WANHSIEN, DIOCESE of. - In the eastern part of the province of Szechwan, in central-western China.
It was erected as an apostolic vicariate on 2 Aug. 1929 from 10 civil Chungking (v.) and was entrusted to the Chinese secular clergy. On 11 Apr. 1946, with the establishment of the episcopal hierarchy in China, it was raised to the rank of a diocese suffragan to Chungking.
It has an area of approximately 20,000 sq. km. As of 30 June 1947, out of a total population of approximately 5,000,000 inhabitants, there were 21,393 Catholics; 43 priests; 13 major seminarians and 67 minor seminarians; and 14 sisters, 7 of them foreign. Its institutions included 3 orphanages, 2 medicine dispensaries, and 113 schools with 2,930 pupils.
The history of the evangelization of the mission of W. is shared with that Chungking (v.); at the time of its erection (1929), 22,960 Christians were transferred to W.