Is Shaanxi capital of Xi'an? Diners eat out in Muslim Quarter at night. SHAANXI, 30 April (BelTA - China Daily) - It was late in the evening and I was walking with a group of foreign journalists in a market in Shangluo city on the first day of our four-day international media tour to Shaanxi province in northwestern China. A foreign colleague turned toward us and asked, "What is the capital of Xi'an? Is it Shaanxi?" Now, it may sound absurd, especially to Chinese ears, that someone does not even know that Shaanxi, not Xi'an, is the province and Xi'an is its capital.