Szechuan
the largest province of China, in the W.; has Tibet on the N.
W. and Yunnan on the S. W.; the remaining boundaries are conterminous with various provinces of China; area 218,500 square miles; pop. about 68,725,- 000. It is traversed and watered by the Yang-tsze-Kiang and its affluents, is hilly throughout, mountainous in the W., and rich in natural products, including coal, iron, and other minerals. Opium, silk, salt, sugar, medicines, tobacco, hides, musk, rhubarb, and white wax (produced by an insect) are exported to the annual value of $25,000,000; and European cottons and woolens are imported to the value of $15,000,000 annually. The capital is Ching-tu, the chief commercial town Chung-king, on the Great River, which was opened to foreign trade at the end of 1889. Ichang was thrown open in 1877.