YUNGNIEN, DIOCESE of. - In the southern part of the province of Hopeh (northern China).
It was erected as an apostolic prefecture on 24 May 1929 from 10 civil sub-prefectures of the mission of Sienhaien (v.) and entrusted to the Chinese secular clergy; on 6 March 1933 it became an apostolic vicariate and on 11 Apr. 1946 a diocese suffragan to Pechino.
Area 20,617 sq. km., with about 4,500,000 inhabitants, of whom 50,000 are Catholics; 23 priests, 31 sisters; 1 orphanage, 1 dispensary, 3 schools.
The territory of Y. comprises the civil prefecture of Kwangpingfu, where in 1856 there were 2,528 Christians, evangelized by the missionaries of Pechino. When the region passed to the Jesuits in that year, in 1873 the faithful numbered 5,104, with 44 chapels and 17 oratories; on 1 July 1928 they had risen to 36,602, with 35 churches, 115 chapels, and 117 oratories; the Chinese priests, to whom the mission passed the following year, numbered 17.