Yung An
Yung An is a massive industrial city situated on the northern edge of the Yung An Basin. This city-state specializes in food and pharmaceutical production. Yung An is surrounded by agricultural land, including cawfee and fruit plantations and jhong and rice paddies. The city is well known for Yung An-style cawfee, a brew wherein the cawfee grinds are blended with dried fruit to achieve a sweeter, richer flavor. Yung An also has the distinction of being the oldest official city on Terra Nova. Founded in TN 10 by the Founders — the corporate forefathers of the Mekong Dominion — it predates large-scale colonization. Mekong citizens consider Yung An the cradle of their civilization. The remnants of the first three landing craft are preserved in Colony Triangle, a large park in the heart of the city-state.
Yung An is the literary capital of the Dominion. Its numerous cafés are always packed with authors and would-be writers. Unfortunately, only a small fraction of these artists are talented enough to write professionally, which does not stop anyone there from trying to get published. The few established authors, however, are enough to supply the city’s nine major publishing houses with good material on a regular basis. Every year, in Spring, all the publishing houses get together and organize the International Book Fair. It is the best occasion for writers and publishers to meet with their public face-to-face and to get accurate feedback. The fair draws a crowd of nearly 75,000 people, many from all over the planet.
The city-state is also well-known, though in more specialized circles, as one of the main centers for Terranovan martial artists. Every two seasons, in late Winter and late Summer, the city hosts the Yung An Freestyle Combat championships, a martial arts competition allowing any unarmed combat technique. Battles are fought to the knockout, and points are deducted for inflicting serious injuries. Killings result in automatic disqualification and manslaughter charges. The Freestyle is intended to be a contest between martial arts masters, not savage brutes.