Ningxia 宁夏

Xi Xia Royal Tomb Yinchuan By xiaoming wang. Sourced via Flickr under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License.

Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region (宁夏回族自治区) is one of the smallest provinces of China. It is sandwiched between Gansu province and Inner Mongolia region and has a short border with Shaanxi province to the east. Ningxia is situated on the high Loess Plateau. The yellow river curves through much of the province.

Tourist Attractions

Below is a list of tourist attractions in Ningxia:

History

Ningxia and its surrounding areas were incorporated into the Qin Dynasty as early as the third century BCE. Throughout the Han Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty there were several large cities established in the region, and by the eleventh century the Tangut tribe had established the Western Xia Dynasty on the outskirts of the then Song Dynasty.

It then came under Mongol domination after Genghis Khan conquered Yinchuan in the early thirteenth century. After the Mongols departed and its influences faded, some Turkic-speaking Muslims also began moving into Ningxia from the west. In the Muslim Rebellion of the 19th century, twelve million non-Muslims were killed by the Hui Muslims for the purpose of developing a Muslim country on the western bank of the Yellow River (Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia (excluding the Xinjiang province)), around five million Hui Muslims in Western China were killed by the Qing authorities.

In 1914, Ningxia was merged with the province of Gansu; in 1928, however, it was detached and became a province. Between 1914 and 1928, the Xibei San Ma brothers (literally "three Mas of the northwest") ruled the provinces of Qinghai, Ningxia and Gansu. In 1958, Ningxia formally became an autonomous region of China. In 1969, Ningxia's border was extended to the north and acquired parts of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, but was reverted again in 1979. 

People and Culture

Ningxia has a total population of 5,880,000 people. Of these, the largest ethnic group is the Han, accounting for 3.68 million people (65.47%). There are another 33 ethnic groups represented in Ningxia out of the possible 56 official Chinese ethnic groups. The largest of these is the Hui who make up 1.90 million of the population (33.88%).  Most of this ethnic group live in Tongxin, Guyuan, Xiji, Haiyuan, and Jingyuan counties as well as Wuzhong City and Lingwu County.

Industry

Ningxia is the province with the third smallest GDP (Tibet being the last) in the PRC. Its nominal GDP in 2008 was just 109.85 billion yuan (US$15.8 billion) and a per capita GDP of 17,892 yuan (US$2,576). It contributes 0.3% of the national economy.

Ningxia is the principal region of China where wolfberries are grown.

Yinchuan Economic and Technological Development Zone: established in 1992 spanning 32 km2, annual economic output Rmb23.7 billion (25.1% up) (US$3.5 billion) Major investors: Mainly local enterprises such as Kocel Steel Foundry, FAG Railway Bearing (Ningxia), Ningxia Little Giant Machine Tools, etc. Major industries: Machinery and equipment manufacturing, new materials, fine chemicals and the animation industry

Desheng Industrial Park (in Helan County), is a base for about 400 enterprises. The industrial park has industrial chains from Muslim food and commodities to trade and logistics, new materials and bio-pharmaceuticals that has 80 billion yuan in fixed assets. Desheng is looking to be the most promising industrial park in the city. It achieved a total output value of 4.85 billion in 2008, up 40 percent year-on-year. The local government plans to cut taxes and other fees to reduce the burden on local enterprises. The industrial output value reached 2.68 billion yuan in 2008, an increase of 48 percent from a year earlier.

Transport

Airports

• Yinchuan Hedong Airport
• Yinchuan Helanshan Airport
• Zhongwei Xiangshan Airport (中卫香山机场)
• Wuhai Airport (serves the northern area)

Highways

• China National Highway 109
• China National Highway 110
• China National Highway 211
• China National Highway 307
• China National Highway 309
• China National Highway 312

Bridge

• Taole Yellow River Expressway Bridge (陶乐黄河大桥)

Rail

• Baotou-Lanzhou Railway (包兰铁路)
• Baozhong Railway (宝中铁路) 

Geography

Ningxia borders the provinces of Shaanxi and Gansu, and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Rivers that flow through Ningxia include the Yellow River.

Ningxia is a relatively dry, desert-like region. There is significant irrigation in order to support the growing of wolfberries (a commonly consumed fruit throughout the region).

Ningxia's deserts include the Tengger desert in Shapotou.

On 16 December 1920, the Haiyuan earthquake, 8.6 magnitude, centred at 36.6°N 105.32°E, initiated a series of landslides that killed an estimated 200,000 people. Over 600 large loess landslides created more than 40 new lakes.

In 2006, satellite images indicated that a 700 by 200-meter fenced area within Ningxia, 5 km southwest of Yinchuan, near the remote village of Huangyangtan, is a near-exact 1:500 scale terrain model reproduction of a 450 by 350-kilometer area of Aksai Chin bordering India, complete with mountains, valleys, lakes and hills. Its purpose is as yet unknown. 

Ningxia is divided into five prefecture-level cities:

Map	#	Name	Hanzi	Hanyu Pinyin	Type
	1	Yinchuan	银川	Yínchuān	Prefecture-level city
	2	Shizuishan	石嘴山	Shízuǐshān	Prefecture-level city
	3	Wuzhong	吴忠	Wúzhōng	Prefecture-level city
	4	Zhongwei	中卫	Zhōngwèi	Prefecture-level city
	5	Guyuan	固原	Gùyuán	Prefecture-level city

Climate

The region is 1,200 km from the sea and has a continental climate with average summer temperatures rising to between 17 and 24°C in July and average winter temperatures dropping to between -7 and -10°C in January. Seasonal extreme temperatures can reach 39°C in summer and -30°C in winter. The diurnal temperature variation in summer is 17°C. Annual rainfall averages from 190 to 700 millimeters, with more rain falling in the south of the region.