Location: located at 33 north and 107 east, in the southern part of GuanZhong Plain in Shaanxi province with Qinling Mountains to the north and the Weihe River to the south
Neighboring Areas: Shanxi, Henan, Hubei, Sichuan, and Gansu Provinces; Ningxia Hui and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Regions
Physical Features: with an elevation of 500 metres, the Weihe Plain extends between Baoji in the west and Tongguan in the east and borders the Qinling Mountains in the south and the Huangtu Plateau in the north. Lying in the warm zone, the plain has a temperate climate with four distinct seasons. Chequered with the Weihe, Jinghe, Luohe, and Bahe rivers as well as the Jinghui, Weihui and Luohui canals, the fertile land on the plain has easy access to irrigation facilities and an abundant yield of farm produce. Xi'an lies in the centre to the south of this plain, a favourable geographical location surrounded by water and hills

Nationalities: Han, Hui
Population: 6.62 million
Urban Population: 3.73 million
Area: 16,808 sq km
History: called Chang'an in ancient times, more than 1 million years of condensation of history. During Xi'an's 3,100 years of development, 13 dynasties such as Zhou, Qin, Han and Tang, held it as their capitals

Climatic Features: temperate and continental climate; cold and dry in winter and hot in summer and rainy season comes in July, August and September
Average Temperature: 13.3C annually
Rainfall: 604.2mm annually
Mountains: Mt. Huashan, Mt. Taibaishan, Mt. Lishan
Rivers: Hui River, Wei River, Feng River, Jing River

Hang zhou

Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province in east China, lies close to the mouth of the Qiantang River at the western end of the Gulf of Hangzhou.

Hangzhou was a small fishing village until late in the sixth century, when the extension of the Grand Canal southward from the Yangzi led to the development of a busy commercial center in the town. It prospered, especially during the peaceful early period of the Tang Dynasty. Its growth was assisted by the development of the lower Yangzi area into the nation's most important agricultural region.?

Hangzhou underwent dramatic development when the Song Dynasty, pushed south by the conquering Jin, established its capital there. In a short space of 100 years, the population grew to almost a million and the town flourished as a major trading center. Although the city was partly destroyed by the invading Mongols in the late 13th-century, it appeared impressive to Marco Polo when the famous Italian traveler visited the city shortly afterwards. According to Marco Polo, Hangzhou was “without doubt the finest and most splendid city the world... there are said to be 13,000 bridges, mostly of stone... vast are the numbers of those accustomed to dainty living, to the point of eating fish and meat at one meal.”?

As for the West Lake, Marco Pole wrote: “On one side it skirts the city... and commands a distant view of all its grandeur and loveliness, its temples, monasteries, and gardens with their towering trees, running down to the water's edge. On the lake itself is the endless procession of barges thronged with pleasure-seekers... their minds and thoughts are intent upon nothing but bodily pleasures and the delights of society.”?

Today, the city remains renowned for its beauty, which some claim is unsurpassed in China; and although some of the historic buildings have been destroyed, the archaeological attractions that remain are still impressive. Many sections of the town have not changed for centuries, while the famous West Lake region retains its reputation as one of the most beautiful spots in China, with landscaped gardens on its banks, tree-shaded walks, and in the nearby hills, temples, pagodas, and monasteries.?

WEST LAKE?
Hangzhou's fame rests mainly with the picturesque West Lake, so named because it is located in its western fringe. Covering about four square miles, West Lake is surrounded on three sides by rolling wood hills. At the center are three isles--Lesser Yingzhou, Mid-lake Pavilion and Ruangong Isle. Solitary Hill stands by itself on the northern lakeshore. It can be reached from the city by Bai Causeway, with Su Causeway bisects the lake from north to south. The blue, often rippling, water is dotted with elegant stone bridges and charming pavilions.?

LINGYIN TEMPLE?
It is believed that the temple was first established in 336 A.D. by a monk known as Hui Li. It was destroyed on a number of occasions, the last time during the Taiping Rebellion, and the latest rebuilding was in the early part of the 20^th century. It was then restored in 1956.?

The temple sits at the foot of the Northern Peak in a wooded area, with a stream running in front of it. Some of the trees in front are believed to be more than 1,000 years old.?

The foremost temple houses a laughing Buddha carved in camphor wood and covered in gold with a carved gilt figure standing behind as a guard. Both figures are set under a two-eaves wooden canopy decorated in red and gold. Ornate lamps hang on either side.?

Chong qing

The city of Chongqing can be best described as southwest China’s commercial capital. Since 1997, the city has become the fourth municipality, independent from Sichuan Province, to be under the direct control of the central government. The major port of the upper Yangzi River and gateway to the famous “Three Gorges,” Chongqing now includes most of the former eastern Sichuan Province, with a population of 30 million. It is a major center of iron and steel production, motorcycle manufacturing and shipbuilding, as well as chemical and pharmaceutical production. The religious cliff sculptures of Dazu and Baodingshan and the Three Gorges scenic region of the Yangzi River are all nearby, making Chongqing an important center for tourism despite the scarcity of notable sights within the city proper.

Chongqing lies at the confluence of the Yangzi and Jialingjiang Rivers, centered on a hilly peninsula encircled by the rivers, in what was formerly the eastern part of Sichuan Province. Also known as the Mountain City, Chongqing is 1,025 km (640 miles) northwest of Hong Kong, and 1,800 km (1,120 miles) southwest of Beijing. It is one of the four “furnace cities” of China, with blazingly hot and humid summers and cold, foggy winters.

Chongqing traces its ancient history all the way back to the 13th century BC, when it was the capital of the Ba kingdom, with a distinctive local culture contemporary with the Shang. It was given its present name, which means “Double Celebration,” by the Southern Song Emperor Guangzong in 1189, to commemorate his accessions to princely and then imperial rank. At the end of the Song period, from 1242 to 1278, Song forces held off Mongol invaders in the longest continuous military campaign ever on Chinese soil, lasting some 36 years at nearby Hechuan, 60 km to the north of the city. Chongqing was opened as a treaty port to British and Japanese traders in 1890. Chongqing gained political importance following the Japanese invasions of the late 1930’s. After Nanjing fell in 1937, Chongqing became the wartime capital of the Kuomintang regime from 1938 on, and a focus for refugees and bombing raids that destroyed most of the city’s historical fabric. After the Japanese surrender in 1945 and the breakdown of U.S. sponsored negotiations held in Chongqing between the Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek and the Communist leader Mao Zedong, Chongqing remained a Kuomintang stronghold until it fell to the People’s Liberation Army in 1949. Since then Chongqing has grown dramatically in population and economic importance, becoming the major industrial center of southwestern China.

The Three Gorges (San Xia) scenic area on the Yangzi River includes some 200 km of rapids and dramatic, sharp bends set close between high limestone cliffs on either side, in the area between Baidicheng in Sichuan and Yichang in Hubei Province. The scheduled completion of the Three Gorges Dam project upstream from Yichang around 2008 will raise the water levels some 100 m, forever changing some of the most historically celebrated scenery in China. The area is reached via ferries or cruise ships running downstream from Chongqing to Yichang, or on to Wuhan or all the way to Shanghai.

In earlier times all the way down to the early 20th century navigating this stretch of the Yangzi River was dangerous and back-breaking work. Upstream vessels often needed the labor of hundreds of trackers on the riverbanks who hauled boats against the current using long ropes, sometimes taking weeks. By the 1950’s the most troublesome rocks and reefs had been removed, making the river navigable to ferry boats and cruise ships.

The first stop on the route downstream from Chongqing is the town of Fuling, overlooking the mouth of the Wu River that runs south into Guizhou. In the middle of the Yangzi River here is a huge rock known as Baihe Ridge, with three carvings known as “stone fish” on one side that may have served as watermarks for navigation since ancient times. The next major town is Fengdu, 193 km (120 miles) northeast of Chongqing, and known as the “city of devils.”

The first of the three Yangzi Gorges is known as the Qutang Gorge, which, at 8 kilometers long, is the smallest and shortest of the Three Gorges, but contains the fastest water. On the north bank are remains of Warring States Period peoples who buried their dead in coffins set in crevices in high caves along the riverside cliffs. Nine coffins discovered in such crevices include bronze swords and armor from the period. The cliff sides include square holes bored into the rock to hold support timbers for plank roads and scaffolds.

Wu Gorge (Wu Xia) is about 40 km long, with sheer, narrow cliffs on either side rising up to 900 m above the water and sometimes seeming to close over approaching boats. A nearby rock inscription is attributed to Zhuge Liang of the Three Kingdoms period, and the Kong Ming tablet, a large inscribed rock slab at the foot of the Peak of the Immortals. A side trip leads to the Three Little Gorges (Xiao Sanxia) along the Daning River for 33 km, passing the Dragon Gate Gorge and remains of a Qing dynasty road cut into the cliffs.

Xiling Gorge is the longest and deepest of the three at 80 km, with cliffs that rise as high as 4,000 feet. It begins at the town of Zigui, known as the birthplace of the poet Qu Yuan of the late Warring States period (3^rd century BC), whose suicide is commemorated by dragon-boat races throughout southern China. In former times this was the most dangerous gorge, negotiated only with arduous efforts by trackers on shore. ?At the end of the gorge is the site of the Three Gorges Dam at Sanduoping, known as the Gezhouba (Gezhou Dam), or sometimes as the Da Ba (Big Dam). When finished the dam will be 607 ft high and 2 km (1 1/2 mi) long. It is designed to furnish one-third of the entire country’s electrical power, to alleviate flooding problems, improve river navigation, and aid the economic development of rural areas along the river.