Changchun is the capital of Jilin Province and the former capital of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. It is a major city in northeast China, famous for its film and automotive industries.

Climate
Jilin province forms a transitional climatic zone between the northern and southern portions of China’s Northeast. The winter is cold and long, and rivers are frozen for about five months; the ice on the Sungari is thick enough to support mule carts. Changchun, near the centre of China’s Northeast, has mean temperatures of 2 °F (−17 °C) for January and 74 °F (23 °C) for July. It has a mean annual precipitation of about 25 inches (630 mm), more than 80 percent of it during the five warm months from May to September. Precipitation increases southeastward to more than 40 inches (1,000 mm) in the Changbai Mountains area but decreases westward; the Northeast Plain receives only about 16 inches (400 mm).

People Of Jilin
Han (Chinese) predominate throughout the province, except in the Yianbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture that is contiguous with North Korea and has a large population of ethnic Koreans. Most of the Manchu (Man) live in the central part of the province, in the vicinity of Jilin and Siping municipalities; in addition, the Yitong Man Autonomous County was established in 1988 some 45 miles (70 km) south of Changchun. A few Hui (Chinese Muslims) are distributed in the cities and towns of the province, and some Mongolians are to be found in the Baicheng and Songyuan area in northwestern Jilin.

Economy
Agriculture and forestry
Jilin is a major producer of food crops, mainly rice, corn (maize), grain sorghum, millet, and beans. Most of the rice fields are in its eastern part, the Yianbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture being a noted rice-producing area of northern China. The most important commercial crops are sugar beets and tobacco, as well as flax, sunflower, and sesame.
Resources and power
The major minerals of the province include coal, petroleum, natural gas, molybdenum, germanium, nickel, and gold. Coal is found in the southeast, near the Yalu River border with North Korea. Many smaller local mines also supply provincial needs. More recently, mineral water from the Changbai Mountains has been bottled and widely distributed.

Transportation
Most of the municipalities and counties in the province have direct access to a rail line. The Sungari is the main artery of the inland navigation network. Its tributary the Huifa River and the Tumen River are both navigable by wooden vessels. The Yalu is navigable by steamers up to Yulin and by wooden vessels above that point. The highway network has regional centres at Changchun, Jilin, Yanji, and Tonghua; an express highway runs southwestward from Changchun to Shenyang in Liaoning and extends eastward to Jilin city. Changchun is the focus of the province’s air travel, with connections to the major cities in China and some international routes.

Government And Society
Constitutional framework
Jilin is divided administratively into one autonomous prefecture (zizhizhou), and eight prefecture-level municipalities (dijishi). The province is further divided into districts under municipality (shixiaqu), counties (xian)—some of which are autonomous counties (zizhixian) established for minority nationalities—and county-level municipalities (xianjishi).
Education
Jilin’s educational facilities are well developed, with more than 30 universities and other post-secondary institutions. Notable among these are Jilin University (founded 1946) and Northeast Normal University (1946), both in Changchun, and Yanbian University (1949) in Yanji. Overall literacy rates are significantly higher than the national average, as is the proportion of the population with at least a primary level education. Medical services are provided by hospitals and clinics staffed by medical workers, including doctors and practitioners of Chinese medicine.