Guizhou

Geography

Guizhou Province, a province with many ethnic groups on the eastern section of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau in southwestern China, has an area of more than 170,000 square kilometers. It is situated 103'37"-109'32" east longitude and 24'37"-29'13" north latitude. Owing to folds, faults and erosion, the plateau is intersected with mountains, hills, basins and valleys, giving it a very rugged topography. In many areas, limestone is found with numerous caverns and underground streams.

Climate
Guizhou has a humid, sub-tropical monsoonal climate with warm winters, mild summers and unclear seasonal contrasts. It has a mean annual temperature of 14¡ã-16oC, and a mean annual precipitation of 1,100-1,400 mm. It has more overcast days than any other part of the country, the area around Guiyang averaging 220 cloudy days a year.

Administrative Division and Population
It is divided into 4 prefecture-level cities, 2 districts, 3 autonomous prefectures, 9 county-level cities, 56 counties, 11 autonomous counties and 2 special zones, with a population of 35.25 million as of 2000, mainly including ethnic groups of Han, Miao, Bouyei, Dong, Yi, Shui, Hui, Gelo, Zhuang, Yao, Manchu and Bai.

Food
Guizhou Cuisine is characterized as spicy and savory. Special dishes include noodles with intestines, Yelang dough fish, Tangyuan (dumplings made of glutinous rice flour), and steamed (or fried) glutinous rice paste wrapped in lotus leaves, etc.

Culture
Qian Opera, Huadeng (Flower Lantern) Opera, operas of Dong and Bouyei ethnic minorities.

Brief Introduction
Guizhou Province, known as Qian for short, is situated in the southwest of China.

In the fields of agriculture and by-products, there are mainly paddy rice, maize, rapeseed, tobacco; and the outputs of tung oil, oil tea, Chinese Tallow, raw lacquer, tea and traditional Chinese medicinal materials have occupied a predominant position in the domestic market. In the field of industries, priorities are given to the development of iron and steel, coal, metallurgy, chemical, machinery, electricity, cigarette and papermaking industries.

The landforms with widely dispersed karst topography in Guizhou Province have created picturesque scenery with grandeur. Places of historic interest and scenic beauty include the Yellow Fruit Tree Waterfall (Huangguoshu Waterfall), the Anshun Water Cave of Dragon Palace, the Gold-Knit Cave, Red Maple Lake, Flower Stream, and the Lesser Seven-Arched Scenic Site, some of which have been listed as cultural relics preservation sites under the state protection.

As a multinational province, the colorful costumes and custom of the ethnic minority groups attract visitors far and wide, for instance, group dance of the Yi people, wine song and bronze drum of the Bouyei people, and festivals like the March 3 Festival (in Chinese lunar calendar), the Torch Festival, and the Dragon Boat Festival, etc.

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