Hanzhong

There are few references to Hanzhong before the Qin dynasty's unification of China in 221 BC. The Book of Documents refers to an area called Liangzhou (梁州), while Sima Qian's book Records of the Grand Historian speaks of a "Bao state" (褒國; where the ancient beauty Bao Si came from), both of which are believed to refer to the area now called Hanzhong. From 900 BC, the area has been called Nanzheng (Chinese: 南鄭; lit. 'southern Zheng'). The ancient geographical treatise entitled Shui Jing Zhu records that Duke Huan of Zheng, a vassal lord from the Western Zhou dynasty, was slain in a battle with the nomadic Quanrong people, and some of the Zheng citizens fled the capital to establish a new settlement to the south, giving rise to the area's name. However, the veracity of this story is controversial. …

Hanzhong is located in southwestern Shaanxi, near the border with Gansu and Sichuan Provinces. It is part of the Shannan region. Hanzhong lies in the centre of the Hanzhong Basin, on the banks of the Han River (Hanshui). The Daba Mountains rise to the south of the city. To the north are the Qin Mountains. These mountains make a northern geographical limit of southern China. However, officially, Shaanxi is part of the northwest. For more on the divisions between northern and southern China, see Northern and southern China. The coordinates of the city's prefecture ranges in latitude from 33° 02' to 33° 22' N and in longitude from 106° 51' to 107° 10' E. It covers 27,246 square kilometres (10,520 sq mi). The northern part of the prefecture is elevated while the southern part is generally low lying. …

In 2021, the Hanzhong regional gross domestic product was 176.87 billion yuan. The annual gross domestic product per capita was 55279 yuan. The 012 base was established in Hanzhong in the 1960s. It is responsible for military transport aircraft and Air-to-air missiles in Yangxian County.