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This autonomous region with a large Muslim population is situated on the upper reaches of the Yellow
River in Northwest China. The regional capital is YinChuan, a city with many mosques on the LanZhou-Baotou Railway.
The Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, established on 1958 October 25, covers an area of 51,800
square kilometres inhabited by 4,953,000 people, 1,642,000 or 33% of whom are Hui people who are descendants of
emigrants came from the Middle East to China at the beginning of the 13th Century.
The region is 1,200 kilometres from the sea has a typical continental climate with
summer temperature rising to as high as 39º Centigrade and winter temperature plummeting to as low as 30
degrees below zero. The day\night temperature variation in summer is 17º - good for crops to synthesize starch or sugar.
Climate: climate with summer temperature rising to as high as 39 degrees Centigrade and
winter temperature plummeting to as low as 30 degrees below zero. The day\night temperature variation in summer is 17º.
Provincial capital: Yinchuan
Population: 5,620,000 (2001 March)
Ethnicity: There are 3,680,000 Han people, accounting for 65.47% of NingXia’s total
population. NingXia is home to 33 ethnic minority groups which have a total population of 1,940,000. Of this figure, the
Hui people amount to 1,900,000, accounting for 33.88% of the region’s total population. Most of the Hui 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.
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Camels are indigenous to NingXia Hui |
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Resources: Petroleum, natural gas, phosphorus, gold and other minerals have been discovered in the
autonomous region. But NingXia's biggest asset is its huge reserves of coal, which has been verified at 30,500,000,000
tons.
Coal is mined to fuel thermal plants to power
steel and aluminium works and factories turning out chemical fertilizers and many other products.
Of the ten kinds of coal, nine can be found in NingXia, such as lignite, coking coal,
anthracite, etc. The proven reserves are 30,800,000,000 tons and the estimated reserves are nearly 200,000,000,000 tons,
ranking Ningxia fifth in the whole country. ‘Taisi Coal’ produced in Rujigou Mine is the best anthracite, and it is
exported to many countries in Asia and Europe.
Agriculture: Although NingXia is situated on the northwest loess highland, the Yellow River flows through a vast
area of its land. Among its landmass totalling 66,400 square kilometres, 8 thousand are irrigated by the Yellow River.
There are 11.86 million mu (15 mu equals one hectare) of cultivated lands, over 2 mu per capita, and
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Public building in NingXia Hui |
3.6 million mu are paddy fields, more than one mu for each agricultural persoon. Yet, there are still
610 thousand hectares of wasteland good for agriculture that haven't been reclaimed.
Industry: industry in NingXia is developing very fast. Many industrial enterprises have
established. They consist of coal, electric power, metal working, petroleum, machinery, chemical, building materials,
textile, synthetic fabrics, medical, plastic, daily silicate, sugar, electron, meter, leather, paper, cigarette, and
foodstuff. All these form a comparatively full system of industry.
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