Yan'an[a] is a prefecture-level city in the Shaanbei 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 Communist Party (CCP) before the city of Yan'an proper took that role.

[3] Yanzhou was a location of strategic military importance for the Chinese empire and Tanguts of the Western Xia dynasty.

[6][citation needed] It was once successfully defended by the Song dynasty era Chinese scientist, statesman, and general Shen Kuo.

[citation needed] In 1089, under the Song dynasty, Yanzhou was renamed to Yan'an, and was promoted to a fu (Chinese: 府).

[3] 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.

[8]: 128  One account from a British traveler in 1911 described Yan'an as "a city of pretentious Government Offices long fallen into decay...Gazing down a vista of dim distant years one caught a glimpse of past splendour; but the living forces of which it had been the drapery and symbols had long since died out, leaving stagnation, corruption and decay to reign in its halls".

[8]: 129–130 After the fall of the Qing dynasty, the city became part of the newly created Republic of China, and was reorganized by the Republican government in 1913 under Yulin Circuit [zh].

[citation needed] Having rebelled against Chiang, the local warlords decided to hand over Yan'an to the Communists, who were now allies.

[12]: 123  From 1937 through 1941, the Communist government organized large-scale migrations to Yan'an, predominantly from Suide to the northeast, which was a significantly more densely populated area.

[8]: 143  During this time, the large drive for intense rural labor earned its detractors, and was publicly criticized by some for "giving people a distaste for collective labour".

[8]: 143  In 1941, Mao Zedong put special influence on a series of training programs to "correct unorthodox tendencies" and essentially mold the peasantry to the communist model.

[13][14] During the Second World War almost all buildings, except a pagoda, were destroyed by Japanese bombing, and most inhabitants took to living in yaodongs, artificial caves or dugouts carved into hillsides which were traditional dwellings in Shaanxi.

[15][citation needed] While Yan'an was the center of Chinese communist life many prominent Western journalists including Edgar Snow and Anna Louise Strong met with Mao Zedong and other important leaders for interviews.

[citation needed] Other Westerners, such as Hsiao Li and Michael Lindsay, were part of the resistance movement in Yan'an.

[16] Beginning in 1944, Yan'an played host to the United States Army Observation Group, also known as the Dixie Mission.

[19]: 89 Yan'an is located in northern Shaanxi on the Loess Plateau, with a latitude spanning from 35°21′ to 37°31′ N, and a longitude spanning from 107°41′ to 110°31′ E.[20] The city is bordered by Yulin to the north, Xianyang, Tongchuan, and Weinan in the Guanzhong region to the south, Linfen and Lüliang of Shanxi to the east across the Yellow River, and Qingyang of Gansu to the west across the Ziwu Ridge (Chinese: 子午岭).

[20] Yan'an City is located in the middle reaches of the Yellow River and belongs to the hilly and ravine area of the Loess Plateau.

[2]: 3–13  Of Yan'an's county-level divisions, Baota District recorded the largest GDP in 2019, totaling 36.391 billion RMB.

[2]: 3–12 As of 2019, the city's output in the fields of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishing totals 26.107 billion RMB.

[2]: 12–24 As of 2019, the city's industrial output is worth 96.510 billion RMB,[2]: 3–12  a 6.4% increase from the previous year at constant prices.

[25] In addition to oil and natural gas, major industries in the city include coal mining, power generation, and cigarette production.

[19]: 89 In 2021, the development project Golden Yan'an opened as part of the Holy Land Valley Cultural Tourism Industrial Park.

[12]: 1  This tourist town is branded as the "new landmark of Red Tourism in China" and features old-fashioned Chinese streets and shops in the style of the 1930s Yan'an Soviet.