YU-TZ'U

Pinyin Yuci city, central Shansi Province (sheng), China. It is a county-level municipality (shih) and the administrative centre of Chin-chung Prefecture (ti-ch'). Y-tz'u has from early times been overshadowed by T'ai-yan, nearby to the north, of which it often has been a subordinate county since Han times (206 BCAD 220). Originally located some distance west, it was moved to its present site in AD 448. Y-tz'u has always been an important road centre, situated where the route from Hopeh Province, after traversing the T'ai-hang Shan (mountains), enters the T'ai-yan Basin. It was traditionally a major agricultural collecting centre for the north of the T'ai-yan Basin, engaging in a trade in grain, fruits, cotton, and textiles. Before World War II, however, it was a small market town, with walls some 2 mi (3 km) in circumference. It had, however, already begun to grow in importance as a rail junction, for it was there that the Shih-t'ai railway, running from Shih-chia-chuang in Hopeh to T'ai-yan, joined the T'ung-pu railway, which traversed Shansi from Ta-t'ung in the north to Feng-ling-tu in the extreme southwest. Both of these double-tracked railways are of crucial importance. During the 1950s, the population grew rapidly, partly because the city had become a communication centre and also because of the expansion of its industry. Y-tz'u has a large-scale cotton manufacturing industry, partly built with Soviet aid. Pop. (mid-1970s est.) 50,000100,000.