Geographical Location: Shanxi Province is situated in the middle of the Yellow River valley, lying between latitude 34¡ã34'-40¡ã44' north and longitude 110¡ã15'-114¡ã32' east. Its location west of the Taihang Mountains gives the province its name, Shanxi, meaning ¡°west of the mountain.¡± the provincial capital is Taiyuan and the province population totals 32.97millions (March 2001), and with Han, Hui, Mongol, Man,etc 34 ethnic groups living.

Topography: Situated in the Bohai Rim Economic Development Zone in north China, Shanxi covers an area of 156,000 square km, with forests constituting 20 percent, or about 3.44 million hectares.

Climate: It gases a mild continental climate with four distinct seasons awash in sunlight. The annual average temperature ranges from 4¡æ to 14¡æ and annual precipitation from 400 mm to 650 mm. The frost-free season ranges from 120 to more than 220 days.

Administrative Division: There are 10 cities directly under the provincial government. They are Taiyuan, Datong, Changzhi, Yangquan, Jinzhong, Jincheng, Xinzhou, Shuozhou, Linfen and Yuncheng. Shanxi also has one prefecture, Luliang, and 118 counties (cities and districts).

Tourism resources: Shanxi abounds in tourism resources. Famous spots include the Yunguang Caves at Datong City in the north, Wutai Mountain, a sacred place of Buddhism in the central part, and the falls at Hukou in the south, the only waterfall on the Yellow River.

The province also encompasses the country¡¯s largest temple of martial valor -- the Guan Yu Shrine at Xiezhou -- and one of the four large whispering buildings in China, the Yingying Pagoda of Pujiu Temple in Yongji County.

Statistics show that Shanxi now preserves a total of 31,401 unmovable cultural relics of different kinds. They comprise 2,639 ruins of ancient monuments, 1,666 ancient graves, 18,118 old buildings and memorial structures of historic interest, 300 grottoes and temples, 360 sites bearing ancient vertebrate fossils, 6,852 sites with stone inscriptions and 1,466 old revolutionary sites and memorial buildings.

Agriculture: Shanxi has 3,656,500 hectares of arable land, 23 percent of its area, The agricultural economy is based on farming, supplemented rice,wheat, barley, sorghum, potato, sweet poato,buckwheat,broom corn millet and beans grow in profusion. Cash crops include cotton tobacco, beets, vegetable, oil-bearing plants and hemp. Also to be found are apples, walnuts and dates and precious plants used on Chinese traditional medicine such as Codonopsis pilosula and Astragalus baicalletsis. Pigs, sheep, chicken, rabbits, cows, donkeys horses, mules, silkworm and bees are also raised.

Industry: Over the last 40 plus years, Shanxi has established a basic industrial system comprising a great variety of industries. Currently more than 12,000 industrial enterprises are in operation. Coal and electric power form the backbone of industry of Shanxi.