Sanmenxia

Sanmenxia city, the swan city. [Photo/Information Office of Henan Provincial People's Government]

Sanmenxia, located in western Henan, borders Shanxi Province and Shaanxi Province. It administers 2 county-level cities, 2 counties and 2 districts with a permanent resident population of 2,034,872 (the 7th national census) distributed over an area of 10,496 square kilometers.

Sanmenxia is one of the birthplaces of Chinese nation. It is the first place of the discovery of Yangshao Culture -- the Ruins of Yangshao Village Culture (prototypical Chinese culture of Neolithic period, the relics of which were first unearthed in Yangshao village, Mianchi County, Henan Province in 1921). Other places of historic interest in Sanmenxia include Hangu Pass, the famous military fortress built in the Qin Dynasty and Yawu Mountains famous for Taoism. Thanks to the above mentioned, along with the natural reserve of white swans, it is regarded as "Pearl of the Yellow River" "Holy Place of Culture” and “Swan City”.

Sanmenxia has laid a solid foundation of industries with the modernized industrial layout of gold, aluminum, equipment manufacturing and coal chemical. Besides the recognition as a production base of electric and air gauges in China, its capacity and scale of chemical equipment manufacturing rank first in Henan, among the front-runners in China. Its main specialties are apples, dates, edible mushrooms, walnuts and kiwi fruits.

Two national railways, Lianyungang-Lanzhou Railway and Zhengzhou-Xi'an High-Speed Railway, traverse the city with three provincial and above expressways in operation, namely Lianyungang-Horgos Expressway, Sanmenxia-Xichuan Expressway and Zhengzhou-Lushi Expressway.

Sanmenxia has established the sister city relationship with Kitakami of Japan, Szolnok of Hungary and Dongducheon of Korea.