Shaanxi in tile middle reaches of the Yellow River in the eastern part of northwest China is one of the cradles of the Chinese nation where 13 dynasties made their national capital. Yanan and some of the other places in northern Shaanxi were the seat of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party from October 1935 to 1948. Shaanxi has an area of more than 190,000 square kilometers and a population of 28.31 million, of which 18.4 per cent live in the cities and 81.6 per cent in the rural areas. Most of Shaanxi's population lives in the Weihe Plain and the Hanshui Valleyland.
