Guanzhong

Guanzhong (, formerly romanised as Kwanchung) region, also known as the Guanzhong Basin, Wei River Basin, or uncommonly as the Shaanzhong region, is a historical region of China corresponding to the crescentic graben basin within present-day central Shaanxi, bounded between the Qinling Mountains in the south (known as Guanzhong's "South Mountains"), and the Huanglong Mountain, Meridian Ridge and Long Mountain ranges in the north (collectively known as its "North Mountains"). The central flatland area of the basin, known as the Guanzhong Plain, is made up of alluvial plains along the lower Wei River and its numerous tributaries and thus also called the Wei River Plain. The region is part of the Jin- Shaan Basin Belt, and is separated from its geological sibling — the Yuncheng Basin to its northeast — by the Yellow River section southwest of the Lüliang Mountains and north of the river's bend at the tri-provincial junction among Shaanxi, Shanxi and Henan.

The name ''Guanzhong'' means "within the passes", referring to the four major mountain pass fortresses historically defending the region. The region was the traditional heartland of Qin state during Zhou Dynasty and thus often nicknamed the "800 '' li'' of Qin land". The Yellow River, Lüliang Mountains and the eastern end of the Qinling separate the region from the (then) politically orthodox Central Plain, which is located east of the strategic Hangu Pass and therefore was historically referred as the ''Guandong'' ("east of the pass") region by the Qin people, who later conquered the eastern states and unified China as a centralized empire — the Qin dynasty — for the first time during the 3rd century BC. Afterwards, subsequent prominent dynasties such as the Han and Tang (both considered China's historical golden ages) also had the crownland established in the Guanzhong region.

Geography

Guanzhong Plain traditionally includes the central part of modern Shaanxi province and the extreme northwestern tip of Henan province (the western half of Sanmenxia). The average altitude of the region ranges from above sea level. Xi'an, the provincial capital of Shaanxi and the largest city in Northwest China, is located at the center of the region, mostly south of the Wei River. Other major prefectural cities in the Guanzhong region include (from west to east) Baoji, Xianyang, Tongchuan and Weinan.

The four major historic fortifications that enclose Guanzhong region are:
* Hangu Pass (函谷關) to the east, in present day Lingbao City;
* Wu Pass (武關) to the southeast, in present day Danfeng County;
* Xiao Pass (蕭關) to the northwest, in present day Jingyuan County, and;
* Dasan Pass (大散關) to the west, in present day Chencang District.
Two more passes were later added, namely:
* Tong Pass (潼關) further to the east, built during the late Eastern Han dynasty by the warlord Cao Cao, in present day Tongguan County, and;
* Jinsuo Pass (金鎖關) to the north, built during the Tang dynasty, in present day Yintai District.

Historically the most important fortress of the above passes was the Hangu Pass, which commanded the chokepoint on a narrow land corridor along the Yellow River and what was then the only traversable passage from the Guanzhong region to the North China Plain. The formidable resilience of the Hangu Pass was what enabled the Qin state to defeat numerous anti-Qin alliances formed by its eastern enemy states during the Warring States period.

Climate

The average annual temperature is around , and the annual rainfall ranges from , averaging around 600 mm. Because some years have low precipitation and evaporation rates are high, the region's natural vegetation is a mix between forests and steppes. Before human settlements converted the plains for agriculture, it was home to a diverse range of wildlife.

History

The Guanzhong region became the heartland of the Zhou after Jī clan leader Gugong Danfu relocated his people south from Bin (modern day Binzhou, Shaanxi) to evade the violent raidings by Xunyu, Xianyun

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