Янжи қаласы: Қытай-Корея шекарасындағы өркендеген орталық

Yanji (; Korean: 연길; alternately romanized as Yenki or Yenji) is a county level city in the east of China's Jilin Province, and is the seat of the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture. Its population is approximately 400,000 of which a significant portion is ethnic Korean. Yanji is a busy hub of transport and trade between China and North Korea. The city is home to Yanbian University, a comprehensive university and the only Project 211 university in Yanji.

Yanji and its environs were largely unpopulated until the 1800s when Qing dynasty rulers of China began to encourage migration there from China proper as part of its Chuang Guandong policy to populate Manchuria in an effort to stem encroaching Russian expansion. Yanji City is centrally located, surrounded by five other county level cities and two rural counties (see map); it is the administrative seat of the prefecture.

The North Korean military detonated its second nuclear test in May 2009 close to the Chinese border, and the blast set off an earthquake of magnitude 4.5 with an epicenter only 112 mile (180 km) from Yanji. The mutual goodwill of the Chinese and Korean populations in the region was put under severe strain, and many in Yanji expressed newfound feelings of dismay and insecurity regarding their North Korean neighbors. Yanji was the starting point of an international dispute in 2009 when two American journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, were detained by North Korean border guards when, after leaving Yanji, they overstepped the nearby demarcation line. The two were freed only after intervention at the highest level by former US President Clinton. Crystal meth seeping across the border from North Korea has led to a drug problem. According to a Brookings report, "Jilin Province is not only the most important transshipment point for drugs from North Korea into China, but has itself become one of the largest markets in China for amphetamine type stimulants." Yanji had registered nearly 2100 drug addicts in 2010 compared to just 44 in 1990; local officials admitted that the actual number was possibly five or six times higher.

Yanji is situated among foothills, with the main metropolitan area contained in a small, very flat area.

The Korean diaspora in China has significant populations in at least eleven major Chinese cities, but none larger than Yanji: official Chinese census reports from 1990 placed the city's ethnic Korean population at over 170,000. Official census reports from 2000 have not yet been released publicly, to more than one half. Both Chinese and Korean are considered "official languages" of the city:

With its current population estimated at four hundred thousand, Yanji is also relatively young: the city was developed only in the nineteenth century Recent growth in tourism and overseas investment has helped to make Yanji a notably prosperous city. China is the largest trading partner of North Korea, accounting for almost 40% of that country's international commerce, and Yanji is the center of much of the cross border enterprise. and Taiwan, which has helped substantially in building the city's tourism industry. Yanji also hosts the Tumen River Area International Investment & Business Forum, a three day exposition held annually since 2000.

Daily train service to most major urban centers of the province is available from Yanji, including a 24 hour trip to Beijing. A new 125 mile (201 km) water and sewage pipeline was completed in 2006, linking Yanji and the neighboring cities of Jilin and Songyuan to modern sewage treatment plants along the Songhua River. As of 2012, Yanji offers the most convenient road access to the Rason Special Economic Zone in North Korea.

Yanbian University is a comprehensive university in Yanji, founded in 1949; it offers eleven programs of study, including four doctoral programs. The university maintains a full time teaching staff of over 1,400, serving an active student body of over sixteen thousand. Yanji is also home to the Yanbian University of Science and Technology, a technical research college founded in 1990, and the Yanbian Medical College. Yanbian International Academy, the area school for foreigners, is located in Yanji. There is also a school for Koreans, Korean International School in Yanbian.

Yanji hosts sporting events at the 50,000 seat People's Stadium. The city was the eighteenth stop for the Olympic torch relay at the opening of the 2008 Summer Games. Officials from the Guinness Book of World Records visited the athletics stadium at Yanbian University in July 2010 to witness a new world record being set: over one thousand students simultaneously juggled soccer balls with their feet for more than ten seconds.

Two all Korean television channels are produced locally, and others can be freely received from both North and South Korea. An annual Korean folk festival takes place each September in Yanji, featuring traditional Korean music, dance, painting, and sports.