Northern commandery in
Huangling County Yan'an was populated at least as early as the
Xia dynasty, when it formed part of . The area was not part of the subsequent
Shang dynasty, and was instead inhabited by the
Guifang, and a military base was established. During the subsequent
Tang dynasty, the area belonged to , Upon the Tang dynasty's establishment in 618 CE, three local
commanderies were replaced with
prefectures. Around this time, he noted that a landslide on the bank of a large river near Yan Prefecture had revealed an open space several dozens of feet under the ground once the bank collapsed. This underground space contained hundreds of petrified bamboos still intact with roots and trunks, "all turned to stone" as Shen wrote.
Emperor Shenzong of Song rewarded Shen with numerous titles for his merit
in these battles, and in the sixteen months of Shen's military campaign, he received 273 letters from the Emperor. Nonetheless, Shen was successful in defending his fortifications and the only possible Tangut invasion-route to Yanzhou. That year, in the eastern portion of present-day Yan'an, the combined Mongol and Western Xia forces defeated a 30,000-strong Jin army led by
general . In 1823, Bao'an (present-day
Zhidan County) had a population of 51,000, but only 170 remained in 1868; while Yan'an (present-day
Baota District) had 61,200 inhabitants in 1823, but only about 10,000 in 1930. When
Edgar Snow went there in 1936, it was under
Kuomintang control and a Red army siege had recently been lifted. Unknown to him at the time, there had also been contacts there between the Communists and the generals who later staged the
Xi'an Incident. Snow actually met Mao at Bao'an (Pao An). Having rebelled against Chiang, the local warlords decided to hand over Yan'an to the Communists, who were now allies. They pulled out, and in January 1937, the Red Army entered Yan'an, On September 6, 1937, Yan'an became the seat of the communist government of what became known as the
Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region.
World War II and resumption of the Chinese Civil War During the
Second World War almost all buildings, except a pagoda, were destroyed by Japanese bombing, and most inhabitants took to living in
yaodongs, artificial caves or
dugouts carved into hillsides which were traditional dwellings in
Shaanxi. While Yan'an was the center of Chinese communist life many prominent Western journalists including
Edgar Snow and
Anna Louise Strong met with Mao Zedong and other important leaders for interviews. Other Westerners, such as
Hsiao Li and
Michael Lindsay, were part of the resistance movement in Yan'an. In July 1942,
Wuqi County was established. This group sought to establish relations with Chinese Communist forces, investigate the Communist Party politically and militarily, and determine whether the United States should back Communist forces. The Communist leadership learned of a planned attack in advance, and ultimately voluntarily withdrew from the city. From then until their capture of
Beijing they were usually based somewhere else, often with a mobile headquarters. On April 21, 1948, the
People's Liberation Army retook Yan'an.
After 1949 In May 1950, under the
People's Republic of China, Yan'an was re-organized as Yan'an District (), and was further re-organized as a special district () in October. Yan'an was later established as a
prefecture (). On November 15, 1996, Yan'an Area was revoked and established as a
prefecture-level city. Yan'an's experienced fast-paced
urbanization during the
Eleventh Five-Year Plan period (2006–2010). From 2011 to 2015, it underwent a
red tourism-oriented beautification project.
General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping visited Yan'an in 2015. During the visit, he emphasized the importance of studying the
Communist Party's history in Yan'an and called for a renewed focus on the principles of
Marxism–Leninism,
Mao Zedong Thought, and the party's revolutionary tradition. ==Geography==