Shanxi Province is located in the middle of China, middle reaches of the Yellow River and to the west of Taihang Mountains, thereby being called Shanxi.

Most of the province was the territory of the Jin State during Spring and Autumn Period so Shanxi is called Jin for short. Due to the division of Jin State between Han, Zhao and Wei states during the Warring States Period, it is also called "Three Jin".

Shanxi Province (N34°34`-40°43` E110°14`-114°33`) covers an area of 156,600 square kilometers with the layout boundary of a parallelogram slanting from north-east to south-west.

It is adjacent to Hebei Province to the east with the lofty Taihang Mountains as the natural barrier, opposite to Shaanxi Province and Henan Province to the southwest with the choppy as the moat, and neighbours Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to the north across the Great Wall.

The topographic condition in Shanxi is mostly mountains and hills and the mountainous area accounts for over 80% of the whole province, between which are the catenulate basins-Datong Basin, Xinding Basin, Jinzhong Basin, Jiannian Basin and Shangdang Basin in order from the north to the south.

Major Cities: It has 11 main cities, namely Taiyuan City, Datong City, Shuozhou City, Xinzhou City, Yangquan City, Jinzhong City, Lvliang City, Changzhi City, Jincheng City, Linfen City and Yuncheng City, 119 counties or districts and the capital city is Taiyuan City.