KWANGSI, a province of southern China. The basin of the Si-kiang, the southernmost of the three great rivers of China, falls almost entirely within the two provinces of Kwangsi and Kwangtung, long governed together as the single viceroyalty of Liang-kwang. Kwangsi consists essentially of the upper part of this basin in which the numerous headstreams and tributaries con verge to form a single, broad river. These headstreams rising in the amphitheatre of high plateaus just beyond the borders of the province cut deep trenches within Kwangsi, leaving between them flat-topped hills, and widening only at intervals into valley plains of appreciable width. Such valley lines form the main routes within the province and with the rest of China. The two forks of the Si-kiang both lead into Yunnan, the Liu-kiang into east Kweichow, the Kwei-kiang to the upper Siang valley in Hunan and the Tso tributary into east Tongking. The more im portant towns stand at critical points along the valley routes. Kweilin, the former capital, commands the Kwei route into Hunan which once competed with the Mei-ling and Che-ling routes from the Si-kiang to the Yang-tze. Nanning, the present capital, guards the easier of the two approaches to Yunnan and furtlp-rmore the route by way of Lungchow into Tongking which connects with a railway to Hanoi just over the frontier. Wu chow, the natural commercial focus for the whole of Kwangsi, stands at the eastern gate of the province after the Si-kiang has gathered up the last of its tributaries.
South-west China was the last part of the country to be colon ized by the Chinese and is the least penetrated by Chinese culture.
Kwangsi, on its eastern borderland, has somewhat similar racial and cultural characteristics but was easier of approach from both east and north. The Chinese have entered Kwangsi up the Si kiang from Canton and down its northern tributaries from Hunan, leaving on the hills in between and especially in western Kwangsi a very considerable aboriginal population, which until recently was governed by its own headmen subject only to Chinese super vision. The Chinese of the northern tributaries and of the
northern fork of the Si-kiang who came in from Hunan are Mandarin-speaking, but those who moved up the main river and its southern fork speak Cantonese. The whole population, Chinese and aboriginal alike, is essentially rural and the province is one of the most sparsely settled in all China with an estimated popu lation of 12,258,335 (1926) and a density of 159 per square mile. As the province is bisected by the tropic, the agriculture of its valleys has a definitely sub-tropical character. Rice is the staple product of the Chinese valley population and, as this is sparse, there is a surplus to spare for the much more densely peopled Kwangtung. In the upper valleys and on the hills the natural vegetation of woodland still in places persists, although vast areas have been deforested. Over the border in Kweichow this consists chiefly of temperate species, but in Kwangsi partly of valuable tropical woods such as the cinnamon tree, the camphor tree and the wood oil tree. These wood products from Kwei chow as well as Kwangsi are gathered up by Wuchow.
Although formerly considered a backward province, Kwangsi is through its association with Kwangtung undergoing some reconstruction. Steam launch traffic has developed along the Sikiang as far up as Nanning and extensive schemes of road con struction are on foot especially around those towns such as Nanning and Kweilin near the upper limit of navigation. The city of Wuchow has been largely remodelled, its streets widened and its walls replaced by boulevards. Canton, the focus of the whole of South China, has undergone similar reconstruction.