Ningxia Autonomous Region (Chinese: 宁夏回族自治区) is an autonomous
region in north-central China. Its capital and largest city is
Yinchuan. According to the 2020 census, Ningxia had a population of
7.202 million. The majority of the population is Han Chinese (62%)
and Hui (34%); the region is the historical homeland of the Hui
people.
The Great Wall of China runs along the northeastern
border of the region.
Ningxia borders the Chinese provinces of Gansu and Shaanxi as well as Inner Mongolia.
The Ningxia Autonomous Region is made up of five prefecture-level
cities. These are:
Yinchuan (银川市) 1.38 million inhabitants, capital;
Shizuishan (石嘴山市) 730,000 inhabitants;
Wuzhong (吴忠市) 1.1 million
inhabitants;
Guyuan (固原市) 1.51 million inhabitants;
Zhongwei (中卫市)
1.02 million inhabitants.
The Hui Autonomous Region borders Shaanxi Province to the east, Inner
Mongolia to the north and west, and Gansu Province to the south. See
also Autonomous administrative units of China.
With an area of
just 66,000 km² and a population of 5.6 million, Ningxia is one of the
smallest and least populated of China's provinces and regions, but is
still more than one and a half times the size of the Netherlands, for
example. The area is crossed by the Yellow River, which flows into
Ningxia to the west and leaves it to the north. Another important river
is the Qingshui He, which comes from the south in Ningxia and flows into
the Yellow River at its great northern bend.
Ningxia is located
on the northwest border of the great loess plain, at the transition to
the Mongolian steppe and desert land. 38% of the area consists of hilly
land, 27% of floodplains and basins, 17% of plateaus, 16% of mountains
and 2% of deserts. The floodplains and basins crossed by the Yellow
River are the most important agricultural areas, but they are
increasingly losing fertility due to intensive and incorrect use.
In the south and southwest, Ningxia is surrounded by the Liupan Shan
Mountains and the Quwu Shan Mountains. In the north, where the remains
of the Great Wall separate Ningxia from Inner Mongolia, lies the Helan
Shan.
Ningxia's highest elevation is 3556 m.
The climate in Ningxia is continental-temperate with precipitation decreasing sharply from south to north. While 670 mm of precipitation falls per year in the south, in the north it is often well under 200 mm. This northern part of Ningxia belongs to the Central Asian steppe and desert region. The capital city of Yinchuan receives about 200 mm of rainfall annually, which falls mainly in summer. The average January temperature in Yinchuan is about −9 °C, the average July temperature is about 26 °C, although maximum summer temperatures can exceed 40 °C. Although the name Ningxia roughly translates as "calm summer", frequent strong winds are characteristic of the region's weather.
The history of Ningxia is determined by two peculiarities of its
geographical location: firstly, its proximity to the Silk Road and
secondly, its location in the border region between Chinese civilization
and the nomadic regions of Central Asia.
The region played an
important role from the 10th century onwards. After the collapse of the
Tang Dynasty due to revolts from within and attacks on its borders, the
northwest of the empire was particularly exposed to invaders from
Central Asia. In the 10th century, the Tanguts, a people close to the
Tibetans, founded a strong state in the area of present-day Ningxia.
In 1038, the ruler of this state, Li Yuanhao, gave his empire the
dynasty name Xia, which is known in modern Chinese historiography as the
Western Xia or Xixia. Attempts by the Xia to conquer the rest of China
were repelled in 1044, but the Western Xia remained a strong power in
what is now Gansu and Shaanxi, fighting for dominance over China with
the Song from the south and the Liao from the northeast. The capital of
the empire at that time, whose state religion was Buddhism, was located
near what is now Yinchuan and was called Xingchuan.
Around 1215,
the Western Xia had a new rival in the north when the Mongols united
under Genghis Khan. A short-lived alliance with the Mongols allowed them
to launch attacks against the Song and Liao. To subdue the Western Xia,
Genghis Khan undertook six campaigns, during which he himself was
fatally wounded by poisoned arrows from the Xia in 1227 near what is now
Guyuan. Shortly before his death, Genghis Khan ordered the destruction
of the Western Xia dynasty. Since then, the region of today's Ningxia
was no longer the center of an imperial dynasty.
After the
unification of China under the Mongols, a large number of settlers came
from Central Asia, strengthening the presence of Islam in the region.
These Muslims adopted the dominant culture of the Han Chinese and their
language, but retained their religion. It was not until the 19th
century, when large parts of China were in revolt against the rule of
the Qing Dynasty, that there were also rebellions among the Muslims. In
the great rebellion between 1862 and 1878, large parts of Ningxia, but
also the neighboring provinces of Gansu and Shaanxi, were devastated.
Numerous Muslims were killed in the bloody suppression of the rebellion.
From 1912 to 1949, the Muslim-Chinese Hui warlords of the Ma clique
(Xibei San Ma), allied first with the Guominjun and then with the
Kuomintang, ruled from Ningxia across Gansu to Qinghai. In 1928, the
province of Ningxia was founded for the first time, by splitting off
from Gansu, which in turn had emerged from Shengan shortly before. At
that time, it included not only the area known today as Ningxia, but
also large areas north of it, which today belong to Inner Mongolia but
consist only of uninhabited desert.
After the communists gained
control of the region in 1948, Ningxia and its neighboring provinces
were placed under the administration of the Northwest Administration
until 1954. In 1954, Ningxia was dissolved again and incorporated into
Gansu Province. But in 1958, Ningxia was re-established as an autonomous
region for the Muslim Hui nationality. In the same year, the railway
line between Baotou in Inner Mongolia and Lanzhou in Gansu was
completed.
Although the region was established for the Hui Chinese, the
majority of the population is Han Chinese. The rest, about 35
percent, consists of Chinese Muslims who descend from traders who
came to the region via the Silk Road or Han Chinese who converted to
Islam. Later, in the 14th and 15th centuries, this part of the
population was reinforced by settlers from Central Asia. Thus, both
Islam, but also Daoism and Buddhism, have a very long tradition in
this region.
Until the end of the 19th century, Hui and other
Muslim peoples in Gansu Province (to which the Ningxia region
belonged until 1958) made up over 90% of the population at that time
(8.35 million out of 9.3 million inhabitants).
According to
the 2020 census, the permanent resident population was 6,301,350
people. This represented an increase of 901,304 people (+14.30%)
since the last census in 2010. 4,612,964 (64.05%) were Han Chinese
and 2,589,690 (35.95%) belonged to national minorities. Of these,
the Hui Chinese made up the largest proportion with 2,523,581
(35.04%). Compared to 2010, the number of Han increased by 543,552
people (+13.36%) and that of various ethnic minorities grew by
357,752 people (+16.03%).
According to the 2020 census,
64.96% of the population lived in cities and 35.04% in rural areas.
Ningxia is one of the poorer parts of the People's Republic, with the
GDP in 2000 amounting to 4839 RMB. The southern part is one of the most
poverty-stricken regions in the People's Republic of China and therefore
receives special financial allocations from the central government. This
is the area inhabited primarily by the Muslim Hui.
In 2000, 17%
of the GDP was generated in the primary sector (1994: 22%), with this
sector employing 58% of the workforce. The main crops grown are grain
(corn, wheat, rice) and vegetables (especially pulses), with all crops
requiring irrigation. A third of the agricultural yield is generated
from livestock farming, with sheep, goats, pigs and cattle being the
dominant crops. With 80.8 head of livestock per km², Ningxia has the
highest livestock density of all provinces and autonomous regions in
China; the consequences are overgrazing and desertification.
Special features of agriculture are the wool and skin of wild argali
sheep, facai (a moss that is eaten as a vegetable), licorice roots and
goji berries (Lycium barbarum), the consumption of the latter being
blamed for the remarkably old age that some of Ningxia's inhabitants
reach. Wine growing is playing an increasing role.
The secondary
sector generates 45% (2000, 1994: 42%) of GDP. The construction industry
is significant, with sales alone accounting for 10% of total GDP, which
is a result of the central government's high investment in western
China's infrastructure. Ningxia has large deposits of good quality coal,
and other important mineral resources include oil, gypsum, lime, iron
ore and Helan stone (a special type of clay). 84% of the value of
industrial production comes from heavy industry. Industry (metal
industry, chemical industry, mechanical engineering) is concentrated
almost exclusively in Yinchuan and Shizuishan in the north of the
autonomous region.
About 38% of economic output comes from the
tertiary sector (1994: 36%), the majority from trade and transport.
Tourism plays a very minor role; no province in the People's Republic
has lower income from tourism than Ningxia.
If one considers that Ningxia was one of the most remote regions in the first half of the 20th century, one can see great progress in the development of infrastructure. In 2000 there were almost 10,000 km of roads, of which around 100 km were motorways. In addition, there are over 700 km of railways and 400 km of navigable waterways. Ningxia claims to be the only region in northwest China where all villages are connected to the electricity grid.
The illiteracy rate in 2000 was 13.4%, which is relatively high within China. Despite the agricultural character of this region, however, it has fallen noticeably since 1990.