YEN-CHI

Pinyin Yanji, city, eastern Kirin sheng (province), China. It is a county-level shih (municipality) and the administrative seat of Yen-pien-ch'ao-hsien-tsu (Yen-pien Korean) autonomous chou (prefecture), which covers a mountainous area on the North KoreanChinese border, more than half of whose inhabitants are Korean. Until the late 19th century the area was almost completely undeveloped. Basically it comprises the fertile Tumen River valley and the wild ranges of the Ch'ang-pai Mountains. Chinese settlers began to move into the area illegally in 182050, and in 1860 the Chinese government lifted the ban on settlement to preempt possible Russian encroachment. The area, however, was so remote that few Chinese settlers went there, whereas Koreans moved into the area in great numbers. In 1885 special bureaus were set up to control and tax the Korean immigrants. In 1895 Yen-chi hsien (county) was established. The area was the source of constant border disputes, first with Korea, and thenafter the establishment of the Japanese protectorate in Korea in 1905with Japan. Under the Japanese occupation of the 1930s, railways were built through the area, linking T'u-men to Chi-lin (Kirin) to the west and to Chia-mu-ssu to the north. The railroads did much to open up the area, and further lines were then constructed to exploit the forests of the Ch'ang-pai Mountains. Yen-chi is the principal commercial centre of the Yen-pien Korean autonomous prefecture and is a collecting centre for local agricultural products. There are food-processing plants, rice-polishing, oil-pressing, and flax-processing factories, and a variety of consumer industries making such products as earthenware, furniture, and knitted textiles. Agricultural implements are also manufactured. A secondary industrial centre is some 9 miles (15 km) to the south at Lung-ching, where there are machinery works, a power station, and a paper mill. Yen-chi is also an important cultural centre for the Korean minority, providing radio and newspaper services in Korean. Medical and normal colleges form Yen-pien University. Pop. (1989 est.) 207,600.