Guangxi
(2002 est. pop. 50.5 million). The Autonomous Region of Guangxi is located on the southern coast of China. Since 1958 the official name has been the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The Zhuang nationality is China's largest minority group and constitutes a third of the region's population of 45.5 million (1996). Guangxi covers an area of 236,661 square kilometers and borders on Vietnam and Yunnan in the west, on Guizhou and Hunan in the north, on Guangdong in the east, and on the Gulf of Tonkin in the south. The region is dominated by mountains with peaks over 2,000 meters above sea level in the far west and the far north. Guangxi is traversed by sixtynine rivers, most of which are tributaries to the Zhu (Pearl) River.
Guangxi has a subtropical monsoon climate, and the rainy season from April to September accounts for 80 percent of the annual precipitation of 1,250 to 1,750 millimeters. Average temperatures during January lie between 6° and 15°C, while the July average is between 23° and 28°C. The capital, Nanning (1996 estimated population of 1.1 million), is situated in the southern central part of Guangxi. The eastern part of the region became part of the Qin empire (221–206 BCE) in 214, and after a brief period of independence, it was conquered by the Han empire (206 BCE–220 CE) in 112–111 BCE. From the Tang dynasty (618–907 CE) onward, the area has been part of various southern administrative divisions, sometimes divided into a Han Chinese region in the east and a Zhuang region in the west. Throughout the centuries, the region has been marked by rebellions against succeeding imperial governments and tribal warfare between the Zhuang and other minority nationalities that were pushed south by the Chinese migration from the north. The Taiping Rebellion (1851–1864) originated in Guangxi, and later in the nineteenth century, the French colonial power in Indochina extended its activities to the region.
Guangxi is one of China's most diversified areas with regard to population. Although the Han Chinese today constitute 62 percent of the population, there are eleven minority nationalities, of which the Zhuang is the largest by far. Several of these minority groups number fewer than 100,000 people. The most important agricultural crops are rice, millet, and sugarcane, but the region grows a wide variety of crops, including tobacco, tea, fruit, soybeans, sweet potatoes, and peanuts. In the mountains in the northwest, forestry dominates, with pine, fir, oak, and camphor trees. Major industries include textiles, chemicals, machine building, and food and tobacco processing. The scenic areas, with karst mountains and underground caves, around Guilin and Yangshuo in the northeast provide a major source of income through tourism.
Further Reading
Hamberg, Theodore. (1969) The Visions of Hung-Siu-tshuen, and Origin of the Kwang-si Insurrection. New York: Praeger.
Lary, Diana. (1974) Region and Nation: The Kwangsi Clique in Chinese Politics, 1925–1937. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.
Levich, Eugene William. (1993) The Kwangsi Way in Kuomintang China, 1931–1939. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.
Litzinger, Ralph A. (2000) Other Chinas: The Yao and the Politics of National Belonging. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
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