Geography and climate
Shanxi borders Hebei to the east, Henan to the south, Shaanxi to the west, and Inner Mongolia to the north. The capital of the province is Taiyuan.
Shanxi is located on a plateau, which is in turn made up of higher ground to the east (Taihang Mountains) and the west (Lüliang Mountains), and a series of valleys in the center through which the Fen River runs. The highest peak is Mount Wutai in northeastern Shanxi at an altitude of 3058 m. The Great Wall of China forms most of the northern border of Shanxi with Inner Mongolia.
The Huang He (Yellow River) forms the western border of Shanxi with Shaanxi. The Fen and Qin rivers, tributaries of the Huang He, run north-to-south through the province, and drain much of its area. The north of the province is drained by tributaries of the Hai River, such as Sanggan and Hutuo rivers. The largest natural lake in Shanxi is Xiechi Lake, a salt lake near Yuncheng in southwestern Shanxi.
Shanxi has a continental monsoon climate, and is rather arid. Average January temperatures are below 0 °C(32℉), while average July temperatures are around 21 - 26 °C(38-47℉). Annual precipitation averages around 350-700 mm, with 60% of it concentrated between June and August.


History
Shanxi was the location of the powerful state of Jin during the Spring and Autumn Period , which underwent a three-way split into the states of Han, Zhao and Wei in 403 BC, the traditional date taken as the start of the Warring States Period. By 221 BC all of these states had fallen to the state of Qin, which established the Qin Dynasty.
The Han Dynasty ruled Shanxi as the province of Bingzhou. During the Tang Dynasty and after, the area was called Hedong,, or "east of the (Yellow) river".
During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, Shi Jingtang, founder of the Later Jin Dynasty, the third of the Five Dynasties, ceded a large slice of northern China to the Khitans in return for military assistance. This territory, called The Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, included a part of northern Shanxi.
During the Northern Song Dynasty, the sixteen ceded prefectures continued to be an area of hot contention between Song China and the Liao Dynasty. The Southern Song Dynasty that came after abandoned all of North China to the Jurchen Jin Dynasty in 1127, including Shanxi.
The Yuan Dynasty divided China into provinces but did not establish Shanxi as a province. Shanxi was formally established with its present name and approximate borders by the Ming Dynasty. During the Qing Dynasty, Shanxi was extended northwards beyond the Great Wall to include parts of Inner Mongolia, including what is now the city of Hohhot, and overlapped with the jurisdiction of the Eight Banners and the Guihua Tümed banner in that area.
After the overthrow of the Qing dynasty, Shanxi was held by warlord Yan Xishan. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Japan occupied much of the province after defeating China in the Battle of Taiyuan. Shanxi was also a major battlefield between the Japanese and the Chinese communist guerrillas of the Eighth Route Army during the war.
After the defeat of Japan, much of the Shanxi countryside became important bases for the People’s Liberation Army in the ensuing Chinese Civil War. Yan had incorporated thousands of former Japanese soldiers among his own forces, and these soldiers became part of his failed defense of Taiyuan against the People’s Liberation Army in early 1949.


Shanxi is a province in the northern part of the People’s Republic of China, which has an area of 60,700 sq mi (157,100 sq km).Its one-character abbreviation is Jin, after the state of Jin that existed here during the Spring and Autumn Period.
Shanxi’s name literally means "mountains’ west", which refers to the province’s location west of the Taihang Mountains.
Administrative divisions
Shanxi is divided into eleven prefecture-level divisions, all of them prefecture-level cities:
• Taiyuan
• Datong
• Yangquan
• Changzhi
• Jincheng
• Shuozhou
• Jinzhong
• Yuncheng
• Xinzhou
• Linfen
• Lüliang
The 11 prefecture-level divisions of Shanxi are subdivided into 119 county-level divisions (23 districts, 11 county-level cities, and 85 counties). Those are in turn divided into 1388 township-level divisions (561 towns, 634 townships, and 193 subdistricts).


Culture
People in most regions of Shanxi speak dialects of Jin, a subdivision of spoken Chinese. However, dialects in the southwest, near the border with Henan and Shaanxi, are classified as part of the Zhongyuan Mandarin subdivision of the Mandarin group rather than Jin. In terms of characteristics, Jin dialects are generally distinguished by their retention of the entering tone from Middle Chinese. In this respect they are unique in all of northern China, as most of the surrounding Mandarin dialects (spoken over the remainder of northern China) have lost it. (In central and southern China, it is much more common for the entering tone to be kept.) Jin is also noted for extremely complex tone sandhi systems.
Shanxi cuisine is most well known for its extensive use of vinegar as a condiment and for its noodles. A dish originating from Taiyuan is the Taiyuan Tounao. It is a soup brewed using mutton, shanyao, lotus roots, astragalus membranaceus (黄芪, membranous milk vetch), tuber onions, as well as cooking liquor for additional aroma. It can be enjoyed by dipping pieces of unleavened cake into the soup, and is reputed to have medicinal properties.
Shanxi Opera is a popular form of Chinese opera in Shanxi. It was popularized during the late Qing Dynasty, with the help of the then-ubiquitous Shanxi merchants who were active across parts of China. Also called Zhonglu Bangzi, it is a type of bangzi opera, a group of operas generally distinguished by their use of wooden clappers for rhythm and by a more energetic singing style; Shanxi opera is also complemented by quzi, a blanket term for more melodic styles from further south. Puzhou Opera, from southern Shanxi, is a more ancient type of bangzi that makes use of very wide linear intervals.
Shanxi merchants constituted a historical phenomenon that lasted for centuries from the Song to the Qing Dynasty. Shanxi merchants ranged far and wide from Central Asia to the coast of eastern China; by the Qing Dynasty they were conducting trade across both sides of the Great Wall. During the late Qing Dynasty, a new development occurred: the creation of piaohao, which were essentially small banks that provided services like money transfers and transactions, deposits, loans, and so on. After the establishment of the first piaohao in Pingyao, the bankers of Shanxi enjoyed nearly one hundred years of financial dominance across China before being eclipsed by the rise of modern, larger banks.


Economy
Important crops in Shanxi include wheat, maize, millet, legumes, and potatoes. Agriculture in Shanxi is greatly limited by Shanxi’s arid climate and dwindling water resources.
Shanxi contains 260 billion metric tonnes of known coal deposits, about one third of China’s total. As a result, Shanxi is a leading producer of coal in China, with annual production exceeding 300 million metric tonnes. The Datong, Ningwu, Xishan, Hedong, Qinshui, and Huoxi coalfields are some of the most important in Shanxi. Shanxi also contains about 500 million tonnes of bauxite deposits, about one third of total Chinese bauxite reserves.
Industry in Shanxi is centered on heavy industries such as coal and chemical production, power generation, and metal refining.
Ethnic group
The population is mostly Han Chinese with minorities of Mongol, Manchu, and Hui.
Tourism
Tourist destinations in Shanxi include:
• The Ancient City of Pingyao is a World Heritage Site near Taiyuan. Once a great financial center of China, it is noted for its preservation of many features of northern Han Chinese culture, architecture, and way of life during the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
• The Yungang Grottoes, a World Heritage Site in Datong, consist of 252 caves noted for their collection of 5th and 6th century Buddhist grotto sculptures and reliefs.
• Mount Wutai (Wutai Shan) is the highest point in the province. It is known as the residence of the bodhisattva Manjusri, and as a result is also a major Buddhist pilgrimage destination, with many temples and natural sights.
• Mount Hengshan (Heng Shan), in Hunyuan County, is one of the "Five Great Peaks" of China, and is also a major Taoist site. Not far from Heng Shan, the Hanging Temple is located on the side of a cliff and has survived for 1400 years despite earthquakes in the area.
• Yingxian Pagoda, in Ying County, is a pagoda built in 1056. It is octagonal with nine levels (five are visible from outside), and at 67m, it is currently the tallest wooden pagoda in the world.
• Hukou Waterfall is located in the Yellow River on the Shanxi-Shaanxi border. At 50 meters high it is the second highest waterfall in China.