Sanmenxia 三门峡市 Sanmenhsia | |
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 Location of Sanmenxia City jurisdiction in Henan | |
  Sanmenxia Location in China | |
| Coordinates (Sanmenxia government):34°46′24″N111°12′01″E / 34.7732°N 111.2004°E /34.7732; 111.2004 | |
| Country | People's Republic of China |
| Province | Henan |
| Municipal seat | Hubin District |
| Area | |
| 10,475 km2 (4,044 sq mi) | |
| • Urban | 1,814.3 km2 (700.5 sq mi) |
| • Metro | 2,995.3 km2 (1,156.5 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 376 m (1,234 ft) |
| Population (2020 census)[1] | |
| 2,034,872 | |
| • Density | 194.26/km2 (503.13/sq mi) |
| • Urban | 615,220 |
| • Urban density | 339.09/km2 (878.25/sq mi) |
| • Metro | 820,300 |
| • Metro density | 273.9/km2 (709.3/sq mi) |
| GDP[2][3] | |
| • Prefecture-level city | CN¥ 132.6 billion US$ 20.0 billion |
| • Per capita | CN¥ 58,894 US$ 8,867 |
| Time zone | UTC+8 (China Standard) |
| Postal Code | 472000 |
| Area code | (0)398 |
| ISO 3166 code | CN-HA-12 |
| MajorEthnicities | Han |
| County-level divisions | 6 |
| License plate prefixes | 豫M |
| Website | smx |
Sanmenxia (simplified Chinese:三门峡;traditional Chinese:三門峽;pinyin:Sānménxiá;postal: Sanmenhsia) is aprefecture-level city in the west ofHenan Province, China. The westernmost prefecture-level city in Henan, Sanmenxia bordersLuoyang to the east,Nanyang to the southeast,Shaanxi Province to the west andShanxi Province to the north. The city lies on the south side of theYellow River at the point where the river cuts through theLoess Plateau on its way to theNorth China Plain.
As of the 2020 census, it was home to 2,034,872 inhabitants of which 820,300 lived in the built-up area made ofHubin, Shanzhou urban districts andPinglu County in neighboring Shanxi (205,080 inhabitants), now within the agglomeration.
The city's name in Chinese (三门峡) means "The Gorge of Three Gateways" and is derived from two islands that split the Yellow River into three parts.
According to Chinese mythology,Yu the Great used a divine axe to cut the mountain ridge three times, creating the Sanmenxia gorges to prevent massive flooding. The three "men" or gates were then named "The Gateway of Man" (人门), "The Gateway of Gods" (神门) and "The Gateway of Devils" (鬼门).
With the construction of theSanmenxia Dam in the late 1950s, the ancient passes were flooded.
During theWestern Zhou dynasty, Sanmenxia was part of the territory of theState of Western Guo, ruled by relatives of the ruling Ji family of Zhou. Guo moved its capital from modern dayBaoji to Shangyang (上阳), next to Sanmenxia. Later, this territory was annexed theState of Jin.
Archaeological finds near Sanmenxia between 1956 and 1991 revealed mass chariot graves and bronzeware of Western Guo State rulers. Furthermore, the archaeological site “Shihao Section of Xiaohan Ancient Road”, an excavated pathway that is part of theworld heritage site “Silk Roads: the Routes Network of Chang'an-Tianshan Corridor”, is also located in Sanmenxia. In 2011, theSanmenxia Cultural Sports Centre Stadium opened. The association football venue has a capacity of 22,000.
Sanmenxia is located in western Henan on the southern (right) bank of the Yellow River, and is surrounded on three sides by mountains, with elevations generally increasing from northeast to southwest. Most of the prefecture is at an altitude of 300 to 1,500 metres (980 to 4,920 ft), although the highest peak in the province, at 2,413.8 metres (7,919 ft), is located in Lingbao. The prefecture is at the intersection ofHenan,Shanxi, andShaanxi provinces, bordering Luoyang to the east, Nanyang to the south,Weinan (Shaanxi) to the west, andYuncheng (Shanxi) to the north across the Yellow River.
Sanmenxia has a mostly dry,monsoon-influenced continental climate with four seasons. Winters are moderately cold and very dry, while summers are hot and humid. Monthly daily average temperatures range from −0.3 °C (31.5 °F) in January to 26.4 °C (79.5 °F) in July, and the annual mean is 13.9 °C (57.0 °F). More than half of the annual precipitation falls from July to September. There are between 184 and 218 frost-free days per annum. In theKöppen system, the city is in the transition zone between ahumid subtropical climate (KöppenCwa) andhumid continental climate (KöppenDwa), and receives barely enough precipitation to avoid beingsemi-arid (KöppenBSk).[4]
| Climate data for Sanmenxia, elevation 410 m (1,350 ft), (1991–2020 normals, extremes 1971–2010) | |||||||||||||
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| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 15.6 (60.1) | 23.3 (73.9) | 29.7 (85.5) | 36.7 (98.1) | 39.8 (103.6) | 41.4 (106.5) | 41.6 (106.9) | 39.6 (103.3) | 39.2 (102.6) | 33.3 (91.9) | 26.3 (79.3) | 18.4 (65.1) | 41.6 (106.9) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 5.2 (41.4) | 9.4 (48.9) | 15.6 (60.1) | 22.6 (72.7) | 27.4 (81.3) | 31.5 (88.7) | 32.4 (90.3) | 30.7 (87.3) | 25.8 (78.4) | 20.3 (68.5) | 12.9 (55.2) | 6.6 (43.9) | 20.0 (68.1) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 0.1 (32.2) | 3.8 (38.8) | 9.5 (49.1) | 16.1 (61.0) | 21.1 (70.0) | 25.4 (77.7) | 27.0 (80.6) | 25.5 (77.9) | 20.5 (68.9) | 14.6 (58.3) | 7.5 (45.5) | 1.6 (34.9) | 14.4 (57.9) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −3.7 (25.3) | −0.3 (31.5) | 4.8 (40.6) | 10.8 (51.4) | 15.6 (60.1) | 20.1 (68.2) | 22.9 (73.2) | 21.6 (70.9) | 16.6 (61.9) | 10.4 (50.7) | 3.6 (38.5) | −2.0 (28.4) | 10.0 (50.1) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −12.5 (9.5) | −10.9 (12.4) | −6.2 (20.8) | −0.4 (31.3) | 4.7 (40.5) | 12.4 (54.3) | 15.8 (60.4) | 12.8 (55.0) | 6.5 (43.7) | −2.1 (28.2) | −8.0 (17.6) | −12.8 (9.0) | −12.8 (9.0) |
| Averageprecipitation mm (inches) | 3.8 (0.15) | 8.6 (0.34) | 17.4 (0.69) | 36.6 (1.44) | 57.8 (2.28) | 63.5 (2.50) | 105.0 (4.13) | 79.2 (3.12) | 89.7 (3.53) | 49.4 (1.94) | 24.3 (0.96) | 3.7 (0.15) | 539 (21.23) |
| Average precipitation days(≥ 0.1 mm) | 3.2 | 3.6 | 5.3 | 6.5 | 8.1 | 8.1 | 9.8 | 9.3 | 9.9 | 7.7 | 5.7 | 2.7 | 79.9 |
| Average snowy days | 4.4 | 3.9 | 1.5 | 0.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.7 | 3.1 | 14.8 |
| Averagerelative humidity (%) | 53 | 53 | 52 | 54 | 56 | 59 | 70 | 72 | 72 | 69 | 64 | 55 | 61 |
| Mean monthlysunshine hours | 143.3 | 136.5 | 170.1 | 202.5 | 220.5 | 216.2 | 208.5 | 190.0 | 147.5 | 148.6 | 140.3 | 145.5 | 2,069.5 |
| Percentagepossible sunshine | 46 | 44 | 46 | 51 | 51 | 50 | 48 | 46 | 40 | 43 | 46 | 48 | 47 |
| Source 1:China Meteorological Administration[5][6] | |||||||||||||
| Source 2: Weather China[7] | |||||||||||||
Theprefecture-level city of Sanmenxia administers twodistricts, twocounty-level cities and twocounties.
| Map |
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Major cities along theYellow River | ||
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| Province-level subdivisions | Cities (from upper reaches to lower reaches) |  |
| Gansu | ||
| Ningxia | ||
| Inner Mongolia | ||
| Shanxi | ||
| Shaanxi | ||
| Henan | ||
| Shandong | ||
| International | |
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| National | |
| Geographic | |
| Other | |
