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115-463: Taiyuan ( Taiyuan Jin : /tʰai˦˥ ye˩˩/) is the capital of Shanxi , China. Taiyuan is the political, economic, cultural and international exchange center of Shanxi Province. It is an industrial base focusing on energy and heavy chemicals. Throughout its long history, Taiyuan was the capital or provisional capital of many dynasties in China, hence the name Lóngchéng ( 龙城 ; Dragon City ). As of 2021,

230-580: A Xianbei kingdom, which had one of its earlier capitals at present-day Datong in northern Shanxi, and which went on to rule nearly all of northern China. The Tang dynasty (618–907) originated in Taiyuan. During the Tang dynasty and after, present day Shanxi was called Hédōng ( 河東 ), or "east of the (Yellow) river". Empress Wu Zetian , one of China's only female rulers, was born in Shanxi in 624. During

345-545: A continental monsoon climate, and is rather arid. Average January temperatures are below 0 °C, while average July temperatures are around 21–26 °C. Winters are long, dry, and cold, while summer is warm and humid. Spring is extremely dry and prone to dust storms. Shanxi is one of the sunniest parts of China; early summer heat waves are common. Annual precipitation averages around 350 to 700 millimetres (14 to 28 in), with 60% of it concentrated between June and August. Major cities: The outline of Shanxi's territory

460-414: A body of teaching and publication in modern Chinese medicine that became one of the foundations of the national institution of modern traditional Chinese medicine that was adopted in the 1950s. Yan invested in Shanxi's industrial infrastructure, and by 1949 the area around Taiyuan was a major national producer of coal, iron, chemicals, and munitions. Yan was able to protect the province from his rivals for

575-513: A convenient representative of Jin because many studies of this dialect are available, but most linguists agree that the Taiyuan vocabulary is heavily influenced by Mandarin, making it unrepresentative of Jin. The Lüliang group is usually regarded as the "core" of the Jin language group as it preserves most archaic features of Jin. However, there is no consensus as to which dialect among the Lüliang group

690-481: A few linguists discovered some unique features of Jin Chinese that do not exist in other northern Mandarin dialects, planting the seeds for the future independence of Jin Chinese. Finally, in 1985, Li Rong proposed that Jin should be considered a separate top-level dialect group, similar to Yue or Wu . His main criterion was that Jin dialects had preserved the entering tone as a separate category, still marked with

805-505: A glottal stop as in the Wu dialects, but distinct in this respect from most other Mandarin dialects. Some linguists have adopted this classification. However, others disagree that Jin should be considered a separate dialect group for these reasons: The Language Atlas of China divides Jin into the following eight groups: The Taiyuan dialect from the Bingzhou group is sometimes taken as

920-571: A large, fortified prison complex filled with Communist prisoners. In a final act of desperation, Liang set fire to the prison and committed suicide as the entire compound burned to the ground. Soon after the Chinese Communist Revolution , Mao Zedong assigned Kang Sheng to carry out land reform in Shanxi. Kang encouraged the populace to have numerous farmers from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds denounced as "landlords," beaten, arrested, and executed. In some areas of

1035-436: A major part of Shanxi's economy. Shanxi possesses 260 billion metric tons of known coal deposits, about a third of China's total. As a result, Shanxi is a leading producer of coal in China and has more coal companies than any other province, with an annual production exceeding 300 million metric tonnes. The Datong ( 大同 ), Ningwu ( 宁武 ), Xishan ( 西山 ), Hedong ( 河东 ), Qinshui ( 沁水 ), and Huoxi ( 霍西 ) coalfields are some of

1150-620: A quarter of China's coal, and Taiyuan is the location of the China Taiyuan Coal Transaction Center , which began trading in 2012. Taiyuan is one of the transportation hubs in North China, with highways linking neighboring provincial capitals, and airlines to most other major Chinese cities and some international cities. Jin Chinese After the concept of Mandarin Chinese was proposed,

1265-505: A secret headquarters in Taiyuan. Yan, under the slogan "resistance against the enemy and defense of the soil", attempted to recruit young patriotic intellectuals to his government from across China. By 1936 Taiyuan became a gathering point for anti-Japanese intellectuals who had fled from Beijing , Tianjin , and Northeast China . A representative of the Japanese army, speaking of the final defense of Taiyuan, said that "nowhere in China have

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1380-505: A separate tone class, traditionally called the " entering tone ". Syllables closed with a glottal stop in Jin are still toneless, or alternatively, Jin can be said to still maintain the entering tone. In standard Mandarin Chinese, syllables formerly ending with a glottal stop have been reassigned to one of the other tone classes in a seemingly random fashion . Jin employs extremely complex tone sandhi , or tone changes that occur when words are put together into phrases. The tone sandhi of Jin

1495-665: A significant trading center, due to its political and economical status in Shanxi. In 1900, the Taiyuan Massacre occurred, during which a number of Western missionaries were killed. The warlord Yan Xishan retained control of Shanxi from the Xinhai Revolution in 1911 to the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. Taiyuan consequently flourished as the center of his comparatively progressive province and experienced extensive industrial development. It

1610-500: A small force of 6,000 men to hold off the entire Japanese army. A representative of the Japanese Army, speaking of the final defense of Taiyuan , said that "nowhere in China have the Chinese fought so obstinately". The Japanese suffered 30,000 dead and an equal number wounded in their effort to take northern Shanxi. A Japanese study found that the battles of Pingxingguan, Xinkou, and Taiyuan were responsible for over half of all

1725-513: A temperate monsoon climate. Spring is dry, with occasional dust storms , followed by early summer heat waves . Summer tends to be warm to hot with most of the year's rainfall concentrated in July and August. Winter is long and cold, but dry and sunny. Because of the aridity, there tends to be considerable diurnal variation in temperature , except during the summer. The weather is much cooler than comparable-latitude cities, such as Shijiazhuang , due to

1840-556: A two-way distinction between "this" and "that", with "yon" being archaic.) Lexical diversity in Jin Chinese is obvious, with some words having a very distinct regionality. Usually, there are more unique words in the core dialects than in the non-core dialects and moreover, some cannot be represented in Chinese characters. Shanxi Shanxi is a province in Northwestern China . Its capital and largest city of

1955-539: A width of 385 km (239 mi) from east to west, with a total area of 156,700 km (60,500 sq mi), accounting for 1.6% of the country's total area. Shanxi is divided into eleven prefecture-level divisions : all prefecture-level cities : The 11 prefecture-level cities of Shanxi are subdivided into 118 county-level divisions (23 districts , 11 county-level cities , and 84 counties ). Those are in turn divided into 1388 township-level divisions (561 towns , 634 townships , and 193 subdistricts ). At

2070-515: Is a leading producer of coal in China , possessing roughly a third of China's total coal deposits. Nevertheless, Shanxi's GDP per capita remains below the national average. The province hosts the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center . The province is also known for having by far the largest number of historic buildings among all Chinese provinces, by possessing over 70% of China's surviving buildings built during or predating

2185-428: Is a parallelogram that runs from southwest to northeast. It is a typical mountain plateau widely covered by loess . The terrain is high in the northeast and low in the southwest. The interior of the plateau is undulating, the valleys are vertical and horizontal, and the types of landforms are complex and diverse. There are mountains, hills, terraces, plains, and rivers. The area of mountains and hills accounts for 80.1% of

2300-547: Is especially common in Jin. This may be a kind of reservation for double-initials in Old Chinese , although this is still controversial. For example, the character 孔 (pronounced /kʰoːŋ/ in Mandarin) which appears more often as 窟窿 /kʰuəʔ luŋ/ in Jin, had the pronunciation like /kʰloːŋ/ in Old Chinese . Some dialects of Jin make a three-way distinction in demonstratives . (Modern English, for example, has only

2415-440: Is from north to south and from basin to high mountain. The annual precipitation in the whole province is between 358 and 621 mm, and the seasonal distribution is uneven. In June–August, the precipitation is relatively concentrated, accounting for about 60% of the annual precipitation, and the precipitation distribution in the province is greatly affected by the terrain. The province has a length of 682 km (424 mi) and

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2530-585: Is notable in two ways among Chinese varieties: Jin readily employs prefixes such as 圪 /kəʔ/ , 黑 /xəʔ/ , 忽 /xuəʔ/ , and 入 (日) /ʐəʔ/ , in a variety of derivational constructions. For example: 入 鬼 "fool around" < 鬼 "ghost, devil" In addition, there are a number of words in Jin that evolved, evidently, by splitting a mono-syllabic word into two, adding an 'l' in between (cf. Ubbi Dubbi , but with /l/ instead of /b/ ). For example: A similar process can in fact be found in most Mandarin dialects (e.g. 窟窿 kulong < 孔 kong), but it

2645-576: Is now the city of Hohhot , and overlapped with the jurisdiction of the Eight Banners and the Guihua Tümed banner in that area. For centuries, Shanxi served as a center for trade and banking. The " Shanxi merchants " were once synonymous with wealth. The well-preserved city and UNESCO World Heritage Site Pingyao shows many signs of its economic importance during the Qing dynasty. With

2760-413: Is possible that decades of Yan's socialist indoctrination may have prepared the people of Shanxi for Communist rule. After the death of Mao, the experiment was discontinued, and most peasants reverted to private farming under post-Maoist economic reforms . Shanxi is located on a plateau made up of higher ground to the east ( Taihang Mountains ) and the west ( Lüliang Mountains ) and a series of valleys in

2875-475: Is the largest production site of metallurgical coal in China. The tree population in Taiyuan is dominated by coniferous forest, pine , white pine , spruce , and cypress . Taiyuan belongs to the warm temperate continental monsoon climate, with long, dry and cold winters, hot and humid summers, short and windy spring and autumn, and distinct dry and wet seasons. Taiyuan experiences a cold semi-arid climate ( Köppen climate classification BSk ). Taiyuan has

2990-594: Is the representative dialect. Unlike most varieties of Mandarin , Jin has preserved a final glottal stop , which is the remnant of a final stop consonant ( /p/ , /t/ or /k/ ). This is in common with the Early Mandarin of the Yuan dynasty (c. 14th century AD) and with a number of modern southern varieties of Chinese. In Middle Chinese, syllables closed with a stop consonant had no tone. However, Chinese linguists prefer to categorize such syllables as belonging to

3105-537: The Commandery of Taiyuan ( 太原郡 ), with the city of Jinyang as its administrative center. Although, the name Taiyuan had appeared in historic records before, potentially referring to different regions in nowadays southern and central Shanxi , this was the first time Taiyuan was officially used to refer to present-day Taiyuan. Between 229 and 228 BC, Qin General Li Xin lead two armies that marched from

3220-517: The Fen River leaves the mountains and enters a relatively flat plain. Throughout its long history, the city had various names, including Bīngzhōu ( 并州 ) (from which the city's abbreviated single-character name Bīng ( 并 ) is derived), Jìnyáng ( 晋阳 ) and Lóngchéng ( 龙城 ). During the Tang dynasty and subsequent Five Dynasties , the status of the city of Taiyuan was elevated to be

3335-678: The Jin-Song wars . The Mongol Yuan dynasty administered China into provinces but did not establish Shanxi as a province. Shanxi only gained its present name and approximate borders during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) which were of the same land area and borders as the previous Hedong Commandery of the Tang dynasty. During the Qing dynasty (1644–1911), Shanxi extended north beyond the Great Wall to include parts of Inner Mongolia , including what

3450-524: The Khitan state of Liao . Using the north-western route instead of the southern (used in the previous campaigns) the armies of Taizong defeated a major Liao force. Isolated, the Northern Han resisted for only fifteen days before surrendering. In contrast to the mild policies of his brother, Taizong dealt harshly with the city. He ordered the flooding of Taiyuan by releasing the Fen River , and set

3565-589: The Nationalist government until 1949. Early in Yan's rule he decided that, unless he was able to modernize and revive the economy of his small, poor, remote province, he would be unable to protect Shanxi from rival warlords. Yan devoted himself to modernizing Shanxi and developing its resources during his reign over the province. He has been viewed by Western biographers as a transitional figure who advocated using Western technology to protect Chinese traditions, while at

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3680-515: The Qing dynasty and defeated the Great Shun Army in Taiyuan in the same year. Throughout the Qing dynasty, the international trade with Russia, especially of tea, and the creation and development of so-called draft banks, or Piaohao , boosted the central Shanxi basin to become the financial center of Qing China. Even though most of these Piaohao were based in different neighboring counties of Qi County , Taigu , and Yuci , Taiyuan became

3795-516: The Song dynasty and embarked on the campaign of re-unification of China. Using a power struggle at the Northern Han court Taizu moved against it in the late 968. By early 969 his armies encircled Taiyuan and defeated the reinforcements sent by the Khitan . However, an attempt to flood the city failed. The siege was lifted after three months, as heavy rains caused diseases in the besieging army,

3910-751: The Song dynasty . Also notable are the Yungang Grottoes in Datong, which date back over 1500 years. In the Spring and Autumn period ( c.  770  – c.  481 BC ), the state of Jin was located in what is now Shanxi. It underwent a three-way split into the states of Han , Zhao , and Wei in 403 BC, a traditional date sometimes taken as the start of the Warring States period ( c.  473  – 221 BC). By 221 BC, all of these states had fallen to

4025-464: The Xiongnu state of Former Zhao , whose army raided the area around Taiyuan for years and eventually obtained Taiyuan in 316. In 319, Taiyuan became part of Later Zhao , founded by Shi Le . Later, Taiyuan was obtained by Former Yan in 358, and by Former Qin in 370. Fu Jian died in 384. His son Fu Pi declared himself an emperor in 385, with Jinyang (central city of Taiyuan) as the capital. But

4140-545: The collapse of the Qing dynasty , Shanxi became part of the newly established Republic of China . From 1911 to 1949, during the period of the Republic of China's period of rule over Mainland China , Shanxi was mostly dominated by the warlord Yan Xishan until the Chinese Communist Party took full control in 1949; Communists had already set up secret bases in 1936, but did not completely overturn Yan and

4255-584: The state of Qin , which established the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC). The Han dynasty (206 BC – AD 220) ruled Shanxi as the province of Bingzhou . During the invasion of northern nomads in the Sixteen Kingdoms period (304–439), several regimes including the Later Zhao , Former Yan , Former Qin , and Later Yan continuously controlled Shanxi. They were followed by Northern Wei (386–534),

4370-491: The 1925 generated great interest in Shanxi for the Kuomintang 's ideology, including women's rights , Yan allowed girls to enroll in middle school and college, where they promptly formed a women's association. Yan attempted to eradicate the custom of foot binding , threatening to sentence men who married women with bound feet, and mothers who bound their daughters' feet, to hard labor in state-run factories. He discouraged

4485-665: The 6 urban districts on 1,460 km (560 sq mi). Consistent with China's economic expansion throughout the 2010s, Taiyuan's economy has shown consistent growth in recent years. In 2018, Taiyuan's GDP was worth 388.450 billion Yuan, more than double what it was in 2010. Disposable income per capita was reported to be 31,031 Yuan in 2018, a 7.2% increase from 2017. In 2015, Taiyuan imported 4,085.130 million USD worth of goods, and exported 6,592.250 million USD worth. Taiyuan's primary, secondary, and tertiary industries were worth 3.9 billion yuan, 105.2 billion yuan, and 132.2 billion yuan respectively in 2007. Shanxi produces

4600-416: The Chinese fought so obstinately". From the Japanese occupation of Taiyuan to the Japanese surrender in 1945, the Japanese continued to exploit Taiyuan's industries and resources to supply the Japanese army. After the Japanese army in Shanxi surrendered to Yan Xishan, 10,000–15,000 Japanese troops, including both enlisted men and officers, decided to fight for Yan rather than return to Japan. Yan also retained

4715-528: The Eighth Route Army and continued to advance towards Yan's capital. The lack of attention directed at their forces gave the Communists time to recruit and propagandize among the local peasant populations (who generally welcomed Communist forces enthusiastically) and to organize a network of militia units, local guerrilla bands and popular mass organizations. Genuine Communist efforts to resist

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4830-433: The Japanese "special forces" under Yan totaled 15,000 troops, plus an officer corps that was distributed throughout Yan's army. These numbers were reduced to 10,000 after serious American efforts to repatriate the Japanese were partially successful. Yan's Japanese army was instrumental in helping him to retain control of most of northern Shanxi during much of the subsequent Chinese Civil War , but by 1949 casualties had reduced

4945-418: The Japanese gave them the authority to carry out sweeping and radical social and economic reforms, mostly related to land and wealth redistribution, which they defended by labeling those who resisted as Hanjian . Communist efforts to resist the Japanese also won over Shanxi's small population of patriotic intellectuals, and conservative fears of resisting them effectively gave the Communists unlimited access to

5060-465: The Japanese into his service in the manner that he did, he retained both the extensive industrial complex around Taiyuan and virtually all of the managerial and technical personnel employed by the Japanese to run it. Yan was so successful in convincing surrendered Japanese to work for him that, as word spread to other areas of north China, Japanese soldiers from those areas began to converge on Taiyuan to serve his government and army. At its greatest strength

5175-586: The Japanese. During the Battle of Xinkou , the Chinese defenders resisted the efforts of Japan's elite Itakagi Division for over a month, despite Japanese advantages in artillery and air support. By the end of October 1937, Japan's losses were four times greater than those suffered at Pingxingguan, and the Itakagi Division was close to defeat. Contemporary Communist accounts called the battle "the most fierce in North China", while Japanese accounts called

5290-403: The Jin dialects were universally included within it, mainly because Chinese linguists paid little attention to these dialects at the time. In order to promote Standard Mandarin in the early days of People's Republic of China , linguists started to research various dialects in Shanxi, comparing these dialects with Standard Mandarin for helping the locals to learn it more quickly. During this period,

5405-826: The Khitans for the next 100 years because it lay south of the Great Wall . The later Zhou , the last dynasty of the Five Dynasties period was founded by Guo Wei , a Han Chinese, who served as the Assistant Military Commissioner at the court of the Later Han which was ruled by Shatuo Turks . He founded his dynasty by launching a military coup against the Turkic Later Han Emperor however, his newly established dynasty

5520-514: The Mongol army led by General Muqali . Kublai Khan established the Yuan dynasty in 1271, and the administrative area of Taiyuan Lu ( 太原 路 ) was expanded. The Taoist Longshan Grottoes was built in early Yuan dynasty, initiated by Taoist monk Song Defang ( 宋 德 芳 ). In 1368, Hongwu Emperor established the Ming dynasty , and Taiyuan was obtained from Yuan, by General Xu Da . The Ming dynasty installed Nine Military Garrisons to defend

5635-523: The Nationalists or the Japanese. He then negotiated a secret anti-Japanese " United Front " with the Communists in October 1936 and invited them to establish operations in Shanxi. Yan, under the slogan "resistance against the enemy and defense of the soil", attempted to recruit young, patriotic intellectuals to his government in order to organize a local resistance to the threat of Japanese invasion. By

5750-535: The Northern Capital, hence the name Běidū ( 北都 ), and Běijīng ( 北京 , different from present-day Beijing ). Taiyuan is an ancient city with more than 2500 years of urban history, dating back from 497 BC. It was the capital or secondary capital ( 陪 都 , 别 都 ) of Zhao , Former Qin , Eastern Wei , Northern Qi , Northern Jin , Later Tang , Later Jin , Later Han , Northern Han . Its strategic location and rich history make Taiyuan one of

5865-558: The Research Society for the Advancement of Chinese Medicine, based in Taiyuan, in 1921. Highly unusual in China at the time, the school had a four-year curriculum and included courses in both Chinese and Western Medicine. The main skills that Yan hoped physicians trained at the school would learn were: a standardized system of diagnosis; sanitary science, including bacteriology ; surgical skills, including obstetrics ; and,

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5980-432: The Tang dynasty, partly because Taiyuan was the military base of the founding emperors Li Yuan and Li Shimin . As Li Shimin wrote in 619: "Taiyuan, the base of the imperial regime and the foundation of the state." ( 太原，王业所基，国之根本 ) In 690, Wu Zetian set Taiyuan as the Northern Capital, ( 北 都 ; Běidū ), one of the three capitals, along with Chang'an and Luoyang , as depicted in the poem by Li Bai : "The king of

6095-694: The Ten Kingdoms, in what is now northern and central Shanxi. Shi Jingtang , founder of the Later Jin , the third of the Five Dynasties, ceded a piece 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. The ceded territory became a major problem for the Song dynasty's defense against

6210-643: The United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy. The mining-related companies include Daqin Railway Co. Ltd., which runs one of the busiest and most technologically advanced railways in China, connecting Datong and Qinhuangdao exclusively for coal shipping. The revenue of Daqin Railway Co. Ltd. is among the highest among Shanxi companies due to its export of coal to Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia. Shanxi's nominal GDP in 2011

6325-482: The battle a "stalemate". In an effort to save their forces at Xinkou, Japanese forces began an effort to occupy Shanxi from a second direction, in the east. After a week of fighting, Japanese forces captured the strategic Niangzi Pass , opening the way to capturing Taiyuan. Communist guerrilla tactics were ineffective in slowing down the Japanese advance. The defenders at Xinkou, realizing that they were in danger of being outflanked, withdrew southward, past Taiyuan, leaving

6440-461: The capital from Daming to Luoyang , and Taiyuan was set as a provisional capital, titled "Beidu" (北都, literally 'Northern Capital'). In 936, Shi Jingtang established Later Jin in Taiyuan with the help from Khitan Liao dynasty . The next year, Shi Jingtang moved the capital from Taiyuan to Luoyang , and then to Kaifeng , and Taiyuan became a provisional northern capital ("Beijing") again. Zhao Kuangyin ( Emperor Taizu of Song ) established

6555-420: The casualties suffered by the Japanese army in North China. Yan himself was forced to withdraw after having 90% of his army destroyed, including a large force of reinforcements sent into Shanxi by the central government. Throughout 1937, numerous high-ranking Communist leaders, including Mao Zedong , lavished praise on Yan for waging an uncompromising campaign of resistance against the Japanese. Possibly because of

6670-478: The center through which the Fen River runs. The highest peak is Mount Wutai (Wutai Shan) in northeastern Shanxi with an altitude of 3,058 m. The Great Wall of China forms most of the northern border with Inner Mongolia . The Zhongtiao Mountains run along part of the southern border and separate Shanxi from the east–west part of the Yellow River. Mount Hua is to the southwest. The Yellow River forms

6785-413: The cities of Taiyuan and Yunzhong to attack Zhao's northern commandery of Dai. Three months after General Li Mu 's death; Wang Jian, Li Xin & Qiang Lei conquered Zhao. In 221 BC, Qin conquered the rest of China, and officially started the first imperial dynasty of China. Qin established thirty-six commanderies on its territory, and Taiyuan was one of them. Also, the capital of commandery of Taiyuan

6900-576: The city has taken further action to combat air pollution, creating a "coal-free zone" of 1,460 km in 2017. This zone prevents most people and organizations from buying, selling, storing, transporting, burning, or using coal. In 2019, the Taiyuan City Government expanded the size of this zone slightly, to a total of 1,574 km. As of the 2020 census, Taiyuan prefecture had a total population of 5,304,061 inhabitants on 6,959 km (2,687 sq mi), from whom 4,529,141 lived in

7015-608: The city on fire. The former capital was downgraded from prefecture to county town status. It was not until 982 that a new city was founded on the banks of the Fen River . The oldest existing building in Taiyuan today is the Temple of the Goddess ( simplified Chinese : 圣 母 殿 ; traditional Chinese : 聖 母 殿 ) inside the Jin Ci Complex. It was originally built in 1023 and reconstructed in 1102. From 1027 one of

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7130-413: The city required the support of 1,300 pieces of artillery. Many Nationalist officers committed suicide when the city fell to a Communist army. Taiyuan lies on the Fen River in the north of its fertile upper basin. The city is located at the center of the province with an east–west span of 144 km (89 mi) and a north–south span of 107 km (66 mi). It commands the north–south route through

7245-411: The city will govern 6 districts, 3 counties, and host a county-level city with a total area of 6,988 square kilometers and a permanent population of 5,390,957. Taiyuan is located roughly in the centre of Shanxi, with the Fen River flowing through the central city. The two Chinese characters of the city's name are 太 ( tài , "great") and 原 ( yuán , "plain"), referring to the location where

7360-510: The city's walls, initiating bloody street-to-street fighting for control of the city. At 10:00 am, April 22, the Taiyuan Campaign ended with the Communists in complete control of Shanxi. Total Nationalist casualties amounted to all 145,000 defenders, many of whom were taken as POWs. The Communists lost 45,000 men and an unknown number of civilian laborers they had drafted, all of whom were either killed or injured. The fall of Taiyuan

7475-551: The commander of the Eighth Route Army active in Shanxi and was named the vice-commander of the Second War Zone, under Yan himself. Yan initially responded warmly to the re-entry of the arrival of Communist forces, and they were greeted with enthusiasm by Yan's officials and officers. Communist forces arrived in Shanxi just in time to help defeat a decisively more powerful Japanese force attempting to move through

7590-494: The defenders due to fears of being shot down by the advancing Communists. The People's Liberation Army , depending largely on their reinforcements of artillery, launched a major assault on April 20, 1949, and succeeded in taking all positions surrounding Taiyuan by April 22. A subsequent appeal to the defenders to surrender was refused. On the morning of April 22, 1949, the PLA bombarded Taiyuan with 1,300 pieces of artillery and breached

7705-467: The east, Henan to the south, Shaanxi to the west and Inner Mongolia to the north. Shanxi's terrain is characterised by a plateau bounded partly by mountain ranges. Shanxi's culture is largely dominated by the ethnic Han majority, who make up over 99% of its population. Jin Chinese is considered by some linguists to be a distinct language from Mandarin and its geographical range covers most of Shanxi. Both Jin and Mandarin are spoken in Shanxi. Shanxi

7820-606: The economic, political, military, and cultural centers of Northern China. From about 859 BC the area around modern-day Taiyuan was occupied by the Rong people . In 662 BC the Rong were driven out by the Di people. In 497 BC, the first ancient city of Jinyang was built around the southern Jinyuan District of present-day Taiyuan, by Dong Anyu ( 董 安 于 ), who was a steward of Zhao Jianzi  [ zh ] ( 赵鞅 ), an upper-level official of

7935-615: The end of 1936 Taiyuan had become a gathering point for anti-Japanese intellectuals from all over China. The Marco Polo Bridge Incident in July 1937 led the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces to invade China, and Shanxi was one of the first areas the Japanese attacked. When it became clear to Yan that his forces might not be successful in repelling the Imperial Japanese Army , he invited Communist military forces to re-enter Shanxi. Zhu De became

8050-548: The end of 2017, the total population of Shanxi is 37.02 million. The Governor of Shanxi is the highest-ranking official in the People's Government of Shanxi. However, in the province's dual party-government governing system, the Governor is subordinate to the provincial Communist Party Committee Secretary ( 中共山西省委书记 ), colloquially termed the "Shanxi Party Committee Secretary ". As is the case in almost all Chinese provinces,

8165-476: The first decade of the 21st century, and once it was even listed among the ten most air-polluted cities in the world. Recently, the air quality has been gradually improved with increasing public awareness of air quality control and stricter and more detailed rules for pollution applied. However, according to the 2014 statistical book issued by the National Bureau of Statistics , even though no longer among

8280-543: The first part of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (907–960), Shanxi supplied rulers of three of the Five Dynasties. Among the Ten Kingdoms, it was the only one located in northern China. Shanxi was initially home to the jiedushi (commander) of Hedong, Li Cunxu , who overthrew the first of the Five Dynasties, Later Liang (907–923) to establish the second, Later Tang (923–936). Another jiedushi of Hedong, Shi Jingtang , overthrew Later Tang to establish

8395-663: The former base of the Chinese Communist Party and the People's Liberation Army. Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre , one of China's three satellite launch centers, is located in the middle of Shanxi with China's largest stockpile of nuclear missiles . Many private corporations, in joint ventures with the state-owned mining corporations, have invested billions of dollars in the mining industry of Shanxi . Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing made one of his largest investments ever in China in exploiting coal gas in Shanxi. Foreign investors include mining companies from Canada,

8510-451: The head of Yan's "Patriotic Sacrifice League", had fought for years against the Communists in Shanxi until he was finally trapped in the massively fortified city of Taiyuan. For six months Liang put up a fierce resistance, leading both Yan's remaining Republic of China Army forces and his thousands of Japanese mercenaries. When Communist troops finally broke into the city and began to occupy large sections of it, Liang barricaded himself inside

8625-517: The heaven has three capitals, the Northern capital is one of them." (" 天王三京，北都居一 "). In 742 AD, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang changed its name further to Beijing ( 北京 ). During the Tang dynasty, the title Northern Capital to Taiyuan had been endowed or abolished multiple times. In 923, Li Cunxu , son of Li Keyong , founded Later Tang with capital of Daming , and soon conquered most of North China, and ended Later Liang. Afterwards, Li Cunxu moved

8740-505: The help from Wei and Han. The Tripartition of Jin happened in 403 BC, when the state of Jin, then a strong power in Northern China, was divided into three smaller states of Han , Zhao and Wei . This event is the watershed between the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods in Chinese history. In 248 BC, the state of Qin attacked Zhao under General Meng'ao , and obtained the area around Jinyang from Zhao. Qin set up

8855-462: The highest-ranked provincial officials, Jin Yinhuan , died in a car accident. Since Xi Jinping 's ascendancy to General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party at the 18th Party Congress , numerous highly ranked officials in Shanxi have been placed under investigation for corruption-related offenses, including four incumbent members Bai Yun , Chen Chuanping , Du Shanxue , and Nie Chunyu of

8970-517: The influence of solar radiation, monsoon circulation and geographical factors, Shanxi's climate has four distinct seasons, synchronous rain and heat, sufficient sunshine, significant climate difference between north and south, wide temperature difference between winter and summer, and large temperature difference between day and night. The annual average temperature in Shanxi Province is between 4.2 and 14.2 °C. The overall distribution trend

9085-629: The moderately high altitude. The monthly 24-hour average temperature range from −4.7 °C (23.5 °F) in January to 24.3 °C (75.7 °F) in July, while the annual mean is 10.9 °C (51.6 °F). With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 51 percent in July to 61 percent in May, there are 2,493 hours of sunshine annually. Extremes since 1951 have ranged from −25.5 °C (−13.9 °F) to 39.4 °C (102.9 °F), though an unofficial record low of −29.5 °C (−21.1 °F)

9200-563: The most important in Shanxi. Shanxi also contains about 500 million tonnes of bauxite deposits, about a third of total Chinese bauxite reserves. Industry in Shanxi is centered around heavy industries such as coal and chemical production, power generation, and metal refining . As part of an effort to promote diversification in non-resource industries, since 2004, some local governments in Shanxi province have required that coal mining companies set aside funds for investing in non-coal business like agriculture and produce processing. In 2006,

9315-523: The next year, Fu Pi was defeated by the Western Yan prince Murong Yong in 386, and Taiyuan became part of Western Yan. In 386, Tuoba Gui founded Northern Wei . In 396, Northern Wei expanded to Taiyuan. In 543, Eastern Wei was founded by Gao Huan , with the capital at the city of Ye , and Taiyuan as the alternative capital ( 别都 ), where the Mansion of the "Great Chancellor" Gao Huan ( 大丞相府 )

9430-529: The northern territory during the reign of the Hongzhi Emperor , which included the Garrison of Taiyuan ( 太 原 镇 ). Shanxi merchants became prominent in Chinese business history since the beginning of Ming dynasty, thanks to the logistic requirements of the military around the borders of northern Shanxi to defend Ming against the remnant Mongol Northern Yuan dynasty . In 1644, Shunzhi founded

9545-451: The number of Japanese soldiers under Yan's command to 3,000. The leader of the Japanese under Yan's command, Hosaku Imamura, committed suicide on the day that Taiyuan fell to Communist forces. Yan Xishan himself (along with most of the provincial treasury) was airlifted out of Taiyuan in March 1949. Shortly afterwards Republic of China Air Force planes stopped dropping food and supplies for

9660-537: The period of his rule partially due to his building of an arsenal in Taiyuan that, for the entire period of his administration, remained the only center in China capable of producing field artillery. Yan's army was successful in eradicating banditry in Shanxi, allowing him to maintain a relatively high level of public order and security. Yan went to great lengths to eradicate social traditions which he considered antiquated. He insisted that all men in Shanxi abandon their Qing-era queues, giving police instructions to clip off

9775-484: The province as many as one in five residents were denounced as landlords, and his program was copied throughout the rest of the new People's Republic of China . Shanxi became the site of Mao's "model brigade" of Dazhai : a utopian communist scheme in Xiyang County that was supposed to be the model for all other peasants in China to emulate. If the people of Dazhai were especially suited for such an experiment, it

9890-501: The province is Taiyuan , while its next most populated prefecture-level cities are Changzhi and Datong . Its one-character abbreviation is 晋 ( Jìn ), after the state of Jin that existed there during the Spring and Autumn period ( c.  770  – c.  481 BC ). The name Shanxi means 'west of the mountains', a reference to its location west of the Taihang Mountains . Shanxi borders Hebei to

10005-442: The province, as well as important natural lines of transportation through the Taihang Mountains to Hebei in the east and to northern Shaanxi in the west. Taiyuan is abundant in natural resources such as coal , iron , marble , silica, bauxite , limestone , graphite , quartz , phosphorus , gypsum , mica , copper , and gold . It boasts high production of coal, iron, silica and marble. The western satellite city of Gujiao

10120-424: The provincial Communist Party Standing Committee. They were all removed from office around August 2014. The following were also removed from office: Thousands of Shanxi officials were disciplined during the anti-corruption campaign under Xi Jinping . This necessitated a scramble to find find suitable personnel for many vacated offices. In the aftermath of the 'political earthquake', party secretary Yuan Chunqing

10235-415: The provincial government established a policy of "subsidizing peasants by coal" which made this diversification a provincewide requirement and encouraged local governments to develop policies like subsidies and favorable tax treatment to further encourage mining companies to invest in non-coal business. There are countless military-related industries in Shanxi due to its geographic location and history as

10350-464: The provincial party secretary and Governor are not natives of Shanxi; rather, they are outsiders who are, in practice, appointed by the central party and government authorities. The province went through significant political instability since 2004, due largely to the number of scandals that have hit the province on labour safety, the environment, and the interconnected nature between the provincial political establishment and big coal companies. Yu Youjun

10465-425: The queues of anyone still wearing them. In one instance, Yan lured people into theatres in order to have his police systematically cut the hair of the audience. He attempted to combat widespread female illiteracy by creating in each district at least one vocational school in which peasant girls could be given a primary-school education and taught domestic skills. After National Revolutionary Army military victories in

10580-420: The rural population. Subsequent atrocities committed by the Japanese in the effort to rid Shanxi of Communist guerrillas aroused the hatred of millions in the Shanxi countryside, causing the rural population to turn to the Communists for leadership against the Japanese. All of these factors explain how, within a year of re-entering Shanxi, the Communists were able to take control of most of Shanxi not firmly held by

10695-537: The same time reforming older political, social and economic conditions in a way that paved the way for the radical changes that would occur after his rule. In 1918 there was an outbreak of bubonic plague in northern Shanxi that lasted for two months and killed 2,664 people. Yan's interactions with the Western medical personnel he met with to discuss how to suppress the epidemic inspired him to modernize and improve Shanxi's medical infrastructure which he began by funding

10810-470: The services of experienced and foreign-educated Japanese technicians and professional staff brought into Taiyuan by the Japanese to run the complex of industries that they had developed around Taiyuan. Taiyuan was the last area in Shanxi to resist Communist control during the final stages of the Chinese Civil War . The city was taken by the Communists on 22 April 1949, after they surrounded Taiyuan and cut it off from all means of land and air supply, and taking

10925-607: The severity of his losses in northern Shanxi, Yan abandoned a plan of defense based on positional warfare, and began to reform his army as a force capable of waging guerrilla warfare. After 1938 most of Yan's followers came to refer to his regime as a "guerrilla administration". After the surrender of Japan and the end of the Second World War , Yan Xishan was notable for his ability to recruit thousands of Japanese soldiers stationed in northwest Shanxi in 1945, including their commanding officers, into his army. By recruiting

11040-574: The state of Jin. During the Battle of Jinyang in 453 BC, Zhi Yao diverted the flow of the Fen River to inundate the city of Jinyang, caused significant damage to the Zhao. Later, Zhao Xiangzi alerted Wei and Han, who both decided to ally with Zhao. On the night of 8 May 453 BC, Zhao troops broke the dams of the Fen River and let the river flood the Zhi armies, and eventually annihilated the Zhi army, with

11155-418: The strategic Pingxing Pass . The Battle of Pingxingguan was the largest battle won by the Communists against the Japanese. After the Japanese responded to this defeat by outflanking the defenders and moving towards Taiyuan , the Communists avoided decisive battles and mostly attempted to harass Japanese forces and sabotage Japanese lines of supply and communication. The Japanese suffered, but mostly ignored

11270-474: The supplies were running low, and another Khitan relief force was advancing towards the city. Taizu launched the second invasion of Northern Han in September 969, but the armies were recalled after his death (November 14,969). Taizu's brother Taizong subjugated the last independent kingdoms in the south of China by 978, and in 979 launched the third campaign against the Northern Han and its overlord

11385-406: The third of the Five Dynasties, Later Jin , and yet another jiedushi of Hedong, Liu Zhiyuan , established the fourth of the Five Dynasties ( Later Han ) after the Khitans destroyed Later Jin, the third. Finally, when the fifth of the Five Dynasties ( Later Zhou ) emerged, the jiedushi of Hedong at the time, Liu Chong , rebelled and established an independent state called Northern Han , one of

11500-530: The total area of the province, and the area of Pingchuan and river valleys accounts for 19.9% of the total area. Most of the province's altitude is above 1,500 meters, and the highest point is the Yedoufeng, the main peak of Wutai Mountain , with an altitude of 3061.1 meters, which is the highest peak in northern China. Shanxi is located in the inland of the mid-latitude zone and belongs to the temperate continental monsoon climate in terms of climate type. Due to

11615-414: The two private markets for Tangut goods, particularly salt, operated in Taiyuan. During the Song period many people, including the family of chancellor Wang Anshi , migrated south. The Jurchen Jin dynasty was founded in 1115, and in 1125, Taiyuan was conquered by Jin. The Mongol empire emerged in 1206 under the leadership of Genghis Khan , and it expanded quickly. In 1218, Taiyuan was conquered by

11730-419: The use of diagnostic instruments. Yan hoped that his support of the school would eventually lead to increased revenues in the domestic and international trade of Chinese drugs, improved public health , and improved public education . Yan's promotion of a modern curriculum and infrastructure of Chinese medicine achieved limited success, but much of the teaching and publication that this school of medicine produced

11845-500: The use of the traditional lunar calendar and encouraged the development of local boy scout organizations . Like the Communists who later succeeded Yan, he punished habitual lawbreakers to "redemption through labour" in state-run factories. After the failed attempt by the Chinese Red Army to establish bases in southern Shanxi in early 1936 Yan became convinced that the Communists were lesser threats to his rule than either

11960-458: The western border of Shanxi with Shaanxi . The Fen and Qin rivers, tributaries of the Yellow River, 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

12075-510: The worst polluted cities in China, Taiyuan still has below-average ambient air quality, compared with other major Chinese cities. A 2019 study estimated that in 2016, there were 228,000 households in the city burning coal, burning a total of 1,096,000 tons that year alone. The authors of the study suggested that the local government should do more to transition from coal energy to gas energy, provide more electrical heating infrastructure, and transition to more renewable energy sources. In recent years,

12190-488: Was Jinyang. During the Jin dynasty , Taiyuan was again changed into a vassal state. Following the ending of the Jin dynasty, ethnic minority peoples settled a series of short-lived sovereign states in northern China, commonly referred to as Sixteen Kingdoms . Taiyuan was part of Former Zhao , Later Zhao , Former Qin , Former Yan , Former Qin again, Western Yan , and Later Yan chronologically. In 304, Liu Yuan founded

12305-616: Was limited to the area around Taiyuan: by 1949 three of the seven government-run hospitals were in the city. In 1934 the province produced a ten-year-plan that envisaged employing a hygiene worker in every village, but the Japanese invasion in 1937 and the subsequent civil war made it impossible to carry these plans out. Yan's generous support for the Research Association for the Improvement of Chinese Medicine generated

12420-401: Was linked by rail both to the far southwest of Shanxi and to Datong in the north. Until the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, Yan's arsenal in Taiyuan was the only factory in China sufficiently advanced to produce field artillery. Because Yan succeeded in keeping Shanxi uninvolved in most of the major battles between rival warlords that occurred in China during the 1910s and 1920s, Taiyuan

12535-471: Was located. In 577, Taiyuan was conquered and became part of Northern Zhou . In 581, Emperor Wen of Sui founded Sui dynasty . Jinyang was first the administrative center of Bing Zhou ( 并州 ), which was changed into Taiyuan Commandery . In 617, Li Yuan rose in rebellion based in Taiyuan, and expanded quickly. In 618, Li Yuan founded Tang dynasty , which is generally considered a golden age of Chinese civilization. Taiyuan expanded significantly during

12650-461: Was never taken from Yan by an invading army until the Japanese conquered it in 1937. Yan was aware of the threat posed by the Japanese; and, in order to defend against the impending Japanese invasion of Shanxi, Yan entered into a secret "united front" agreement with the Communists in November 1936. After concluding his alliance with the Communists, he allowed agents under Zhou Enlai to establish

12765-487: Was one of the few examples in the Chinese Civil War in which Nationalist forces echoed the defeated Ming loyalists who had, in the 17th century, brought entire cities to ruins resisting the invading Manchus. Many Nationalist officers were reported to have committed suicide when the city fell. The dead included Yan's nephew-in-law, who was serving as governor, and his cousin, who ran his household. Liang Huazhi ,

12880-401: Was recorded on 7 January 1930. The municipality of Taiyuan is 6,988 km (2,698 sq mi). Taiyuan has a forest area of 146,700 hectares. and total grassland area of 422.5 km (163.1 sq mi) in 2007. The forest area coverage rate in the six urban districts has been increased to 21.69% in 2015. Taiyuan had suffered from severe air pollution , especially in the 1990s, and

12995-590: Was removed from his post in September 2014, with Wang Rulin 'helicoptered' into the provincial Party Secretary office. The GDP per capita of Shanxi is below the national average. Compared to the provinces in east China, Shanxi is less developed for many reasons. Its geographic location limits its participation in international trade, which involves mostly eastern coastal provinces. Important crops in Shanxi include wheat , maize , millet , legumes , and potatoes . The local climate and dwindling water resources limit agriculture in Shanxi. Mining-related industries are

13110-571: Was sent by the central government in 2005 to become Governor but resigned in the wake of the Shanxi slave labour scandal in 2007. He was succeeded by Meng Xuenong , who had been previously sacked as Mayor of Beijing in the aftermath of the SARS outbreak. Meng himself was removed from office in 2008 after only a few months on the job due to the political fallout from the 2008 Shanxi mudslide . In 2008, provincial Political Consultative Conference Chair, one of

13225-714: Was short-lived and was conquered by the Song dynasty in 960. In the early years of the Northern Song dynasty (960–1127), the sixteen ceded prefectures continued to be an area of contention between the Song dynasty and the Liao dynasty . Later the Southern Song dynasty abandoned all of North China , including Shanxi, to the Jurchen Jin dynasty (1115–1234) in 1127 after the Jingkang Incident of

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