Port · Industrial centre · Historic city · Sichuan
Yibin
宜宾
Where the Min and Jinsha rivers become the Yangtze
Yibin is a prefecture-level city in southern Sichuan at the confluence of the Min and Jinsha rivers, the point from which the Yangtze is conventionally called the Chang Jiang — hence its title “first city on the Yangtze”. It is the home of Wuliangye baijiu, of the wartime refuge town of Lizhuang and of the Shunan Bamboo Sea.
Key facts
Overview
Yibin stands on the tongue of land where the Min River, coming from the Chengdu Plain, meets the Jinsha, the upper Yangtze from the Tibetan Plateau. It has long been the river gateway between the Sichuan Basin and the mountains of Yunnan and Guizhou, and its southern counties reach into karst hills inhabited by Miao and, historically, by the Bo people.
Industry is dominated by baijiu — Wuliangye is among the largest liquor makers in China — and, more recently, by battery and electric-vehicle manufacturing. The wartime town of Lizhuang, downstream, is remembered as a centre of Chinese scholarship during the war against Japan.
Names and nicknames
万里长江第一城
“first city on the ten-thousand-li Yangtze”
Because the name Chang Jiang is conventionally applied from the confluence at Yibin downstream.
戎州
The Tang and Song name of the prefecture, used by the poets who stayed here.
酒都
“liquor capital”
For Wuliangye and the many other distilleries of the city.
History
The area was the land of the Bo (僰) people, who have been linked to the hanging coffins placed on cliffs in Gong county; the Han founded the county of Bodao here. Under the Tang and Song the prefecture was called Rongzhou; Du Fu visited in 765, and the Song poet and calligrapher Huang Tingjian lived here in exile around 1098–1100. From 1940 to 1946 the small town of Lizhuang sheltered Tongji University, institutes of Academia Sinica and the Society for Research in Chinese Architecture, including Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin. Wuliangye developed from old local distilleries into a state enterprise after 1949.
Han dynasty
Bodao county
The Han administrative seat at the river junction, named after the Bo people.
765
Du Fu at Rongzhou
The poet was entertained at the prefect's tower and wrote of its wine and lychees.
1098–1100
Huang Tingjian in exile
The Song calligrapher created the Liubei Chi, a winding-stream garden for wine-cup games, which survives.
Ming dynasty
Hanging coffins of the Bo
Wooden coffins set on cliff faces in Gong county are associated with the Bo, who disappear from records after Ming campaigns in the late sixteenth century.
1940–1946
Lizhuang as a wartime refuge
Tongji University and research institutes worked in the temples and mansions of the town.
Landmarks
Nature
Confluence of the Min and Jinsha
三江口
The meeting point of the two rivers at the tip of the old city, where the Yangtze proper begins; the clear Min and silty Jinsha run side by side.
Park or garden
Liubei Chi
流杯池
Park around the rock channel of Huang Tingjian's wine-cup game, with inscriptions.
Historic site
Lizhuang Ancient Town
李庄古镇
Riverside town with Ming and Qing temples and the former wartime sites of scholarly institutions.
Modern landmark
Wuliangye distillery
五粮液
Large distillery complex whose oldest fermentation pits are said to date from the Ming.
Historic site
Hanging coffins of Gong county
僰人悬棺
Coffins placed on pegs and ledges on the cliffs at Mahuang.
Neighbourhoods
Cuiping
翠屏区
The old city at the confluence.
Xuzhou
叙州区
District around the city including new development areas.
Food
Burning noodles
宜宾燃面
Dry noodles tossed with chilli oil, sesame, peanuts and yacai — so oily they were said to burn if lit.
Yibin yacai
宜宾芽菜
Preserved mustard greens with brown sugar, an ingredient in dry-fried green beans and dan dan noodles.
Lizhuang white pork
李庄白肉
Pork boiled and sliced paper-thin, eaten with a chilli-garlic dip.
Culture
Yibin combines river-port culture with that of the southern Sichuan hills: its bamboo forests supply bamboo shoots and crafts, and the Miao villages of Xingwen and Gong counties have their own festivals. Baijiu is part of civic identity, and the city's museum and the Wuliangye grounds present its history.
重碧拈春酒，轻红擘荔枝。Zhòng bì niān chūn jiǔ, qīng hóng bò lìzhī.
“Deep green, we raise the spring wine; light red, we split the lychees.”
— Du Fu, “Banquet at the East Tower of Prefect Yang of Rongzhou” (宴戎州杨使君东楼), 765
Getting around
- Yibin's stations are on high-speed lines to Chengdu (via Zigong) and to Guiyang.
- Yibin Wuliangye Airport lies north of the city.
- Yibin is a Yangtze river port, with container and bulk terminals downstream of the confluence.
Day trips
Shunan Bamboo Sea
蜀南竹海
Ridges covered with bamboo forest in Changning and Jiang'an counties.
Xingwen karst
兴文石海
Karst landscape with a giant sinkhole and caves, a UNESCO Global Geopark.
Frequently asked questions
Sources
- Yibin Municipal People's Government — Yibin Municipal People's Government (retrieved 27 September 2026)
- Seventh National Population Census communiqués — National Bureau of Statistics of China (retrieved 27 September 2026)
- Yibin — Encyclopaedia Britannica (retrieved 27 September 2026)
More cities in Sichuan
- Chengdu成都Capital · Historic city · Cultural centreBrocade City of teahouses, pandas and the Shu kingdom
- Leshan乐山Historic city · Scenic areaThe Giant Buddha and the sacred mountain of Emei
- Zigong自贡Historic city · Industrial centre · Cultural centreSalt wells, dinosaurs and lanterns in southern Sichuan
- Kangding康定Historic city · Cultural centre · Scenic areaTea-trading town of Dartsedo on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau
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