What is "shaanxi"

Shaanxi (; postal: Shensi) is a province of the People's Republic of China, officially part of the Northwest China region. It covers an area of over 205,000 km with about 37 million people and borders Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichuan (SW), Gansu (W), Ningxia (NW), and Inner Mongolia (N). Xi'an is its provincial capital, other cities include Baoji, Hanzhong, Lintong, Tongchuan, Xianyang, Yan'an and Ankang.

Its geography and climate is characterized from north to south by a part of the Ordos Desert, on the middle reaches of the Yellow River a part of the Loess Plateau (both areas cold and (semi-)arid), the mostly semi-arid Wei River Valley, aka. Guanzhong, a cradle of early Chinese civilization, the Qin Mountains (Qinling) and humid subtropical Shannan.

Its name comes from its western (xi) location off the narrow mountain pass (Shǎn being its ancient name) where the Yellow River flows from the mentioned Loess Plateau down to the North China Plain.