Yan'an (; yan2.an1), alternatively spelled as Yenan is a prefecture-level city in the Shaanbei region of Shaanxi province, China, bordering Shanxi to the east and Gansu to the west. It administers several counties, including Zhidan (formerly Bao'an), which served as the headquarters of the Chinese Communists before the city of Yan'an proper took that role.
Yan'an was near the endpoint of the Long March, and became the center of the Chinese Communist revolution from late 1935 to early 1947. Chinese communists celebrate Yan'an as the birthplace of the revolution.
As of 2019, Yan'an has approximately 2,255,700 permanent residents.
Yan'an was populated at least as early as the Xia dynasty. During the Spring and Autumn period, the area was inhabited by the Beidi people. During the Western Wei the area was organized as zh. Under the Sui dynasty, the area was re-organized as zh, and a military base was established. The area became an important defensive outpost for the subsequent Tang dynasty, which renamed the area Yanzhou in 758 CE. Yanzhou was a location of strategic military importance for the Chinese empire and Tanguts of the Western Xia dynasty. It was once successfully defended by the Song dynasty era Chinese scientist, statesman, and general Shen Kuo. However, it was eventually taken over by the Tanguts in 1082 once Shen's defensive victories were marginalized and sacrificed by the new chancellor Cai Que (who handed the city over to the Tanguts as terms of a peace treaty). In 1089, under the Song dynasty, Yanzhou was renamed to Yan'an, and was promoted to a fu (). Yan'an and the whole of Shaanxi were taken over by the Mongols in the late 1220s, only after their leader Genghis Khan had died during the siege of the Western Xia capital in 1227. After the fall of the Qing dynasty, the city became part of the newly created Republic of China, and was reorganized by the Republican government in 1913 under zh.
In 1934, two regional soviets were established. In October 1935, following the Long March, forces of the Chinese Red Army arrived in the area from Jiangxi.