Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture
Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture is the traditional homeland of most Koreanss in China. In addition, there have lived the Han and some minorities. It is south of Heilongjiang, east of Jilin's Baishan City, north of North Korea, and west of Russia.
- Simplified Chinese: 延边朝鲜族自治州
- Pinyin: Yanbian Chaoxianzu Zijizhou
- Hangul: 옌볜 조선족 자치주
- McCune-Reischauer: Yenbyen Chosŏnchok Chach'ichu
- Revised Romanization of Korean: Yenbyen Joseonjok Jachiju
The Prefecture has an important Bohai (extinct, non-Korean, non-Han) archaeological site: the Ancient Tombs at Longtou Mountain, which includes the Mausoleum of Princess Zhenxiao.
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2 History 3 Geography 4 Transportation 5 Demographics 6 Culture 7 Tourism 8 Organism 9 External links |
The prefecture includes 6 boundary-class cities (边境市) and 2 counties (边境县):
Administration
(For a map, see #External links)
The above counties and cities are divided into 642 boundary-class villages (边境村).
Yanbian was inhabited since 26,000 years ago by what today the Chinese called the Antu (安圖人) (a county is named after them). Since around the 8th century, Yanbian was Huhan Prefecture (忽汗州) of the Bohai Kingdom, a dependency to the Tang Empire. In the Ming Dynasty, Yanbian was Jianzhou Guard-district (建州衛), late Qing Dynasty divided into Yanji (延吉廳) and Hunchun (琿春廳) Subprefectures.
"Yanbian" occurred in the 1920s, because it stretches (yan) on the boundary (bian) of three nations. It was also in the Yanji Border-affairs Public Bureau, where "Yanji" means "Luck of the Stretch". During the Manchukuo period, it was called Kan-do (間島) Province by the Japanese. After the PRC, it became an autonomous region (区) in 1952, and upgraded to an autonomous prefecture in 1955.
Average land height is 500 metres above sea level.
Main rivers include:
The rivers created basins, which are suitable for agricultural uses, like rice paddies and bean farms.
Railways include:
Ethnicity compositions:
Like the peninsular Koreans, Yanbianese Koreans' most common surname is Kim. Many immigrated from Korea during the 19th century, and again during the Japanese Occupation.
The Yanbianese have one of the highest living standard in the PRC, with an index of urbanization standard (城市化水准) at 55.6%, 20 more percents than the provincial standard (31.3%) and 25 more than the national (26.5%).¹
The Korean language Yanbianese use is purely in Han-geul, without any Hanja. Like peninsular Korean language, Yanbianese Korean has Western punctuation, and not Chinese.
Yanbian University, specializes in science, teaches courses in 12 colleges, and several research institutions.
The Museum of Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture was planned in 1960, and constructed in 1982. It contains over 10,000 exhibits, including 11 first-level artifacts. Not all artifact are Korean, however, for example, some of the first-level ones from the Mausoleum of Princess Zhenxiao are of the historical Bohai ethnicity. The exhibits' labels and explanations are bilingual in Korean and Chinese, and tour guides are also available in both languages.
There are seven public parks in Yanbian's green space (18% of whole prefecture), including:
Over 70% are originally forest in the prefecture, so there is a rich diversity of life.
¹ "Jilin's Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture Urbanization Standard Exceeds that of the Whole Country" (吉林延邊朝鮮族自治州城市化水準走在全國前列) Xinhua News 2002-09-02 09:46:06: article no longer on-line
History
Geography
Mountains that are in the prefecture are:
There have been over 40 types of minerals and 50 kinds of metals, including gold, lead, zinc copper, silver, manganese and mercury, discovered near or in the mountains.
The rivers sustain 28 running water processing facilities.Transportation
Public roads are 1,480-kilometre altogether. There are four airports.Demographics
Culture
Tourism
Also popular among locals during holidays and festivities.Organism
References
External links
