NINGYÜAN, Diocese of. - Erected as an apostolic vicariate under the name of Kientchang on 12 Aug. 1910, with territory taken from that of South Szechwan (v. SUIFU), on 3 Dec. 1924 it received its present name and on 11 Apr. 1946 was raised to the status of a suffragan diocese of Chungking. It is entrusted, as was the mother mission, to the Paris Foreign Missions Society.
It covers an area of approximately 120,000 sq. km. As of 30 June 1948, out of a population of about 2,000,000, there were 10,968 Catholics and 1,950 catechumens. Besides the bishop, there were 19 Chinese priests, 12 French, and 2 Spanish. The auxiliary personnel included 34 sisters (23 Chinese), 25 catechists, 37 teachers, 36 baptizers, 4 doctors, and 6 nurses. The territory, divided into 19 districts, had 19 primary stations and 190 secondary ones, 7 churches and 14 chapels. Among the works were 2 hospitals, 4 medical dispensaries, 11 orphanages, 1 home for the elderly, 1 leper colony, 12 elementary schools, 2 normal schools, and 28 prayer and elementary schools.
The first three missionaries, sent to the Kientchang region by the apostolic vicar of South Szechwan after 1860, met with little success until the work was resumed at the end of the century by other fathers of Paris under the leadership of the provincial G. B. de Guébriant, who was later appointed the first apostolic vicar of N. and then transferred to Canton.