Yulin

Yulin, Wade-Giles romanization Yü-lin, city, southeastern Zhuang Autonomous Region of Guangxi, southern China. It is situated on the upper course of the Nanliu River, which drains southwestward into the Gulf of Tonkin to the west of Beihai.

The city is a natural hub of land communications in southern Guangxi, from which highways extend in all directions, and it also has a rail connection to Liuzhou and Nanning in the interior of the province and to the port of Zhanjiang in Guangdong province. It is a commercial and collecting centre for a somewhat hilly agricultural area producing mainly a wide variety of fruits. Yulin was set up as a county-level city in 1983 and upgraded as a prefecture-level city in 1997. Its economy has since developed quickly. In addition to its role in regional transport and commerce, factories manufacturing machinery, pharmaceuticals, building materials, textiles, and processed foods are now economic mainstays. Pop. (2002 est.) city, 202,413; (2007 est.) urban agglom., 1,127,000.