Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see § Name) is a landlocked province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichuan (SW), Gansu (W), Ningxia (NW) and Inner Mongolia (N).
Shaanxi covers an area of over with about 37 million people, the 16th highest in China. Xi'an – which includes the sites of the former Chinese capitals Fenghao and Chang'an – is the provincial capital as well as the largest city in Northwest China and also one of the oldest cities in China and the oldest of the Four Great Ancient Capitals, being the capital for the Western Zhou, Western Han, Jin, Sui and Tang dynasties. Xianyang, which served as the Qin dynasty capital, is just north across 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 (or "Shaanbei") 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 (or "Shaanzhong") is also known as the Guanzhong region and comprises the drainage basin of lower Wei River east of Mount Long and north of the Qinling Mountains, where the majority of Shaanxi's population reside. Southern Shaanxi (or "Shaannan") 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.
Along with areas of adjacent Shanxi and Henan provinces, it formed the cradle of the Chinese civilization. In the Republican era of China, 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 were 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 (>99%), with Hui, Manchu and Mongol being the more significant ethnic minorities. Mandarin Chinese is the main spoken language in Shaanxi, including Zhongyuan 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, "Shan's west", traces to circa 1000 BC when the Dukes of Shao and Zhou marked their borders along Shan plateau (, now Zhanbian plateau). In Chinese typing, the toponym often got mixed up with "valley" (note: distinguish and ). Simplified characters merged the two as .
The alphabet rendering of and its neighboring province are troublesome in Beijing Mandarin, which pronounces both as [ʂan ɕi] only with a different tone (rendered as Shǎnxī and Shānxī in pinyin transcription, 1958). To avoid confusion, mainland China recognized the Gwoyeu Romatzyh transcription (1928) for , "Shaan".
Nonetheless, the vowels and consonants of and are distinguished in the more conservative Jin Chinese languages native to the two provinces, as shown on the chart to the right (refer to IPA for Jin Chinese for further information). These conservative phonology are reflected on the historical spelling of Shaanxi, "Shensi", known to the Europeans in the 18th century. "Shensi" was recognized in the 1906 Chinese postal romanization. "Shensi" continued to be popular until 1987 when the PRC banned pre-PRC romanizations.
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.