Yan’an, city, northern Shaanxi sheng (province), north-central China. It became famous as the wartime stronghold of the Chinese communists from the mid-1930s to 1949. Yan’an is on the heavily dissected Loess Plateau, which consists of loess (windblown soil) that is deeply etched by gullies. The city stands on the south bank of the Yan River in a basin surrounded by hills. It is a road junction for northeast Shaanxi and was a strategic town in historical times, being located near the border between the part of Shaanxi where agriculture is practicable and the arid lands to the north that merge into the Ordos Plateau.
The name Yan’an was first given to the commandery (district controlled by a commander) set up there in 607 ce by the Sui dynasty (581–618). It was a vital frontier post under the Tang dynasty (618–907). It served as part of the defenses of the Song dynasty (960–1279) against the northwestern Xi (Western) Xia dynasty (1038–1227) and was the scene of a crucial victory by Mongol armies over the forces of the Jin (Juchen) dynasty in 1221. Since the 15th century the importance of the area has declined. It was badly affected by Muslim uprisings of 1864–75; by droughts and famines of the 1870s, which decimated the population; and by the almost equally disastrous droughts of the 1920s and ’30s, which depopulated whole counties in the area.
The communist armies, driven from their bases in the Jiangxi Soviet areas by the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) in 1934, eventually reached Yan’an after their epic 6,000-mile (9,600-km) Long March (1934–35). They made the town their headquarters during the Sino-Japanese War (1937–45) and during the subsequent civil war that brought communist victory in 1949. Yan’an has thus come to represent a symbol of the heroic phase of the Chinese communist revolution, when the leadership of Mao Zedong was firmly established and the communists mastered both guerrilla warfare and the peasant-based reform policies that were to bring them to power in 1949. Remote Yan’an stands as a national shrine for the communist government, which recalls the spirit and example of its pioneer period.
The contemporary city itself is a relatively minor place. The original walled settlement was ruined by Japanese bombing in 1938–39. Yan’an is at the centre of a district that has suffered seriously from soil erosion but which has begun to be reclaimed as part of the vast scheme for the development of the Huang He (Yellow River) drainage region. The surrounding area has been increasingly devoted to livestock, and the town has a long-established woolen textile industry.
The whole area lies in a rich coal- and oil-bearing plain. Oil was discovered at Yanchang about 22 miles (35 km) to the east early in the 20th century, and a small amount was produced in the 1930s. The oil field has been further developed since 1949 but still remains small. Nonetheless, oil production and coal mining have become mainstays of the city’s economy, along with cigarette making and the generation of electric power.
Yan’an has become the communications centre of northern Shaanxi. A rail line from the city south to Xi’an (the provincial capital) has been extended to Shenmu in the northern part of Shaanxi and from there eastward into Shanxi province and northward into the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The airport provides regular flights to Xi’an, Beijing and other Chinese cities. There is a good network of highways in the region; an expressway from Xi’an has reached the city and also has been extended northward into Inner Mongolia. There are some 100 historical sites north of the old walled town that are related to the communists’ wartime presence there, and the area is a popular tourist destination. Pop. (2002 est.) 158,038.