Fen River

The Fen rises in the Guancen Mountains of Ningwu County and crosses the whole of Shanxi, from the northern mountains through the Taiyuan basin and down the central valley to the Yellow River below Hejin. Taiyuan takes its name from the place where the river comes out of the mountains into the plain. Within the prefecture the river runs north to south for about a hundred kilometres, a seventh of its length, and the valley around it has become the economic centre of the province. Dams upstream cut its flow to a trickle; reservoirs and a riverside park now hold the water inside the city.