Module 1 Europe4.docVIP

Module 1 Europe Task—教案 ■Goals To learn to make a file ■Procedures Step 1: Surfing the Internet for related information Step 2: Making a poster display of your fact file Shanxi Shanxi is a northern province of the Peoples Republic of China. Its one-character abbreviation is Jin (晋), after the state of Jin that existed here during the Spring and Autumn Period. Shanxi has an area of 150,000 km2 and a population of 32.97 million. Shanxis name literally means mountains west, which refers to the provinces location west of the Taihang Mountains. Shanxi borders Hebei to the east, Henan to the south, Shaanxi to the west, and Inner Mongolia to the north. The capital of Shanxi is Taiyuan. History Shanxi was the location of the powerful state of Jin during the Spring and Autumn Period (722 BC - 403 BC), which underwent a three-way split into the states of Han, Zhao and Wei in 403 BC, the traditional date taken as the start of the Warring States Period (403 BC - 221 BC). By 221 BC all of these states had fallen to the state of Qin, which established the Qin Dynasty (221 BC - 206 BC). The Han Dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD) ruled Shanxi as the province (zhou) of Bingzhou (并州 Bìng Zhōu). During the barbarian invasions of the Sixteen Kingdoms period (304 - 439, Shanxi was hotly disputed along with the rest of North China, and present-day Datong served for a time as the capital of the Northern Wei (386 - 534), a Xianbei kingdom that went on to rule nearly all of North China. During the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907) and after, the area was called Hédōng (河東), or east of the (Yellow) river. During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period (907 - 960) Shanxi came under the Northern Han, the only one of the ten kingdoms in North China. Shanxi was formally established with its present name and approximate borders by the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644). For centuries Shanxi was a center of trade and banking, and the term Shanxi merchant (晋商) was once synonymous with wealth; the well-preserved c