grid. So far, four new transformer substations in Guangxi are in various stages of completion. Wenfu substation went into operation in the city of Hechi in January 2007, and since then it has become a major hub of the electrical power system of the surrounding three counties. When the Cangwu substation was completed, it doubled the local transformer capacity. In June 2007, the new substation in Chongzuo passed its operation tests. And in the same month, Qiulong commenced production too. This shall support the power supply system of Qiulong City, as well as the northern part of the Guangxi region, and facilitate the nationwide project to transmit power from west to east.
The Beibu Gulf Economic Zone covers six coastal cities along the Beibu Gulf. It integrates the cities of Nanning, the region's capital, Beihai, Qinzhou, Fangchenggang, Chongzuo and Yulin. The state will adopt policies and measures to support mechanism innovation, rational industry layout, and infrastructure construction in the Beibu Gulf Economic Zone.
Guangxi has pledged a 100 billion yuan (US$14 billion) investment over the next five years for building and repairing railways to form a network hub in the area. Beibu Gulf Zone will serve as the logistics base, business base, processing and manufacturing base, and information exchange center for China-ASEAN cooperation. Beibu Gulf Zone promises broad prospects for further development and its growth potential is rapidly released. But the shortage of talent and professionals in petrochemicals, iron and steel, electricity, finance, tourism, port planning, logistics and marine industries are bottlenecks.
The regional government is also working on speeding up key cooperation projects including transportation, the marine industry, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, energy development, cross-border tourism, and environmental protection. Beibu Gulf has already attracted several major projects such as Qinzhou oil refinery projects and Stora Enso, a Fortune 500 forest products company based in Finland. In January 2008 trade import and export in the Beibu Gulf zone exceeded US$1.3 billion, a record high.
From Nanning, the Nanning–Kunming Railway heads west through Baise to Kunming, Yunnan and the Nanning–Fangchenggang Railway runs south to Qinzhou, Fangchenggang and Beihai on the coast. From Liuzhou, the Guizhou–Guangxi Railway extends northwestward through Hechi to Guizhou and the Jiaozuo–Liuzhou Railway runs due north to Hunan, and eventually Hubei and Henan in central China. From Litang Township on the Xianggui Line between Nanning and Liuzhou, the Litang–Qinzhou Railway runs south to Qinzhou on the coast and the Litang–Zhanjiang Railway (Lizhan Line) extends southeastward through Guigang and Yulin to Zhanjiang, Guangdong.
The Luoyang–Zhanjiang Railway (Luozhan Line), which intersects with the Xianggui Line on the Hunan side of the border at Yongzhou, runs south through Hezhou and Wuzhou in eastern Guangxi and joins the Lizhan Line at Yulin. At Cenxi, a branch of the Luozhan Line heads east to Maoming, Guangdong, forming a second rail outlet from Guangxi to Guangdong.
Its culture and language are reflected in this. Though now associated with the Zhuang people ethnic minority, Guangxi's culture traditionally has had a close connection with Cantonese. Cantonese culture and language followed the Xi River valley from Guangdong and are still predominant in the eastern half of Guangxi today. Outside of this area, there is a huge variety of ethnicities and language groups represented.
Guangxi is known for its ethnolinguistic diversity. In the capital of Nanning, for example, three varieties of Chinese are spoken locally: Southwestern Mandarin, Yue Chinese (specifically Cantonese), and Pinghua, in addition to various Zhuang languages and others.
million [[Yue Chinese]] speakers live in Guangxi, with the majority of them speaking either [[Goulou|Goulou Yue]] (6.8 million) or [[Yongxun|Yong-Xun Yue]] ( million) varieties. Smaller populations of [[Guangfu|Cantonese]] (720 thousand) and [[Qinlian|Qin-Lian Yue]] (3.9 million) speakers can also be found, primarily distributed along the [[Pearl River]] and the southern coast of the province respectively.
Of the 5.4 million Mandarin Chinese speakers who call Guangxi home, million speak Guiliu Mandarin, a subgroup of Southwestern Mandarin. Smaller populations speak varieties closely related to that of southern Guizhou (265 thousand) and Yunnan (123 thousand). These speakers of dialectal Mandarin are primarily distributed in the north and west of the province, in prefectures such as Guilin and Liuzhou.
Populations of what is typically called Pinghua can also be found. million speak Northern Pinghua, and million speak Southern Pinghua; the latter of which is more closely related to Yue. There are also around million Xiang Chinese speakers, primarily found in and around Quanzhou county, and 140 thousand Min Chinese speakers.
Almost all counties in Guangxi have multiple varieties of Chinese natively spoken.
The variety of visible cultures in Guangxi, such as the Zhuang people and Dong people, are also a draw for tourists. The northern part of the region, bordering Guizhou, is home to the Longsheng Rice Terraces, some of the steepest in the world. Nearby is Sanjiang Dong Autonomous County.
Many Chinese tourists visiting Nanning also visit Ban Gioc–Detian Falls on the China-Vietnam border.
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