Xi'an Facts & District GuideXian is situated in the southern part of the Guanzhong Plain in Shaanxi province, with the Qinling Mountains to the south and the Weihe River to the north. The city covers approximately an area of 16,808 square kilometers.
Xi'an has a population of around 8.2 million people. About 4 million people live in the city area. Though majority of the people are Han Chinese, Xi'an also has a large Muslim population. It is also one of the most popular tourist cities in China where tens of thousands of foreign and Chinese tourists alike visit every year. The majority of Xi'an residents are Han Chinese, which make up 99.1% of the city's total population. There are around 81,500 ethnic minorities living in Xi'an, including 50,000 Muslim Hui people, many of them concentrated in the famous Muslim quarter, which is also home to the beautiful 1,360 year old Great Mosque of Xi'an. Like other major Chinese cities, Xi'an receives a fair amount of migrant workers from the rural areas every year.
Xi'an is nested between a flood plain created by the eight surrounding rivers and streams, but most of the surrounding bodies of waters have been too polluted to be used as sources of fresh water. The city borders the northern foot of the Qinling Mountains to the south, and the banks of Wei River to the north. Hua Shan, one of the five sacred Taoist mountains, is located 100 km away to the east of the city. Xi'an is the capital of Shannxi, it governs several counties: Ankang, Baoji, Hanzhong, Shangluo, Tongchuan, Weinan, Xianyang, Yan'an, and Yulin. Xi'an city is divided into five major parts: Northern suburb, Southern Suburb, Eastern suburb, Western Suburb, and city proper surrounded ancient walls. The five major parts of Xi'an is then subdivided into 13 districts. Many state level and provincial level universities are located in the Southern suburb of Xi'an.
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