YACHOW-FU, a prefectural city in the Chinese province of Sze-ch’uen, is situated in 30° 4' N. lat. and 103° 4' E. long., and is a place of some antiquity and note, being first mentioned in history during the Chow dynasty (1122- 255 b.c.). It is prettily placed in a valley surrounded by an amphitheatre of hills, on the banks of the river Ya. The town is large, populous, and busy, and owes its importance to the fact that it stands at the parting of the tea and tobacco trade route to Tibet via Tatsien-lu and the cotton trade route to western Yun-nan via Ningyuen-Fu. Yachow-Fu is the seat also of a considerable silk manufacture; and in its immediate neighbourhood there exist both coal and iron. The city wall measures 2 miles in circumference, and is pierced by four gates. The population is estimated at about 40,000.