Shanxi province, literally means "mountain's west", which refers to the location west to the Taihang Mountains, and during the Spring and Autumn Period, it was once belonged to Jin County, so it still has a brief name of Ji. More than 34.10 million people live in 156579 square km with most people of Han. The capital of the province is Taiyuan. Shanxi province borders Hebei province to the east, Henan province to the south, Shaanxi province to the west, and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to the north.

Shanxi is located on a plateau which consists of higher ground to the east (Taihang Mountains) and the west (Lüliang Mountains) and a series of valleys in the center through which the Fen River runs. The highest peak is the 3058-meter-high Mount Wutai (Wutai Shan) in northeastern Shanxi.

The Zhongtiao Mountains run along part of the southern border and separate Shanxi from the east-west part of the Yellow River. Mount Huashan is to the southwest. As the northern border, most of which are formed by the Great Wall with Inner Mongolia, while the Yellow River forms the western border of Shanxi with Shaanxi. The north of the province is drained by tributaries of the Hai River, such as Sanggan and Hutuo rivers. And south of the province is drained by tributaries of Yellow River, such as the Fen and Qin rivers. The largest natural lake in Shanxi is Xiechi Lake, a salt lake near Yuncheng in southwestern Shanxi.