Xianyang (Chinese: 咸阳; pinyin: Xiányáng) is a prefecture-level city in central Shaanxi province, situated on the Wei River a few kilometers upstream (west) from the provincial capital of Xi'an.

Once the capital of the Qin dynasty, it is now integrated into the Xi'an metropolitan area, one of the main urban agglomerations in northwestern China, with more than 7.17 million inhabitants.

It was located in the modern day Shaanxi province on the northern bank of the Wei River, on the opposite side of which Liu Bang would later build the Han dynasty capital of Chang'an once he became emperor.

At the beginning of December 207 BC, the last Qin emperor Ziying surrendered to rebel leader Liu Bang, who entered Xianyang peacefully without harming the locals.

Xiang Yu then killed Ziying and burned Xianyang in 206 BC,[9] destroying the sole surviving copies of several banned books that were kept in the royal library.

[10] In 202 BC, after defeating Xiang Yu in Battle of Gaixia and ending the Chu-Han contention, Liu Bang was crowned the emperor of the newly established Han dynasty, and he built a new capital across the Wei River merely miles from the ruins of old Xianyang and named this new city Chang'an.