Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture

Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture is an autonomous prefecture of eastern Jilin province in Northeast China, bordered to the north by Heilongjiang province, to the west by Jilin's Baishan and Jilin City, to the south by North Korea's North Hamgyong Province, and to the east by Russia's Primorsky Krai. Yanbian is known as the region with the largest number of ethnic Koreans (Chaoxianzu) living in China. It is sometimes referred to as the "Third Korea".

The prefectural capital is Yanji and the total area is 42,700 square kilometres (16,500 sq mi). The prefecture has an important Balhae archaeological site – the Ancient Tombs at Longtou Mountain – which includes the Mausoleum of Princess Jeonghyo.

History

In the Ming dynasty, Yanbian was governed by the Jianzhou Guard (建州衛) and in the late Qing dynasty the area was divided into the Yanji (延吉廳) and Hunchun (琿春廳) subprefectures. From 1644 to 1800s, the Manchurian Qing state maintained a policy of disallowing Han Chinese immigration into traditionally Manchurian lands in order to ensure that the Manchu were not assimilated by the Han Chinese. However, this effort failed because of the trading and agricultural opportunities available to Han Chinese migrants in the northeast region which made it profitable to evade the rules, as well as later Qing relaxation of the same rules (Chuang Guandong) to discourage Russian encroachment. Thus, in the 19th century, Chinese immigrants migrated en masse from China proper to areas that were formerly off limits to Han Chinese migration.

In the late 19th century, Korean immigrants migrated en masse from the Korean Peninsula to China.