Yan’an

Yan'an 延安市
Prefecture-level city
Location of Yan'an City jurisdiction in Shaanxi
Yan'an Location in China
Coordinates: 36°35′N 109°29′E / 36.583°N 109.483°E / 36.583; 109.483Coordinates: 36°35′N 109°29′E / 36.583°N 109.483°E / 36.583; 109.483
Country	China
Province	Shaanxi
Area
• Total	37,000 km2 (14,000 sq mi)
Elevation	975 m (3,199 ft)
Population (2006)
• Total	2,150,800
• Density	58/km2 (150/sq mi)
Time zone	China Standard (UTC+8)
Licence plates	陕J
Website	yanan.gov.cn

Yán'ān
"Yán'ān", as written in Chinese
Chinese
Postal	Yenan
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Yán'ān Bopomofo ㄧㄢˊ   ㄢ Gwoyeu Romatzyh Yan'an Wade–Giles Yen2-an1 IPA [jɛ̌n.án]

Yan'an ([jɛ̌n.án]; Chinese: 延安; pinyin: Yán'ān) is a prefecture-level city in the Shanbei region of Shaanxi province, China, bordering Shanxi to the east and Gansu to the west. It administers several counties, including Zhidan (formerly Bao'an), which served as the headquarters of the Chinese Communists before the city of Yan'an proper took that role.

Yan'an was near the endpoint of the Long March, and became the center of the Chinese Communist revolution from 1936 to 1948. Chinese communists celebrate Yan'an as the birthplace of the revolution.

In medieval China, Yan'an was once called Yanzhou, a location of strategic military importance for the Chinese empire and Tanguts of the Western Xia Dynasty. It was once successfully defended by the Song Dynasty (960–1279) era Chinese scientist, statesman, and general Shen Kuo (1031–1095 AD). However, it was eventually taken over by the Tanguts in 1082 once Shen's defensive victories were marginalized and sacrificed by the new Chancellor Cai Que (who handed the city over to the Tanguts as terms of a peace treaty). Yan'an and the whole of Shaanxi were taken over by the Mongols in the late 1220s, only after their leader Genghis Khan had died during the siege of the Western Xia capital in 1227. The city was maintained by the successive Chinese Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), as well as the Manchu Qing Dynasty (1644–1911). After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the city became part of the newly created Republic of China.