1.
Shaanxi
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Shaanxi, formerly romanized as Shensi, is a province of the Peoples Republic of China. Officially part of the Northwest China region, it lies in central China, bordering the provinces of Shanxi, Henan, Hubei, Chongqing, Sichuan, Gansu, Ningxia and it covers an area of over 205,000 km2 with about 37 million people. Xian—which includes the sites of the former Chinese capitals Fenghao and Changan—is the provincial capital, Xianyang, which served as the Qin capital, is located nearby. The other prefecture-level cities into which the province is divided are Ankang, Baoji, Hanzhong, Shangluo, Tongchuan, Weinan, Yanan and Yulin. Shaanxi comprises the Wei Valley and much of the surrounding fertile Loess Plateau, stretching from the Qin Mountains and Shannan in the south to the Ordos Desert in the north. Along with areas of adjacent Shanxi and Henan, it formed the cradle of Chinese civilization, with its Guanzhong region sheltering the capitals of the Zhou, Qin, Han, Jin, Sui, and Tang dynasties. It does not include the territory of the Yellow Rivers Ordos Loop, with the Great Wall of China separating it from the grasslands. The name Shaanxi is a romanization of the Mandarin pronunciation of the Chinese name 陕西. Because the Mandarin pronunciation of Shaanxi and its eastern neighbor Shanxi differ only in tone, the Peoples Republic of China therefore adopted the special official spelling Shaanxi for occasions when such marks are omitted. The first syllable is derived from Gwoyeu Romatzyh romanization, which reflects the tones of the vowels in their spelling. The second syllable—which would be shi in Gwoyeu Romatzyh—is instead given its usual pinyin spelling xi, when tone marks are noted, it is spelled Shǎnxī rather than Shǎanxī or Shaǎnxī. 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. Under the Han Dynasty, the Northern Silk Road was expanded to advance exploration and this Northern Silk Road is the northernmost of the Silk Roads and is about 2,600 kilometres in length. It connected the ancient Chinese capital of Xian to the west over the Wushao Ling Pass to Wuwei, under the Ming dynasty, Shaanxi was incorporated into Gansu but was again separated in the Qing dynasty. One of the most devastating earthquakes in history occurred near Hua Shan, in part of Shaanxi Province on January 23,1556. The end of the short-lived Jiangxi Soviet signalled the beginning of the Long March by Mao Zedong, the Lantian Man site, with hominin fossils of one million years ago, was found in Lantian County in northwestern Shaanxi province, near the city of Xian. Scientists classify Lantian Man as a subspecies of Homo erectus, the fossils are displayed at the Shaanxi History Museum, Xian, China. 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
2.
Loess Plateau
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The Loess Plateau, also known as the Huangtu Plateau, is a 640,000 km² plateau located around the Wei River valley and the southern half of the Ordos Loop of the Yellow River in central China. It covers almost all of the provinces of Shaanxi and Shanxi and extends into parts of Gansu, Ningxia and its soil has been called most highly erodible. On earth and conservation efforts and land management are a focus of modern Chinese agriculture. The area is named for its most distinctive feature, the highly friable loess soil that has been deposited by wind storms over the ages. Historically the Loess Plateau has provided simple, insulated shelter from the winter and hot summer in the region. In medieval times people stayed here to grow rice, some still live in this kind of shelter in modern times. In ancient times, this region was an important center of the Silk Road, goods moving by caravan to the west included gold, rubies, jade, textiles, coral, ivory, and art works. In the opposite direction moved bronze weapons, furs, ceramics, during the 1556 Shaanxi earthquake,830,000 people were killed as a result of collapsing loess caves. The yaodongs that are best known to the world are perhaps those in Yanan where the Communist Party led by Mao Zedong headquartered in 1930s, when Edgar Snow, the author of Red Star Over China, visited Mao and his party, he lived in a yaodong. The plateau generally has a climate, with extensive monsoonal influence. Winters are cold and dry, while summers are very warm, rainfall tends to be heavily concentrated in summer, and the area receives extensive amounts of sunshine. The Loess Plateau was highly fertile and easy to farm in ancient times, centuries of deforestation and over-grazing, exacerbated by Chinas population increase, have resulted in degenerated ecosystems, desertification, and poor local economies. Many trees were planted and nature is now reclaiming a portion of the Loess Plateau, results have reduced the massive silt loads to the Yellow River by about one percent. The Loess Plateau was formed over long times, and scientists have derived valuable information about global climate change from samples taken from the deep layer of its silty soil
3.
Northwest A&F University
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Northwest A&F University, is a national key university located in Yangling Agricultural Hi-tech Industries Demonstration Zone, Shaanxi Province, P. R. China. This was the first national senior college with speciality on agriculture field in the north-west of China and was also the independent senior college of its kind. Yangling, where the university is located, is believed as the birthplace of Houji, God of Abundant Harvests, and is the area where he taught people how to grow and harvest cereals. Since 1934,7 academic institutions or universities resided here gradually, by April 2013, the university has 1661 teachers and 28964 students. Northwest A&F University provides courses covering agriculture, forestry, engineering, natural science, medicine, management and these courses are provided by 23 academic colleges. Students can choose one college to register and pursue their degrees at different levels including Bachelor, Master. Studentship and scholarship from governments and organizations are available to help students finish their studies, the 7 members involved in re-organization were very close to each other historically. Northwest Agricultural University has the biggest area and the longest history out of 7 members and are the origin of Institute of Water Resource Sciences, meanwhile, Department of Water Conservancy of National Lanzhou University （兰州大学） joined the College. Following the establishment of P. R. China in 1949, in 1952, Department of Agricultural Water Conservancy was partially given to Xian Jiaotong University （西安交通大学） under the order of The State Council. 2 years later, the remained Department of Agricultural Water Conservancy became an independent academic institution which is the mold of Institute of Water Resource Sciences, in 1979, Northwest Forestry College came out to be an independent school from Department of Forestry in Northwest Agricultural College. In 1985, with the approval of the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fishery, other institutions have relatively shorter history. Institute of Botany became an independent academy from Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, in 1980, Shaanxi Academy of Forestry got separated from Shaanxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences. The State Council agreed to merge 7 organizations as new Northwest A&F University in a reply to the proposal drafted by Ministry of Education and Shaanxi Province Government. A financial budget of 600,000,000 RMB was granted as start fund, on 11 September 1999, a central government delegation led by Vice Premier Li Lanqing attended the opening ceremony and made the announcement. Chancellor/Communist Party Committee Secretary since new A&F Chancellor 1999. 9－2003.8 Mr. Chen and these colleges, departments and schools are in charge of undergraduate studies, offering 3,000 courses. All of them are as below.94 km², covering two main campuses, North Campus and South Campus, a 3D virtual campus map of A&F has been generated and visitors can have a virtual tour around A&F campuses on http, //3dmap. nwsuaf. edu. cn. Although North Campus is mainly for undergraduates of other colleges, some move to North Campus for their research since they become the 2nd year students. On South Campus, Agriculture Science Building, Social Science Building, study and living environment will be greatly improved when these buildings are available
4.
Xi'an Jiaotong University
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Xian Jiaotong University is a Chinese C9 League university with strengths in engineering, technology, management, and public health located in Xian, Shaanxi, China. XJTUs twenty schools comprise a comprehensive research university offering programs in nine areas, science, engineering, medicine, economics, management, art, law, philosophy, XJTU houses five national key laboratories, four national special laboratories, and two national engineering research centers. XJTUs eight affiliated teaching hospitals include two ranked in Chinas top 100, XJTU began in Shanghai in 1896 as the Nanyang Public School through an imperial edict issued by the Guangxu Emperor, under the Business and Telegraphs Office of the imperial government. Four schools were established, a school, a school of foreign studies, a middle school. The university underwent a series of transitions, in 1904, the Ministry of Commerce took over the school, and in 1905 changed its name to Imperial Polytechnic College of the Commerce Ministry. In 1906, the college was placed under the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs, the Republic of China founded the School of Management in 1918. In 1920, the Government Institute of Technology of the Communications Ministry merged with two colleges and changed its name to Nan Yang College of Chiao Tung. In 1938, the Ministry of Education took over the university, during the anti-Japanese War, the university was moved to the French Concession and in 1940 the state-run branch of Jiaotong University was set up in Chongqing. In 1941, to prevent the Wang puppet government from taking over the university, in 1942, the Wang government took over Shanghai School. So the Education Department of Guomin Government chose Chongqing Branch as the headquarters of Jiaotong University, in 1943, the graduate school was founded. After the anti-Japanese War was won, Chongqing headquarter went back to Shanghai, in 1946, the name of state-run Jiaotong University was recovered. After the Kuomintang were defeated in 1949, a part of the faculty retreated to Taiwan with Chiang Kai-shek and, in 1958, the institution that remained in Shanghai was renamed Chiao Tung University to reflect the fact that all universities under the new socialist state would be public. In the 1950s, the romanization system was developed in Mainland China. In 1956, following the strategy, the major portion of Jiao Tong University moved to Xian, Shaanxi. In the same year, Xian Jiaotong University was listed as a key university in China, later, it became one of a handful of universities built according to the Seventh Five-Year Plan and Eighth Five-Year Plan. It was one of the universities that entered the construction of 211 project of China, in April 2000, approved by the State Council, Xian Medical University, Shaanxi Institute of Finance and Economics and Xian Jiaotong University were merged and formed the new Xian Jiaotong University. Notable faculty include Yu Mao-Hong, originator of unified strength theory, XJTUs 30,000 strong student body, including 15,000 graduate students, can pursue 84 undergraduate majors,200 masters degree disciplines, and 115 doctoral disciplines. Among these, eight are designated as first-order key disciplines by the Chinese government, XJTUs three campuses cover over 250 hectares
5.
Banpo
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Banpo is an archaeological site discovered in 1953 and located in the Yellow River Valley just east of Xian, China. It contains the remains of well organized Neolithic settlements carbon dated to 5600–6700 years ago. The area of 5 to 6 hectares is surrounded by a ditch, the houses were circular, built of mud and wood with overhanging thatched roofs. There appear to be communal burial areas, Banpo is the type site associated with Yangshao Culture. Archaeological sites with similarities to the first phase at Banpo are considered to be part of the “Banpo phase” of the Yangshao culture, Banpo was excavated from 1954 to 1957. The settlement was surrounded by a moat, with the graves, many of the houses were semisubterranean with the floor typically 1 meter below the ground surface. The houses were supported by poles and had steeply pitched thatched roofs. Currently, little can be said of the religious or political structure from these ruins from the archeological evidence, the site is now home to the Xian Banpo Museum, built in 1957 to preserve the archaeological collection. Banpo symbols Sanxingdui Cishan culture Nanzhuangtou Jiangzhai Yangguanzhai Allan, Sarah, The Formation of Chinese Civilization, An Archaeological Perspective, ISBN 0-300-09382-9 Chang, the Archaeology of Ancient China, ISBN 0-300-03784-8
6.
Mount Hua
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Mount Hua is a mountain located near the city of Huayin in Shaanxi province, about 120 kilometres east of Xian. It is the mountain of the Five Great Mountains of China. Originally classified as having three peaks, in times the mountain is classified as five main peaks, of which the highest is the South Peak at 2,154.9 metres. Mount Hua is situated in Huayin City, which is 120 kilometres from Xian. It is located near the southeast corner of the Ordos Loop section of the Yellow River basin, south of the Wei River valley, at the end of the Qin Mountains. It is part of the Qinling or Qin Mountains, which not only northern and southern Shaanxi. Traditionally, only the giant plateau with its summits to the south of the peak Wuyun Feng was called Taihua Shan and it could only be accessed through the ridge known as Canglong Ling until a second trail was built in the 1980s to go around Canglong Ling. Three peaks were identified with respective summits, the East, South, the East peak consists of four summits. The highest summit is Zhaoyang Feng and its elevation is reported to be 2,096 m and its name is often used as the name for the whole East Peak. To the east of Zhaoyang Feng is Shilou Feng, to the south is Botai Feng, today, Yunű Feng considered its own peak, most central on the mountain. The South peak consists of three summits, the highest summit is Luoyan Feng, with an elevation of 2,154 m. To the east is Songgui Feng, and to the west is Xiaozi Feng, the West peak has only one summit and it is known as Lianhua Feng or Furong Feng, both meaning Lotus Flower Summit. It is the lowest of the five peaks with an elevation of 1,614.9 m, as early as the 2nd century BCE, there was a Daoist temple known as the Shrine of the Western Peak located at its base. Daoists believed that in the lives the god of the underworld. The temple at the foot of the mountain was used for spirit mediums to contact the god. Huashan was also an important place for immortality seekers, as many herbal Chinese medicines are grown, kou Qianzhi, the founder of the Northern Celestial Masters received revelations there, as did Chen Tuan, who spent the last part of his life in hermitage on the west peak. In the 1230s, all the temples on the mountain came under control of the Daoist Quanzhen School, in 1998, the management committee of Huashan agreed to turn over most of the mountains temples to the China Daoist Association. This was done to protect the environment, as the presence of taoists
7.
Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor
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The Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor is located in Lintong District, Xian, Shaanxi province of China. This mausoleum was constructed over 38 years, from 246 to 208 BC, the layout of the mausoleum is modeled on the Qin capital Xianyang, divided into inner and outer cities. The circumference of the city is 2.5 km. The tomb is located in the southwest of the inner city, the main tomb chamber housing the coffin and burial artifacts is the core of the architectural complex of the mausoleum. The tomb itself has not yet been excavated, archaeological explorations currently concentrate on various sites of the extensive necropolis surrounding the tomb, including the Terracotta Army to the east of the tomb mound. The Terracotta Army served as a garrison to the mausoleum and has yet to be completely excavated, when the First Emperor first came to the throne, the digging and preparation work began at Mount Li. Later, when he had unified his empire,700,000 men were sent there from all over his empire and they dug through three layers of groundwater, and poured in bronze for the outer coffin. Palaces and scenic towers for a hundred officials were constructed, craftsmen were ordered to make crossbows and arrows primed to shoot at anyone who enters the tomb. Mercury was used to simulate the hundred rivers, the Yangtze and Yellow River, and the great sea, above were representation of the heavenly constellations, below, the features of the land. Candles were made from fat of man-fish, which is calculated to burn and not extinguish for a long time. The Second Emperor said, It would be inappropriate for the concubines of the emperor who have no sons to be out free, ordered that they should accompany the dead. After the burial, it was suggested that it would be a serious breach if the craftsmen who constructed the mechanical devices, trees and vegetations were then planted on the tomb mound such that it resembles a hill. Some scholars believe that the claim of having dug through three layers of groundwater to be figurative and it is also uncertain what the man-fish in the text refers to, interpretation of the term varies from whale to walrus and other aquatic animals such as giant salamander. Before the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor was completed, a peasant rebellion broke out during the late Qin dynasty, zhang Han redeployed all the 700,000 people building the mausoleum to suppress the rebellion, so the construction of the mausoleum ceased. After Xiang Yu entered Xianyang, he is said to have looted the tomb, afterwards, it is said that a shepherd unintentionally burnt down the underground palace of the mausoleum. The story goes that he went into a cave of the mausoleum, dug by Xiang Yu, to look for his sheep with a torch in his hand, and a fire was started, burning away all the remaining tomb structures. No solid evidence of this has found, and some scholars think that the mausoleum did not suffer any large-scale destruction. In 1987, the mausoleum, including the Terracotta Warriors, were listed as World Heritage Sites, at a depth of around two meters, they found hardened dirt, then red earthenware, fragments of terracotta, bronze arrowheads and terracotta bricks
8.
Drum Tower of Xi'an
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The Drum Tower of Xian, located in the heart of Xian in Shaanxi province of China, along with the Bell Tower is a symbol of the city. Erected in 1380 during the early Ming Dynasty, it stands towering above the city center, the Drum Tower got its name from the huge drum located within the building. In contrast to the Bell Tower, where bell was stricken at dawn, on the Drum Towers first floor, lies a hall which hangs many large drums. Each was decorated with intrinsic and beautiful Chinese writing, which symbolizes good fortune, the impressive arrays of drums are only on show and visitors are not allowed to touch any of them. But there is an extra drum near the front entrance where visitors can pose for pictures for a small fee, inside the Drum Tower there is also a drum museum, where a variety of drums are on display, some of which can be dated back thousands of years. There is a show performed here every day. The top of the commands a panoramic view of the city
9.
Shaanxi History Museum
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The museum houses over 370,000 items, including murals, paintings, pottery, coins, as well as bronze, gold, and silver objects. The modern museum was built between 1983 and 2001 and its appearance recalls the style of the Tang Dynasty. Shaanxi History Museum was constructed from 1983 and it was opened to the public on 20 June 1991. The museum is architecturally in the Tang style, with a hall in center and it is elegant and dignified, on a large scale, with a combination of traditional architecture and modern technology, which embodies folk tradition and local features. Shaanxi was the ancient imperial capital of China, having been the seat of more than 13 feudal dynasties, including the Zhou, Qin, Han, the province is rich in cultural relics. The relics have also been exhibited overseas in cities in Japan, France, the United States, the address of the museum is 91 East XiaoZhai Road, Xian, Shaanxi Province, China. List of museums in China Shaanxi History Museum website Shanxi History Museum information
10.
Pinyin
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Pinyin, or Hànyǔ Pīnyīn, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese in mainland China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan. It is often used to teach Standard Chinese, which is written using Chinese characters. The system includes four diacritics denoting tones, Pinyin without tone marks is used to spell Chinese names and words in languages written with the Latin alphabet, and also in certain computer input methods to enter Chinese characters. The pinyin system was developed in the 1950s by many linguists, including Zhou Youguang and it was published by the Chinese government in 1958 and revised several times. The International Organization for Standardization adopted pinyin as a standard in 1982. The system was adopted as the standard in Taiwan in 2009. The word Hànyǔ means the language of the Han people. In 1605, the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci published Xizi Qiji in Beijing and this was the first book to use the Roman alphabet to write the Chinese language. Twenty years later, another Jesuit in China, Nicolas Trigault, neither book had much immediate impact on the way in which Chinese thought about their writing system, and the romanizations they described were intended more for Westerners than for the Chinese. One of the earliest Chinese thinkers to relate Western alphabets to Chinese was late Ming to early Qing Dynasty scholar-official, the first late Qing reformer to propose that China adopt a system of spelling was Song Shu. A student of the great scholars Yu Yue and Zhang Taiyan, Song had been to Japan and observed the effect of the kana syllabaries. This galvanized him into activity on a number of fronts, one of the most important being reform of the script, while Song did not himself actually create a system for spelling Sinitic languages, his discussion proved fertile and led to a proliferation of schemes for phonetic scripts. The Wade–Giles system was produced by Thomas Wade in 1859, and it was popular and used in English-language publications outside China until 1979. This Sin Wenz or New Writing was much more sophisticated than earlier alphabets. In 1940, several members attended a Border Region Sin Wenz Society convention. Mao Zedong and Zhu De, head of the army, both contributed their calligraphy for the masthead of the Sin Wenz Societys new journal. Outside the CCP, other prominent supporters included Sun Yat-sens son, Sun Fo, Cai Yuanpei, the countrys most prestigious educator, Tao Xingzhi, an educational reformer. Over thirty journals soon appeared written in Sin Wenz, plus large numbers of translations, biographies, some contemporary Chinese literature, and a spectrum of textbooks
11.
Yan'an
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Yanan is a prefecture-level city in the Shanbei region of Shaanxi province, China, bordering Shanxi to the east and Gansu to the west. It administers several counties, including Zhidan, which served as the headquarters of the Chinese Communists before the city of Yanan proper took that role, Yanan was near the endpoint of the Long March, and became the center of the Chinese Communist revolution from 1936 to 1948. Chinese communists celebrate Yanan as the birthplace of the revolution, in medieval China, Yanan was once called Yanzhou, a location of strategic military importance for the Chinese empire and Tanguts of the Western Xia Dynasty. It was once defended by the Song Dynasty era Chinese scientist, statesman. However, it was taken over by the Tanguts in 1082 once Shens defensive victories were marginalized and sacrificed by the new Chancellor Cai Que. Yanan and the whole of Shaanxi were taken over by the Mongols in the late 1220s, the city was maintained by the successive Chinese Ming Dynasty, as well as the Manchu Qing Dynasty. After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the city part of the newly created Republic of China. In December 1936, at the start of the Second United Front and they had arrived in the area in October 1935 after making the famous Long March from Jiangxi. When Edgar Snow went there in 1936, it was under Kuomintang control, unknown to him at the time, there had also been contacts there between the Communists and the generals who later staged the Xian Incident. Snow actually met Mao at Baoan, having rebelled against Chiang, the local warlords decided to hand over Yanan to the Communists, who were now allies. They pulled out and the Red Army walked in without a fight and this is described by Agnes Smedley in her book Battle Hymn of China. She was in Xian at the time and got to Yanan shortly after the take-over, from 1937, Yanan became the seat of the communist government of what became known as the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region. It became the center for training of party members and army troops. In 1941, Mao Zedong put special influence on a series of training programs to correct unorthodox tendencies, one of the first CPC programs launched was the Yanan Rectification Movement. While Yanan was the center of Chinese communist life many prominent Western journalists including Edgar Snow and Anna Louise Strong met with Mao Zedong, hsiao Li and Michael Lindsay were part of the resistance movement. During the Second World War, Yanan played host to the United States Army Observation Group, in addition to establishing relations, the goal was to investigate the Communist Party politically and militarily, and determine if the U. S. would benefit from establishing liaison. John S. Service, of the United States Department of State, was responsible for political analysis, the mission explored possible plans for cooperation against the Japanese. The Americans had a presence in Yanan from 1944 to 1947, Yanan was briefly captured in the Battle of Yanan by the Kuomintang forces in the Chinese Civil War
