Shaanxi


Shaanxi is a province in north Northwestern China bordering the province-level divisions of Inner Mongolia to the north; Shanxi and Henan to the east; Hubei, Chongqing, and Sichuan to the south; and Gansu and Ningxia to the west. Shaanxi covers an area of over with about 37 million people, the 16th-largest in China. Xi'an, which includes the sites of the former capitals Fenghao and Chang'anis the provincial capital and largest city in Northwest China and also one of the oldest cities in China. It is also the oldest of the Four Ancient Capitals, being the capital for the Western Zhou, Western Han, Jin, Sui and Tang dynasties. Xianyang, which served as the capital of the Qin dynasty, is just north across the Wei River. The other prefecture-level cities into which the province is divided are Ankang, Baoji, Hanzhong, Shangluo, Tongchuan, Weinan, Yan'an and Yulin.
The province is geographically divided into three parts, namely Northern, Central and Southern Shaanxi. Northern Shaanxi makes up the southeastern portion of the Ordos Basin and mainly comprises the two prefectural cities of Yulin and Yan'an on the northern Loess Plateau, demarcated from the Ordos Desert and the grasslands of Inner Mongolia's Ordos City by the Ming Great Wall. Central Shaanxi is also known as the Guanzhong region, and comprises the drainage basin of lower Wei River east of Mount Liupan and north of the Qinling Mountains, where the majority of Shaanxi's population reside. Southern Shaanxi comprises the three prefectural cities in the edge of the historical Bashu region south of the Qinling Mountains and includes the three mountainous cities of Hanzhong, Ankang and Shangluo.
The area comprising Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Henan formed the cradle of Chinese civilization. During the Republican era, the city of Yan'an was near the endpoint of the Long March by the Chinese Red Army, who fled from Jiangxi after the Chinese Soviet Republic was destroyed by the Kuomintang armies, and became the birthplace of the Chinese Communist Revolution from late 1935 to early 1947 and the Communists formed the Shaan-Gan-Ning Border Region in constituent parts of Shaanxi.
The vast majority of the population of Shaanxi is Han Chinese, with Hui, Manchu and Mongol being the more significant ethnic minorities. Mandarin Chinese is the main spoken language in Shaanxi, including Central Plains Mandarin and Southwestern Mandarin dialects; another variety of Chinese, Jin Chinese, is also spoken in the regions neighboring Shanxi.
Shaanxi is China's 15th largest economy, ranking within the middle tier among China's administrative divisions. The fossil fuel and high technology sectors compose the two largest industries in Shaanxi Province. The high technology sector includes aircraft and aerospace industries and Shaanxi produces more than 50% of the R&D and manufacturing equipment for the country's domestic commercial aviation industry.

Name

The meaning of the province, 'west of Shan', is attested, when the dukes of Shao and Zhou marked their borders along the Shan plateau. In Chinese typing, the toponym 陝 often got mixed up with 'valley' 陜. Simplified characters merged the two as 陕.
The romanizations of Shaanxi and its neighboring province Shanxi are troublesome in Beijing Mandarin because their pronunciation differs only in tone. To avoid confusion, mainland China recognized the Gwoyeu Romatzyh transcription for 陝, "Shaan".
Nonetheless, the vowels and consonants of 陝 and 山 are distinguished in the more conservative Jin Chinese languages native to the two provinces. This conservative phonology is reflected in the historical spelling of Shaanxi, "Shensi", known to the Europeans in the 18th century. "Shensi" was recognized in the 1906 Chinese postal romanization and continued to be popular until 1987, when the People's Republic of China banned romanizations made before their establishment.

History

Shaanxi is considered one of the cradles of Chinese civilization. Thirteen feudal dynasties established their capitals in the province during a span of more than 1,100 years, from the Zhou dynasty to the Tang dynasty.
The province's principal city and current capital, Xi'an, is one of the four great ancient capitals of China and is the eastern terminus of the Silk Road, which leads to Europe, the Arabian Peninsula, and Africa.
The region was briefly governed as the Three Qins after the fall of the Qin dynasty. This is the origin of one of Shaanxi's two abbreviations, 秦, the other being 陝. Then it was conquered by Liu Bang during the Chu-Han Contention. Under the Han dynasty, the Northern Silk Road was expanded to advance exploration and military purposes to the west. This Northern Silk Road is the northernmost of the Silk Roads and is about in length. It connected the ancient Chinese capital of Xi'an to the west over the Wushao Ling Pass to Wuwei and emerging in Kashgar before linking to ancient Parthia.
The Xiongnu-led kingdom Northern Xia set its capital in Tongwancheng.
The Northern Song dynasty and the Tangut-led Western Xia contested their border in Shaanxi. Western Xia found the Luōwùchéng frontier fort in 1071 but was taken by Song in 1081.
Under the Ming dynasty, Shaanxi was established with the founding of the Shaanxi Provincial Administration Commission in 1376, whose administration also included the modern provinces of Gansu, Ningxia, and part of Qinghai. During this dynasty, most visitors from Central and West Asia entered the country via Shaanxi.
One of the most devastating earthquakes in history occurred near Hua Shan in southeastern Shaanxi on January 23, 1556, killing an estimated 100,000 people and causing a regional reduction in population by an estimated 830,000 due to emigration and famine.
The end of the short-lived Jiangxi Soviet signaled the beginning of the Long March by Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communists to the Shaanxi Soviet at Yan'an.
The administrative evolution of Shaanxi: The Northern Song established the Shaanxi Lu, governed from modern Xi'an in 997. The Yuan dynasty established Shaanxi Province, governed by a Branch Secretariat in 1286. After the founding of the Qing dynasty, Gansu was split from Shaanxi, but both provinces were governed under the Viceroy of Shaan-Gan.

Prehistoric site

The Lantian Man site, with hominin fossils from approximately one million years ago, was found in Lantian County in northwestern Shaanxi province, near the city of Xi'an. Scientists classify Lantian Man as a subspecies of Homo erectus. The fossils are displayed at the Shaanxi History Museum, Xi'an, China.

Geography

The geography of the area is described as being part of the Ordos Desert in the north along the border with Inner Mongolia, the Loess Plateau in the central part of the province, the Qin Mountains running east to west in the south central part, and subtropical climate south of the Qinling. In between the Loess Plateau and the Qinling lies the Wei River Valley, or Guanzhong, a cradle of early Chinese civilization.
Going clockwise, Shaanxi borders Shanxi, Henan, Hubei, Chongqing, Sichuan, Gansu, Ningxia, and Inner Mongolia. In terms of number of bordering provincial-level divisions, Shaanxi ties Inner Mongolia.
Due to its large span in latitude, Shaanxi has a variety of climates. Under the Köppen climate classification, the northern parts, including the Loess Plateau, have either a cold arid or cold semi-arid, with cold and very dry winters, dry springs and autumns, and hot, humid summers. The area known as Guanzhong is mostly semi-arid, though there are a few areas with a humid subtropical climate, with cool to cold winters, and hot, humid summers that often see early-season heatwaves. The southern portion is much more humid and lies in the humid subtropical zone, with more temperate winters and long, hot, humid summers. Annual mean temperature is roughly between, with January temperatures ranging from and July temperatures ranging from.
Besides the provincial capital of Xi'an, other cities include: Baoji, Hanzhong, Lintong, Tongchuan, Xianyang, Yan'an and Ankang.

Administrative divisions

Shaanxi consists of ten prefecture-level divisions: all prefecture-level cities :
The ten prefecture-level cities of Shaanxi are subdivided into 107 county-level divisions.
#Cities2020 Urban area2010 Urban area2020 City proper
1Xi'an9,392,9385,206,25312,183,280
2Xianyang1,192,776730,7044,983,340
3Baoji1,107,702871,9403,321,853
4Yulin884,292429,1893,624,750
5Hanzhong673,476350,1673,211,462
6Weinan642,594347,4844,688,744
7Yan'an577,851336,8562,282,581
8Ankang514,068379,7072,493,436
9Tongchuan417,324463,866698,322
10Shenmu403,133see Yulin
11Xingping309,463247,539see Xianyang
12Hancheng268,583196,574see Weinan
13Shangluo228,426156,7812,041,231
14Yangling169,254104,944see Xianyang
15Binzhou160,298see Xianyang
16Zichang160,298see Yan'an
17Huayin109,472127,987see Weinan