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| Yanmen Pass |
The city of Xinzhou is in the north-central part of Shanxi province and covers 25,000 square kilometers of land, with a mountainous-highland part accounting for 87 percent, and valleys, 13 percent. Hengshan, Wutai, Taihang, and Xizhou mountains run north to south to the east of the city, and Guancen, Luya, and Yunzhong mountains are in its middle. it also has the Xinding and Wuzhai basins and a forested area covering 1,302,400 hectares, for a coverage rate of 14.3 percent. It has four national forest parks at Wutai and Guancen mountains, Yuwang Cave, and Zhaogao Temple.
The city has plenty of natural resources, with more than 50 proven minerals, including coal, with 80 billion tons of reserves, or 13 percent of the province's total, bauxite, at 250 million tons and 27 percent, iron, at 1.8 billion tons and 48 percent, gold, at 19,000 kilograms and 74 percent, and titanium ore, at 76 million tons and China's second largest deposit. It has an industrial system for coal, electric power, metallurgy, chemicals, and equipment manufacturing and 81 coal mines, with a production capacity of 94.96 million tons, and an installed electric power capacity of 5.29 million kW. It also has a 2-million-ton aluminum oxide production center and is working on 1-million-ton aluminum oxide and 600,000-ton-aluminum profile projects.
The city has a diverse climate and is the reputed "Kingdom of coarse cereals" and contains modern agricultural pilot areas. It also has the Yanmenguan ecological livestock economy zone, and the quality coarse cereals economic zone.
It has 294 scenic spots, including an international cultural landscape heritage site, a national historic, cultural city site, a state nature reservation, four national forest parks, 19 national and 47 provincial cultural relics protection sites. It has been developing its Wutai Mountain scenic spot and its city of Xinzhou is an important red tourism and revolutionary education base. It has convenient transportation to the cities of Beijing and Tianjin and Hebei province, making it no more than half a day from Beijing and its attractions. The Wangdu-Wutai-Xinzhou Expressway and Wutai Mountain Airport, now under construction, will shorten the travel time and connect the city to many others after completion, making it an attractive tourist and investment destination in the North and across the country.
