Yibin is situated in the connection of Yunnan Province, Guizhou Province and Sichuan Province on the south edge of the jurisdiction. It covers an area of 13, 283km² and has a population of 5, 090, 000(2001-12-31). As it is on the confluence of the Jinsha River, the Min River and the Yangtze River, so it is called "the first city of the Yangtze River". Chinese famous Wuliangye wine comes from this city.

Yibin is an ancient city of a long history. Two thousand years ago, the nationalities of Bo and Liao people lived and multiplied here. In the Qin Dynasty, Yibin belonged to Jianwei County. Bodao was set up in the Han Dynasty and then Rongzhou in the Liang Period and changed to Xuzhou in the Northern Song Dynasty. In Song Dynasty, it was named as Yibin. In order to avoid being the same as Zhao Kuangyi, an king of the Song Dynasty, "Yibin" was changed into Yibin. This is the beginning of this name. Now it is a famous city of historical culture and hygienic city.

The subtropical climate in Yibin is warm and humid with the annual average temperature of 17. 9^oC and an annual precipitation of 1, 177mm. Four seasons are distinct. It is rich in tourist resources: the national scenic spots and one of the Forty Good Tourist Attractions in China-Shunnan Bamboo Sea; wonderful scenery with ground stone forest, underground caves and the greatest funnel-shihaidong Town; the puzzling "myth of the world" and the national key preservation unit of cultural relic-hanging coffins of Bo people. . .

Yibin has formed basically a cloverleaf traffic network of land, water and plane communication lines. There are 20 travel hotels, 7 top-grade restaurants, an 25 travel services an over 10, 000 beds for tourists.

Geography
¡¡¡¡Situated where the mainstream Yangtze River begins and where the three provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou share a common boundary, Yibin, an ideally located state-designated open city, is a major harbor for Sichuan Province, an important hub of transportation, and a distribution center of materials and commodities. An integral part of - and a link between - the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the Panxi-Liupanshui Energy and Raw Material Production Base, Yibin also plays a pivotal role in the economic development of Sichuan. All these explain why the municipality has such an important bearing on the economic development of both Midwest China and the Yangtze River valley.

History and Culture
¡¡¡¡Yibin is a famous historical and cultural city in China. As early as the Neolithic Age the shores of the Yangtze River, Jinsha and Minjiang rivers were already teeming with human life. In pre-Qin years, Yibin became the settlement of the Bo tribespeople. The predecessor of Yibin was Rongzhou, an ancient city which was first built in 182 BC. In ancient times the city of Rongzhou had the control of half of the territory of southwest China, as the saying goes. Strategically situated, Yibin was a bone of contention among warring warlords. It was also an important ink on the South Silk Road and a major commodities distribution center in southwest China. A two-millennia-old civilization has pockmarked the land of Yibin with a rich historical and cultural legacy. More than 2, 600 of Yibin's cultural artifacts and sites of historical interest are on a national list of cultural relics, and that is just the tip of an iceberg. The opulent and deep-rooted cultural heritage has brought forth countless great men who have filled history with their deeds and the earth with their renown. Yibin was the birthplace of Huang Binlao, Zi Dan and Bao Bichen, celeb rated painters and calligraphers who had emerged as schools of their own with distinctive works. During the War of Resistance against Japan, Jiangan County provided shelter to the National Drama School for six years, during which time it trained a team of well-known playwrights and film directors represented by Cao Yu and Xie Jin. Yibin was the native place of Zhaoyiman, a national heroine who laid down her life for the anti-Japanese war, and such renowned revolutionaries as Lishuoxun, Yuzehong and Liuhua, who made outstanding contributions to the birth of New China. Yang Hansheng, a Chinese literary guru, and Tangjunyi, a philosopher, were Yibin natives. Yibin is also the hometown of Li Peng, the fourth premier of the People's Republic of China.

Liquor-making
¡¡¡¡Liquor-making, which goes back a long way in Yibin, is the chief source of local revenue. No visitor leaves Yibin without being impressed by its countless distilleries. Celebrated men of letters of yore, such as Du Fu, Huang Tingjian, and Fan Chengda, composed a wealth of poetry extolling Yibin's copious flow of aqua vitae. Today, the municipality operates 627 distilleries with a combined annual liquor-making capacity of 120, 000 tons, which includes more than thirty famous brand names of quality spirits. Hence Yibin's nickname, Liquor Capital. On account of the prestige of the Wuliangye Distillery of Yibin as the largest and most lucrative liquor brewer in China, a government department has dubbed it King of China's Liquor-making Industry";and for this reason Wuliangye "has become one of the nation's ten most prestigious trademarks. The Wuliangye distillery houses the country's largest and best-equipped museum on liquor-associated culture. The atmosphere of the museum is enhanced by more than one hundred sculptures which are erected there to impress visitors with the Oriental history of alcoholic drinks and their relationship with mankind. The entire distillery stands as a veritable monument to liquor-related Oriental culture.

Travel
¡¡¡¡Tourism is yet another mainstay of Yibin's economic setup. Sichuan Province is known for its abundant tourist resources, yet the prospects for development in this field is especially bright for Yibin, whose land is strewn with scenic spots and places of unique historical and cultural implications that happen to be clustered around tourist routes These include the South Sichuan Bamboo Sea which is a national scenic zone;provincial scenic zones such as the Rock Sea and Land of Caves in Xingwen, the Laojun Mountain in Pngshan, karst hot springs in Yunlian, and the Furong Mountain in Gongxian County;provincial forest parks, including the Shicheng Mountain in Yibin county, the Yuntai Mountain in Nanxi County, the Qixing Mountain in Yibin Municipality, and Qingfeng Temple in Jiang'an County;places under state protection as national cultural treasures, such as Gongxian County, suspended coffins of the Bo tribespeople in Gongxian County, ancient dwellings in the Xijia Mountain in Jiang'an County, and ancient buildings in the Zhenwu Mountain and fifteen places under protection as provincial cultural treasures The tourist route which cuts through the South Sichuan Bamboo Sea is one of Sichuan's four carefully selected major international tourist routes, With three star-rated hotels and an impressive array of ancillary tourist facilities. Yibin is an ideal place for sightseers, holiday-makers, nature explorers and adventurer. Since 1993, the number of visitors to Yibin has kept growing at an annual rate of 15-20 percent. In 1996, the municipality received more than 3 million visitors from every nook and corner of the world. Further efforts are being made to tap Yibin's rich tourist resources.

Transport and Telecommunication
¡¡¡¡Yibin, the starting point of the South Silk Road in bygone years, has emerged as the leading hub for water, land (highways and railways)and air transport and the distribution of commodities and materials in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. Yibin Harbor is one of the six major harbors along the Yangtze River. The Neijiang-Kunming Railway runs right across the municipality to join with the Chengdu-Chongqing Railway. A second-grade local airport is operating lines to and from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu and other big cities. Yibin is also crisscrossed by standard cement highways. When the high-grade Neijiang-Yibin Highway is completed in 1999. a drive from Yibin to Chengdu or Chongqing will take only four hours. The municipality's modern telecommunications network is made all the more efficient with programme-controlled installations, optical fiber cables, digital-controlled paging service, mobile phones and videophones. Local inhabitants can dial direct long-distance phone calls to 186 countries and regions around the world.

Yibin is a landlocked city, yet over the last few years it has gained tangible results in opening to the outside world. It has fostered economic and cultural ties with 22 countries, including the United States, Japan, France, Singapore and Thailand, and has established more than 40 foreign_invested enterprises. Since 1995, Yibin has attracted the attention of a number of transnational companies in the world. These include the Burn Stewart Distillery PLC of Britain, the China Tai Group of Thailand, and the Coastal Power Company of the United States, which have actually begun to invest their capital in the municipality. In an age desined to glory, Yibin is taking on a new look with each passing day. A beautiful metropolis is emerging from the mouth of the mighty Yangtze River. By tarowing is doors wide open, the state-designated open city is showing its unique cultural heritage and economic strength to the world, and endeavoring for quicker and better development. While building a better future with dedication and wisdom and by the sweat of their ownbrows, the people of Yibin are ready to greet, with open arms and a warm heart, friends from all over the world who care to come to see the scenery, seek investment opportunities or open business, and who are willing to join them in tapping the city 's rich resources and ushering it into an age of economic prosperity and culture.