Southwest China

Southwest China is a rugged and mountainous region, transitioning between the Tibetan Plateau to the west and the Chinese coastal plains to the east. Key geographic features in the region include the Hengduan Mountains in the west, the Sichuan Basin in the north, and the karstic Yungui Plateau in the east. The majority of the region is drained by the Yangtze River which forms the Three Gorges in the northeast of the region.[2]

Map of Ming Dynasty China in 1580. Historical Southwest China was anchored by the cities of Chengdu, Kunming, and Guiyang (bottom left).

Portions of Southwest China were incorporated under Chinese influence as early as the 3nd century BCE in the Qin dynasty. Independent states would continue to exert influence within the region, with notable examples being the Nanzhao Kingdom in the 8th and 9th centuries CE and the Dali Kingdom in 10th and 11th centuries CE. By the time of the Ming Dynasty the region was largely pacified and incorporated into the Chinese domain.[1] During the Second Sino-Japanese War, the city of Chongqing served as the capital of Chinese resistance to imperial Japanese expansion.

The diverse areas of Southwest China carry strong regional identities and have been historically considered more rural than the more developed eastern regions of China.[1] Rapid development since the late 1970s has helped transform many parts of the region with modern advancements. In the early 21st century, Southwest China contained 50% of the country's ethnic minority population which in turn formed 37% of the region's population.[1] Han Chinese migration has been largely concentrated in the urban centres while the rural areas are still predominantly made up by minority populations including the Zhuang, Miao, Yi, and others.

Map showing the distribution of Southwestern Mandarin within China.

Inhabitants of Southwest China primarily speak a variant of Mandarin Chinese known as Southwestern Mandarin. This variant uses the same written language as Mandarin but is only approximately 50% mutually intelligible with Standard Chinese. As of 2012, there were approximately 260 million speakers of Southwestern Mandarin.[3]

Notes