Szechwan and Chongqing Municipality, culturally part of central_and_northeastern China can be divided into two halves. The west has parallel ranges shadowing deep valleys: the Qionglai, the Daxue topped at over 7500 meters by Mount Gongga, the Shaluliand and the northern end of the Hangduan. The east consists mostly of the Sichuan Basin (pendi), though it is fringed by low mountains near the provincial boundaries. Two mountainous spots on the basin edges are famous: Mount Emei at the beginning of the western high zone is one of the Four Buddhist Sacred Mountains; and in the east the mountains form the Three Gorges section of the Yangtze or Chiang River (jiang). The river forms part of the provincial western and southern boundries before cutting across the southern part of the basin. In Sichuan it is called the Jinsha in its upper course, and the Chuan further downstream. Its main left bank tributaries are the Yalong--in the mountains; the Min--famous for its ancient irrigation project; the Tou and the Jialing. Its principle right bank tributary is the Wu. A bend of the Yellow or Huang River (he) also touches briefly along the northwestern border.
The majority of the more than 83 million people living here speak Putonghua Chinese and--to the extent they are observant--practice a mix of Buddhism, Confuciansim, Taoism and folk ways.
Szechwan's capital, Chengdu, is a world class city as is the nation's one time capital of Chungking(3). Seventeen other cities (shi) have a million or more residents.
northwest
north, from the north center
northeast
east
southeast
south, from the southeast
southwest
west
(1) Sichuan in Pinyin transliteration and Ssu-ch'uan in Wade-Giles transliteration; translates literally as Four Rivers.
(2) Sheng in Wade-Giles transliteration.
(3) Chonqing in Pinyin and Ch'ung-ch'ing in Wade-Giles transliteration.