Yinchuan

Yinchuan 银川
—  Prefecture-level city  —
银川市
The territory of Yinchuan prefecture-level city (yellow) within Ningxia
Satellite image of Yinchuan
Yinchuan Location within China
Coordinates: 38°28′N 106°16′E / 38.467°N 106.267°E / 38.467; 106.267Coordinates: 38°28′N 106°16′E / 38.467°N 106.267°E / 38.467; 106.267
Country	People's Republic of China
Region	Ningxia
County-level divisions
Township divisions
Government
– CPC Yinchuan
– Mayor	Wang Rugui[1]
Area
– Prefecture-level city	4,467 km2 (1,724.7 sq mi)
– Urban	2,045 km2 (789.6 sq mi)
– Metro	2,045 km2 (789.6 sq mi)
Elevation	1,100 m (3,608 ft)
Population (2010 census)[2]
– Prefecture-level city	1,993,088
– Urban	1,290,170
– Urban density	630.9/km2 (1,634/sq mi)
– Metro	1,290,170
– Metro density	630.9/km2 (1,634/sq mi)
Time zone	China Standard Time (UTC+8)
Postal code	750000
Area code(s)	951
License plate prefixes	宁A
Website	www.yinchuan.gov.cn (Chinese)

Yinchuan
Simplified Chinese	银川
Traditional Chinese	銀川
Hanyu Pinyin	Yínchuān
Literal meaning	silver river
Transcriptions Mandarin - Hanyu Pinyin Yínchuān Min - Hokkien POJ Gîn-chhoan Wu - Romanization nyin平tshoe平 Cantonese (Yue) - Jyutping ngan4cyun1

Yinchuan (simplified Chinese: 银川; traditional Chinese: 銀川; pinyin: Yínchuān; Wade–Giles: Yin-ch'uan) is the capital of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China, and former capital of the Western Xia Empire of the Tanguts. It has an area of 4,467 km² and a total population of 1.99 million. Its built up area is home to 1,290,170 inhabitants spread on 3 urban districts. The name of the city literally means "silver river"; the character for "river" (川) is the same as that in Sichuan, but not as those in, for example, the Yellow River (黄河) or Yangtze River (长江).

History

Yinchuan originally was a xian (county) under the name of Fuping in the 1st century BC; its name was changed to Huaiyuan in the 6th century AD. After the fall of the Tang dynasty in 907, it was occupied by the Tangut Xi-Xia dynasty, of which it was the capital. After the destruction of the Xi-Xia dynasty by the Mongols in 1227, it came under the rule of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty. Under the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) dynasties, it was a prefecture of Ningxia. In 1928, when the province of Ningxia was formed from parts of Gansu and Inner Mongolia, it became the capital city. In 1954, when Ningxia province was abolished, the city was put in Gansu province; but, with the establishment of the Ningxia Hui autonomous region in 1958, Yinchuan once again became the capital.

Traditionally, Yinchuan was an administrative and commercial center. In the 1950s it had many commercial enterprises, and there were some handicrafts but no modern industry. The city has since grown considerably. Extensive coal deposits discovered on the eastern bank of the Yellow River, near Shizuishan, 100 km to the north, have made Shizuishan a coal-mining center.

Yinchuan, however, remains largely nonindustrial. The immediate plains area, intensively irrigated by a system developed as long ago as the Han (206 BC–AD 220) and Tang (618–907) dynasties, is extremely productive. Yinchuan is the chief agricultural market and distribution center for this area and also deals in animal products from the herds tended by nomads in the surrounding grasslands. It is a market for grain and has flour mills, as well as rice-hulling and oil-extraction plants. The wool produced in the surrounding plains supplies a woolen-textile mill. Yinchuan is a center for the Muslim (Hui) minority peoples, who constitute a third of the population. Yinchuan currently serves as a major trade route between Western cities such as Urumqi and the East.

On July 23, 1993 an airliner that was attempting its second takeoff veered off the runway, crashed into a lake, and broke apart; at least 59 of the 113 persons aboard the craft were killed.^[3]

Geography

Yinchuan lies in the middle of the Yinchuan or Ningxia Plain. It is sheltered from the deserts of Mongolia by the high ranges of the Helan Mountain to its west. The Yellow River runs through Yinchuan from southwest to northeast. The average elevation of Yinchuan is 1,100 meters (about 3,608 feet). The urban center of Yinchuan lies about halfway between the Yellow River and the edge of Helan Mountain.

Climate

Yinchuan has a desert climate (Köppen BWk) with cold and windy (but dry) winters, dust-laden springs, hot and somewhat humid summers, and rather short autumns. Monthly means range from −7.9 °C (17.8 °F) in January to 23.5 °C (74.3 °F) in July, with the mean for year at 9.0 °C (48.2 °F). Rainfall, is not heavy during any season, not even summer. Diurnal temperature differences tend to be large due to the aridity, which also partly contributes to the high annual sunshine hour total of just over 2,900 hours. There are 158 frost-free days.

Climate data for Yinchuan (1971-2000)
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Average high °C (°F)	−0.8 (30.6)	3.5 (38.3)	10.4 (50.7)	18.9 (66.0)	24.2 (75.6)	27.8 (82.0)	29.5 (85.1)	27.6 (81.7)	23.2 (73.8)	16.7 (62.1)	7.7 (45.9)	0.8 (33.4)	15.8
Average low °C (°F)	−13.7 (7.3)	−9.8 (14.4)	−2.8 (27.0)	3.9 (39.0)	10.1 (50.2)	15.1 (59.2)	17.6 (63.7)	16.2 (61.2)	10.4 (50.7)	3.1 (37.6)	−3.2 (26.2)	−10.3 (13.5)	3.1
Precipitation mm (inches)	1.2 (0.047)	2.3 (0.091)	6.3 (0.248)	8.3 (0.327)	18.7 (0.736)	17.4 (0.685)	42.8 (1.685)	51.5 (2.028)	22.5 (0.886)	11.5 (0.453)	2.9 (0.114)	0.9 (0.035)	186.3 (7.335)
% humidity	55	50	49	42	46	56	64	69	67	62	64	62	57.2
Avg. precipitation days	1.2	1.4	2.3	2.6	4.1	5.6	7.9	8.7	5.7	3.4	1.4	0.8	45.1
Sunshine hours	205.7	201.1	232.6	255.5	287.1	285.3	281.8	267.2	240.2	231.9	214.3	203.1	2,905.8
Source: China Meteorological Administration

Administrative divisions

Map	#	Name	Hanzi	Hanyu Pinyin	Xiao'erjing	Population (2010)	Area (km²)	Density (/km²)
	City proper
	1	Xingqing District	兴庆区	Xīngqìng Qū	دٍ ﻓْﻊ ﺛُﻮ	678,306	768	883
	2	Jinfeng District	金凤区	Jīnfèng Qū	دٍ ﻓْﻊ ﺛُﻮ	282,554	290	974
	3	Xixia District	西夏区	Xīxià Qū	ثِ ﺷﯿَا ﺛُﻮ	329,310	987	334
	Satellite cities
	4	Lingwu City	灵武市	Língwǔ Shì	لٍ ءُ شِ	261,677	4,639	56
	Rural
	5	Yongning County	永宁县	Yǒngníng Xiàn	ﻳْﻮ نٍ ﺷِﯿًﺎ	218,260	1,295	169
	6	Helan County	贺兰县	Hèlán Xiàn	حْ لً ﺷِﯿًﺎ	222,981	1,600	139

Economy

The city's gross domestic product per capita was ¥31,436 (US$4,526) in 2008, ranking 197th of 659 Chinese cities. Its main industries are the production of Chinese wolfberry, wheat, apple, and rice.^{[citation needed]}

Transportation

• Yinchuan is located near the western bank of the upper course of the Yellow River, near the western end of the Great Wall of China in the south-central section of the Helan Shan and Ordos Desert.
• It is served by Yinchuan Hedong Airport.
• It is served by a river port at Hengcheng, about 15 km to the east. Until the 1950s the river, which is navigable downstream as far as Baotou in the Inner Mongolian autonomous region and upstream to Zhongwei and Zhongning, was the chief communication link.
• Highways also link the city to Baotou along the river, to Lanzhou in Gansu province to the southwest, to Wuwei in Gansu to the west, and to Xi'an in Shaanxi province to the southeast.
• Since 1958 the city has been on the railway from Lanzhou to Baotou and is thus linked to other parts of China by rail.
• China National Highway 211

Yinchun Railroad station

Tourism

A mosque in Yinchuan, China.

The city's attractions include the Sand-lake and the Western Xia tombs. Sand Lake is 35 miles north of Yinchuan. Being a world of desert and lake, it is an ideal place for bird watching, sand slide and cableway slide. Appreciating reeds, lotus and fish are also popular. The Western Xia Imperial Tombs are 15.5 miles west of Yinchuan on east side of Mt. Helan. Since June 1972, nine imperial tombs and 253 lesser tombs have been unearthed, which are as grand as Ming Tombs in Beijing. With a total area of more than 19.3 square miles, it is unique among royal burials.

There are two pagodas in Yinchuan that are part of the 'Eight Famous Scenery of Ningxia': one is the Haibao Pagoda in the northern suburb and the other is the Chengtiansi Pagoda in the west.

Since 2000, Yinchuan has hosted the annual Yinchuan International Car and Motorcycle Tourism Festival, which usually occurs in August. It is the largest event of its kind in China; approximately 3000 motorcycles attend annually.

It is also possible to see parts of the Great Wall which are located near the city.

A mosque in Yinchuan

Colleges and universities

• Ningxia Polytechnical University
• Ningxia University
• Second Northwest Nationalities University
• Ningxia Medical Institute

The West Movie Studio in suburb of Yinchuan

2006 Internet phenomenon

Yinchuan was subject to an Internet phenomenon after a user of Google Earth posted images of a People's Liberation Army military facility.^[4] The facility, estimated at around 630,000 m² in size, is 35 km from Yinchuan and in the town of Huangyangtan. The purpose of the facility was speculated on the Internet following the original posting, although no official explanation for the site has been given. A subsequent posting of a photograph on the Chinese wforum.com claimed that it constituted a terrain model of the disputed Aksai Chin region of China;^[5][6][7] the image includes a watermark of Xinhua News Agency, the official press agency of the government of the People's Republic of China.

Authorities in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region have been quoted as saying that the site is used as a tank training facility.^[8]

References

1. ^ "Large Bearing Project of Schaeffler Group Started Construction in Yinchuan ETDZ" (Press release). Foreign Investment Administration, MOFCOM. 2008-04-18. http://www.fdi.gov.cn/pub/FDI_EN/StateDevelopmentZone/NewsUpdate/NewsUpdateContent/t20080418_91755.htm. Retrieved 2008-07-17. "Wang Rugui, Mayor of Yinchuan on behalf of the CPC Committee of Yinchuan and the municipal government expressed the warm congratulation to [sic] the start of the project." 
2. ^ According to 2010 China National Census
3. ^ July 23 Events in History
4. ^ Google Earth Community (2006). China - Huangyangtan - Scale model of landscape?. Retrieved August 14, 2006.
5. ^ Hutcheon, Stephen (14 August 2006). "The riddle of China's Area 51". The Age. http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2006/08/14/1155407679963.html. 
6. ^ Aroor, Shiv (5 August 2006). "From sky, see how China builds model of Indian border 2400 km away". Indian Express. http://www.indianexpress.com/story/9972.html. 
7. ^ Haines, Lester (19 July 2006). "Chinese black helicopters circle Google Earth". The Register. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/19/huangyangtan_mystery/. 
8. ^ Hutcheon, Stephen (23 July 2006). "Chinese X-file not so mysterious after all". The Age. http://www.theage.com.au/news/web/chinese-xfile-not-so-mysterious-after-all/2006/07/23/1153593217781.html. 

External links

• Yinchuan Government website
• Weather forecast for Yinchuan in Ningxia (China), 1117 m
• The Yinchuan World Rock Art Museum