Meaning of the name
"Peaceful Summer". "Xia" (summer) is an ancient name for China. In the 11th century the Tangut king of this region revived the name in an attempt to create an empire to rival China itself. In order to distinguish the two competing empires, the one in the west came to be called "Xi Xia" (or Western China). When Genghis Khan conquered Xi Xia in the 13th century, he marked the conquest by naming the region Ningxia or "Peaceful Xia".

Geographical location
The Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, which is called Ning for short, is located in northwest China, on the upper reaches of the Yellow River. One of China's five autonomous regions inhabited by the minority groups, it borders Shaanxi Province in the east, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in the north, and Gansu Province in the south.

Capital: Yinchuan

Major Cities: Yinchuan, Shizuishan, Wuzhong, Guyuan, Zhongwei, Qingtongxia.

Neighboring Areas: Shaanxi and Gansu provinces; Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region

Attractions in Ningxia

Population:
5.62 million (2000), increasing by 960,000 people or 20.62 percent over that of 1990.
Population growth rate: 1.82 percent on a yearly base

Life expectancy (average): 69 years

Ethnicity:
There are 3.68 million Han people, accounting for 65.47 percent of Ningxia¡¯s total population. Ningxia is home to 33 ethnic minority groups which have a total population of 1.94 million. Of this figure, the Hui people amount to 1.90 million, accounting for 33.88 percent of the region¡¯s total population. Most of the Huis live in Tongxin, Guyuan, Xiji, Haiyuan, and Jingyuan counties as well as Wuzhong City and Lingwu County in the area irrigated with water diverted from the Huanghe River.

Literacy:
Of the total population in the region, some 207,500 people have received university education, accounting for 4.11 percent; 2.18 million people have received high school education, accounting for 43.1 percent; and 1.78 million people have received elementary schooling, accounting for 35.34 percent. The illiterates number 632,300, dropping from 22.06 percent in 1990 to 11.26 percent of the total population.

Elevation extremes
The topography of Ningxia slants toward the north with an elevation from 1,100 to 2,000 meters. The highest point is 3,556 meters above sea level.

Climate:
Temperate, continental climate with long cold winter and short hot summer; low precipitation and strong winds

Average Temperature: -10C to -7C in January, 17C to 24C in July

Annual Average Rainfall: 190 - 700 mm; precipitation increasing from north to south

Natural resources
Ningxia boasts 0.71 million hectares of wasteland suitable for farming, one of China¡¯s eight provinces and autonomous regions each with more than 0.63 million hectares of wasteland suitable for agriculture. There are 3 million hectares of exploitable meadows, making Ningxia one of the ten major pastures in China. The Weining Plain that features 0.37 million hectares of land irrigated with water diverted from the Huanghe River is one of the four principal areas with gravity irrigation in northwest China. For years, the annual runoff of the Huanghe River through Ningxia has remained at 32.5 billion cubic meters, and the water resources allocated to Ningxia by the state for irrigation are 4 billion cubic meters.

The rich land resources, convenient conditions to divert water from the Huanghe River for irrigation, and abundant sunshine have laid a solid foundation for Ningxia to bring into play its advantages in the development of agriculture. Crops, melons, and other fruit are doing well in the irrigated area. Watermelon, apple, and grape from the irrigated area have a 15-20 percent higher sugar content than those produced in central China. The per-hectare yield of single-cropping paddy reaches 10,500 kilograms, placing Ningxia in front among the provinces and autonomous regions in western China and turning it into one of the nation¡¯s 12 grain production bases. Effort is being taken to build Ningxia into a national agricultural demonstration area with high yield, high efficiency, and fine quality.

Livestock breading makes up of 29 percent of the local agriculture. Of the 82,000-hectare water surfaces, 10,000 hectares can be used for aquaculture. Ningxia produces various species of carp, river shrimp, and river crabs. There is a great potential for the development of aquaculture. In recent years, Ningxia has seen a rapid development of the aquatic production. It leads other provinces and autonomous regions in the northwest in the per-capita output of aquatic products.

Ningxia is rich in mineral resources, with verified deposits of 50 kinds of minerals including coal, gypsum, oil, natural gas, pottery clay, quartz sandstone, and barite. The potential value of these natural resources per capita is 163.5 percent of the nation¡¯s average, putting Ningxia fifth in the country. There are abundant reserves of various kinds of coal. Ningxia has formed a considerable scale of coal production. It leads the country in the deposits of gypsum, with verified deposits of more than 4.5 billion tons. Top-grade gypsum makes up half of the total deposits. The Huojiakouzi deposit in Tongxin County features a reserve of 20 tons of gypsum in 20 layers with a total thickness of 100 meters. It is a rarely-seen large gypsum in China. The reserve of oil and natural gas is ideal for a large-scale development of oil, natural gas, and chemical industries. There is a considerable deposit of quartz sandstone, of which 17 million tons have been ascertained. In addition, there are phosphorus, firestone, copper, iron, other minerals as well as Helan stone (a special clay stone).

Environment and current issues
The northern part of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region is surrounded by the Tengger, Maowusu, and Ulan Buh deserts. There is a serious desertification in the autonomous region. The crisscrossing gullies and ravines in the southern part caused a serious water loss and soil erosion. But in the long years of efforts to transform nature, the people of Ningxia have made achievements of world interest. A latest statistics showed that the area of decertified land has shrunk from 16,500 square kilometers in the 1970s to present-day 12,600 square kilometers, a decrease of 23.6 percent, making Ningxia the first among China¡¯s provinces and autonomous regions to realize a decrease of its decertified area.

Ningxia has a forest land of 400,000 hectares with a standing-timber reserve of 6.74 million cubic meters. The forest cover has shot up from 1.3 percent in the 1950 to today¡¯s 6.4 percent. In the last 40 years, the Zhongwei Sand-Fixing Tree Farm on the fringe of the Tengger Desert has adopted the ¡°square grass-planting method¡¯¡¯ and other measures to check the wind and fix shifting sand, ensuring a smooth operation of the Baolan (Baotou-Lanzhou) Railway, China¡¯s first railroad passing through deserts. The tree farm was cited by the United Nations as one of the ¡°world¡¯s 500 best tree farms¡¯¡¯ in environmental protection.

Remarkable results were also achieved in the prevention of industrial pollution and the maintenance of the quality of urban environment. From 1991 to 1996, Ningxia saw an annual increase of 11.4 percent in its industrial production, but the environmental quality did not deteriorate. The percentage of treatment of industrial wastewater and that of the removal of smoke dust have risen from 38 percent and 86 percent in 1991 to 76.7 percent and 90 percent respectively.

Transportation
Railways:
The Baotou-Lanzhou Railway passes through northern and central Ningxia, and the Zhongwei-Baoji Electrified Railway, the second passage from the coastal areas to the northwest, turns Ningxia into a vital point on the ¡°second Eurasian bridge.¡± The completion of the electrification of the Baotou-Lanzhou Railway will further improve transport facilities in the autonomous region.

Highways:
The length of highways open to traffic increases at a speed of 330 kilometers yearly. The total length of highways is 8,700 kilometers, including 7,900 kilometers of various grades. Ningxia is one of China¡¯s provinces and autonomous regions with a dense distribution of highways. Yinchuan is the center of a network composed of 13 national and provincial highways as well as more than 100 county and township highways that lead to all parts of the autonomous region.

Waterways:
Six highway bridges have been built over the 397-kilometer section of the Huanghe River flowing through Ningxia, averaging one bridge on every 66 kilometers of the river course. Construction of the seventh bridge is now under way.

Airports:
In September 1999, the Hedong Airport in Yinchuan, a fourth-degree modern airport which allows various large- and medium-size aircrafts to take off and land, went into operation. Yinchuan has air routes to Beijing, Shanghai, Xi¡¯an, Guangzhou, Foshan, Chengdu, Urumqi, Wuhan, and Chongqing and formed an aviation network leading to north, southeast, and southwest China.

Telecommunications
Telephones:
Telephone lines have reached all the villages, making Ningxia the first among the provinces and autonomous regions in the northwest to achieve this. In 1999, there were 12 phones for every hundred people in the autonomous region.
At present, a digital mobile and wireless telephone network covers the whole autonomous region and is connected with networks in other provinces and autonomous regions throughout China. People in Yinchuan, capital of the autonomous region, can dial directly to 195 countries and regions in the world. Mobile and magnetized card telephones, fax, and other communication means bring Ningxia closer to the rest of the world.

Radio and TV stations: By January 1999, there were 114 film projection units, 4 radio broadcasting stations at the prefectural or higher levels and 8 short- and medium-wave transmitting and relay stations, covering 82.3 percent of the population. There were 4 TV stations at the prefectural or higher levels as well as 9 TV transmitting and relay stations. Cable TV broadcasting made unceasing progress. TV broadcasting reached 83 percent of the population in Ningxia.