Not to be confused with the neighboring province of Shanxi

陕西省
Shǎnxī Shěng

Abbreviations: 陕 or 秦 (pinyin: Shǎn or Qín)
Origin of Name	陕 shǎn - Shan County 西 xī - west "west of Shan County, Henan"
Administration Type	Province
Capital and Largest City	Xi'an
CPC Shaanxi Committee Secretary	Li Jianguo
Governor	Chen Deming
Area	205,800 km² (11th)
Population (2002)  - Density	36,740,000 (17th) 179/km² (22nd)
GDP (2002)  - per capita	203.6 billion ¥ (21st) 5542 ¥ (27th)
Major Nationalities (2000)	Han - 99.5% Hui - 0.4%
Prefecture-level divisions	10
County-level divisions	107
Township-level divisions	1744
ISO 3166-2	CN-61

Shaanxi (Simplified Chinese: 陕西; Traditional Chinese: 陝西; pinyin: Shǎnxī; Wade-Giles: Shan-hsi; Postal System Pinyin: Shensi, pronounced like "Shahn-shee") is a northwestern province of the People's Republic of China, and includes portions of the Loess Plateau on the middle reaches of the Yellow River as well as the Qinling Mountains across the southern part of the province.

By regular Hanyu Pinyin rules, both Shaanxi and the neighbouring province of Shanxi should be spelled as "Shanxi", and the difference is in tone: Shānxī and Shǎnxī. To make the difference clear even without tonal marks, the spelling "Shaanxi" was contrived for the province of Shǎnxī, while "Shanxi" is used for the province of Shānxī.

History

See also: Chang'an, Zhou Dynasty, Qin Dynasty, Han Dynasty, Sui Dynasty and Tang Dynasty

Geography

Desert in the north along the border with Inner Mongolia, the Loess Plateau in the central part of the province, the Qinling mountains running east to west in the south central part, and subtropical climate south of the Qinling mountains.

Other cities include: Baoji, Hanzhong, Lintong, Tongchuan, Xianyang, Yan'an, Ankang.

Economy

Demographics

Culture

• Qinqiang, the representative folk opera of Shaanxi

Tourism

• The city of Xi'an: City Walls, Great Mosque, Bell Tower and Drum Tower, Forest of Stone Steles Museum, Shaanxi History Museum, Wild Goose Pagoda
• Mausoleum and Terracotta Army Museum of the First Qin Emperor in Xi'an (World Heritage Site)
• Banpo Neolithic village, near Xi'an
• Imperial mausoleums
  • Zhao Mausoleum
• Daqin Pagoda
• Yan'an, the destination of the Long March and the center of Chinese Communist revolution from 1935 to 1948
• Mt. Huashan, one of the five most famous mountains in China. Mt. Taibaishan, the peak of Range Qinling.

Miscellaneous topics

Professional sports teams based in Shaanxi include:

• Chinese Football Association Jia League
  • Xi'an Anxinyuan
  • Shaanxi Guoli
• Chinese Basketball Association
  • Shaanxi Dongsheng Kylins

The most devastating earthquake in history occurred near Hua Shan, in south-eastern part of Shaanxi Province on January 24, 1556, killing an estimated 830,000 people. (See 1556 Shaanxi earthquake)

External links