General Introduction

Shaanxi in tile middle reaches of the Yellow River in the eastern part of northwest China is one of the cradles of the Chinese nation where 13 dynasties made their national capital. Yanan and some of the other places in northern Shaanxi were the seat of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party from October 1935 to 1948. Shaanxi has an area of more than 190,000 square kilometers and a population of 28.31 million, of which 18.4 per cent live in the cities and 81.6 per cent in the rural areas. Most of Shaanxi's population lives in the Weihe Plain and the Hanshui Valleyland.

Scenic Spots

Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor
Mountain hua
Xi'an -- 'Cradle of Chinese Civilization'
Yan'an -- Symbol of the Chinese Revolution
Silk Road Starts in the Old Capitals of Luoyang and Xian (then called Chang'an)

Topography

Shaanxi has a varied terrain. In the north are plateaus, in the middle plains and in the south mountain areas. 1) The Northern Shaanxi Plateau is the middle part of the Loess Plateau, comprising the whole of northern Shaanxi. Except for scattered stony and rocky mountains, most of it is covered with a deep layer of loess. Here vegetation is sparse and erosion over the centuries has brought about a varied loess land formation. 2) The Guanzhong Plain, also known as the Weihe Plain or the Guanzhong Basin, is 30-80 km. by 300 km. and crossed by the Weihe and its tributaries, the Jinghe and Beiluo rivers. With fertile soil, abundant farm produce, large population and convenient communications, the area is one of the country's important industrial-agricultural centers. 3) The Southern Shaanxi Mountain Area, also known as the Qinba Mountain Area, includes the Qinling and Daba ranges and the Hanshui Valleyland between them. Rising more than 2,000 meters above sea level, the Qinling range is the major watershed of the Yellow and Yangtze river valleys and an important geographical divide between northern and southern China. Mount Taibai, its main peak, is 3,767 meters in elevation, and Huashan Mountain in the eastern rim is one of the country's five sacred mountains. The Daba range on the Shaanxi-Sichuan border is the boundary range between the Hanzhong and Sichuan basins. The Hanshui Valleyland is interspersed with canyons and basins, of which the Hanzhong Basin is a known farming area. The Huanghe creates numerous gorges as it flows along between Shaanxi and Shanxi. Its tributaries, the Wuding, Yanhe, Luohe, Jinghe and Weihe rivers, flow past the Loess Plateau and carry large quantities of mud and silt with them as they empty into the Yellow River. The Hanshui River, the longest tributary of the Yangtze River, rises in the southwest, flows past the Qinba Mountain Area then eastward to Hubei where it merges with the Yangtze.

Climate

Shaanxi has a continental monsoonal climate, with great difference between the areas north and south of the Qinling range. It has a mean annual temperature of 5.9ºC-15.7ºC, increasing from north to south, and a mean annual precipitation less in the north than in the south: 340-600 mm. in northern Shaanxi, 570-700 mm. in the Guanzhong Plain and 800-1,210 mm. in southern Shaanxi.




Communications

Shaanxi has 13 main and feeder railways. The Xi'an Railway Station has 12 marshalling yards. It is a transportation hub in the northwestern region linking with the northwest, southwest, the east, and the north of China. The new Eurasian Continental Bridge from China's Lianyungang to the Netherlands' Rotterdam passes through the province. A new railway running north and south is under construction and will solve the transportation bottleneck in northern and southern Shaanxi.

Highway

The province is constructing a highway transportation network comprised of nine national highways with Xi'an at the core. The province has a total expressway length of 385 kilometers, and the highways now reach 95 percent of the villages.

Airport

The Xianyang Airport is the largest air hub in northwest China, and the expansion of the airport has been started. The province has opened 119 domestic and international air routes and has flights to 51 cities in China.