Ya'an

Ya'an is a prefecture-level city in the western part of Sichuan province of the People's Republic of China.

Geography

It has an area of 15300 square kilometers and a population of 1,530,000.

Zhouhe and Tiaquan are among the administered by Ya'an. Ya'an borders Tibetan ethnic areas to the west.

Previously known as Yazhou-fu, the city is first mentioned during the Zhou Dynasty . It served as a county seat during the and Dynasties, but was subsequently ruled by the Mongols. After being reintegrated into the Chinese Empire in the late 5th century, it was made the seat of the ''Ya Prefecture'' in 604. The modern Ya'an county was established in 1912.

:"The busy little town was full of life, for its market is the only trading centre for the Chinese and Tibetans from Kangting. Accompanied by two coolies, I crossed the long suspension bridge which oscillates alarmingly over the Ya Ho. I got separated from my coolies in the dense crowd which swarmed along the main street, but in the end found them, and my luggage, at the Catholic mission, where two venerable fathers welcomed me with the flowery courtesy of mandarins. . . .
:Yaan is the main market for a special kind of tea which is grown in this part of the country and exported in very large quantities to Tibet via Kangting and over the caravan routes through Batang and Teko. Although the Chinese regard it as an inferior product, it is greatly esteemed by the Tibetans for its powerful flavor, which harmonizes particularly well with that of the rancid yak's butter which they mix with their tea. Brick tea comprises not only what we call tea leaves, but also the coarser leaves and some of the twigs of the shrub, as well as the leaves and fruit of other plants and trees . This amalgam is steamed, weighed, and compressed into hard bricks, which are packed up in coarse matting in subunits of four. These rectangular parcels weigh between twenty-two and twenty-six pounds—the quality of the tea makes a slight difference to the weight—and are carried to Kangting by coolies. A long string of them, moving slowly under their monstrous burdens of tea, was a familiar sight along the road I followed."

Subdivisions

*Yucheng District
*Mingshan County
*Yingjing County
*Hanyuan County
*Shimian County
*Tianquan County
*Lushan County
*Baoxing County