An Introduction to Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region 宁夏回族自治区简介

Abbreviation: Ning 宁
Capital: Yinchuan
Area: More than 66,000 square kilometers
Population: 5.73 million---most of the 5.62 million people are Han people and one-third are Muslim or Hui ethnic people (1.87 million)
Location: Lying along the Yellow River in northwest China

One of the five ethnic autonomous regions at provincial level, Ningxia lies in the central part of Asian continent on the upper reaches of the Yellow River in Northwest China. It is the largest dwelling place for China’s Muslim population. Mosques built in both the Arabic and ancient Chinese styles can be seen everywhere in the region.

Bordering Shaanxi and Gansu provinces, the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region, is shielded from the deserts by the Helan Mountain. The landscape rises from the Ningxia Plain and E’erduosi Plateau in the north to the Liupan Mountain in the south with an average altitude of more than 1,000 meters. The feature of “easy to defend and difficult to be invaded” made it the heart of the great Western Xia Dynasty (1038-1227). The Yellow River runs from the western border to the northern through 12 cities and counties in the region. There is an old Chinese saying: “The Yellow River brings a lot of disasters except in the reaches of Ningxia.” The Yellow Rivers’ basin encompasses nearly 75 per cent of the Ningxia’s total land area. The region has great potential in agriculture, forestry and animal husbandry. The region produces wheat, rice, oil-bearing crops, sugar beet, melons, fruits and Chinese wolfberries. Rich land resources, developed irrigation, abundant sunshine, a great difference of temperature in daytime and at night and the absence of chemical residues in the soil and water have laid the foundation of its high-quality agriculture and husbandry produce.

Ningxia’s major industries include coal, electric power, petroleum, limestone, mica, and asbestos. Endowed with water conservancy resources, Ningxia has a long history for agricultural production. The region has long become known as thee ‘lush southern-type fields in the northern frontier.’ Its animal husbandry mainly relies on sheep raising. The Tan sheep滩羊and Shamao goat沙毛山羊are well known for their fine fur. The region is also China’s important herding base of cows and beef cattle. The five special local products are the Chinese wolfberry枸桔, licorice root甘草 , Helan stone carving贺兰石, hair-like vegetable “facai发菜 ” and sheep fur cost羊皮, the highly praised ‘five colour treasures’ (their names derive from their respective clolurs, red, yellow, blur, white and black).

The Mausoleums of the Western Xia emperors are huge in scale and solemn in atmosphere, which are reputed as the “oriental pyramids” by tourists. The Shapotou Sand Controlling Area沙坡头治沙区 is an important scientific research center for controlling sand in China. The area is feasible not only for academic investigation, but for sightseeing as well.
Tourists can drift on the Yellow River, explore the Tenger Desert, watch birds on Sand Lake and visit the Western Xia relics. Ningxia has many historical and cultural relics. East of Yinchuan, the capital of Ningxia, is the Shuidonggou Relic, a place that recorded human activity as far back as 30,000 years. Since the Qin (221-206 BC) and Han (206 BC-AD 220) dynasties, ancient people have used the Yellow River to irrigate farmland. The region also offers the steep, nearby vertical Helan Mountains (over 200 kilometers from north to south, 15 to 20 kilometers from east to west, and 2,000 meters above sea level, and the highest peak being 3,556 meters above sea level), the Liupan Mountains (The mountain traverses Ningxia, Shaaxi and Gansu province. Its main peak is within Ningxia with an elevation of 2,928 meters) and the E’erduosi tablelands. Though considered a lush spot in North China, Ningxia was little known in the past because of poor communications and transportation. With rich natural tourism resources, Ningxia has begun to pull off its mysterious veil and open to the outside world as local government makes great efforts to improve the infrastructure of communications and transportation. Local government has decided to support tourism as a pillar industry to implement its share of the western development strategy of the central government. Tourism helps to provide a broad prospect for the development of Ningxia’s economy in the years to come.

With its inland llocation, Ningxia has a fully developed transport system with railways, highways, expressways and air routes. The Baotuo-Lanzhou and Zhongwei-Baoji railways provide the region with easy access to other parts of China. By air, it takes only an hour and forty minutes to get to Beijing and two and a half hours to get to Shanghai, The region has IDD telephone connections to 195 countries and regions in the world. Such modern conveniences as faxes and the Internet have also shortened the distance between Ningxia and the rest of the world.

Dubbed “China’s Bordeaux.” Ningxia is also one of the top grape and wine production areas in China. Ningxia’s local products such as Chinese wolfberry 枸橘子(a kind of medicinal fruit, is the most famous local produce in Ningxia. It is said to be helpful in treating many diseases), Helan stone贺兰石 and sheep’s wool 羊毛are well known nationwide and around the world.

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