Why Shanxi

Shanxi is a province of China, located in the North China region. Its one-character abbreviation is "晋" (pinyin: Jìn), after the state of Jin that existed here during the Spring and Autumn period.

Geography

Situated west of Mt. Taihang, in the eastern part of the loess plateau and the middle reaches of the Huanghe River (Yellow River) , Shanxi Province covers an area of over 150,000 square kilometres and has a population of 33.35 million  (2006) composed of Han, Hui, Mongolian, Manchu and other nationalities. Taiyuan is the provincial capital.

Climate

Shanxin Province is a highland with mountains in the east and south. Shanxi's temperature is lower than that of the same latitude in the North China Plain. It has severe winter and cool summer. The average temperature of the coldest month January is -12°C (10.4 °F) to -2°C (28.4 °F) from the north to the south and the average temperature of the hottest month July is 22°C (71.6 °F) to 27°C (80.6 °F) from the north to the south. The annual precipitation is between 350mm and 700 mm, most of which falls in summer.

History

Shanxi was Jinyang in ancient times. During the Spring and Autumn Period it was the Kingdom of Jin (770 B.C.-476 B.C.), the Qin Dynasty (221 B.C.-207 B.C.), Taiyuan Prefecture, in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), Hedong Dao (Dao was equivalent to today's province). It was in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) that the place became to be known as Shanxin Province. Shanxin is one of the cradles of Chinese civilization. As the legend goes, kings Yao, Shun and Yu had their capitals in southern Shanxi. Ruins of the middle period excavated in Dingcun Village in southern Shanxin show that what has come to be know as "Dingcun Man" lived there hundreds of thousands of years ago. Now Shanxi has become one of the major heavy industrial bases and the biggest coal mining area in China.

Population and Nationalities

According to the sample survey of population in 2012, Shanxi Province has 36.1083 million permanent residents, up by 175,500 persons. The newborn population is 385,300 with the rate of 10.7 per thousand while the death toll is 209,900 with the rate of 5.83 per thousand. The natural growth is 4.87 per thousand. The sex ratio at birth is 113.05.
Shanxi is an interracial province with 54 minority ethnic groups apart from Han, and the population of minority ethnic groups accounts for 0.3% of the overall population of Shanxi, scattered throughout the province. Among those minority ethnic groups, the Hui nationality is in the majority followed by Manchu and the Mongolian nationality.

Economy

The province's GPD in 2012 was 1.21 trillion yuan ($197.92 billion), up 10.1 percent from the previous year, with value added output of primary industries worth 69.79 billion yuan, for an increase of 6 percent, accounting for 5.8 percent of the GDP. Secondary industry’s value added output totaled 700.91 billion yuan, up 10.9 percent, and accounting for 57.8 percent of the total. Tertiary industries saw their value added output reach 440.59 billion yuan, for an increase of 9.5 percent, or 36.4 percent of the total. Per capita GDP for 2012 amounted to 33,628 yuan.