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Xining is the capital and most populous city of Qinghai province in western China and the largest city on the Tibetan Plateau. As of the 2020 census, it had 2,467,965 inhabitants (2,208,708 as of 2010), of whom 1,954,795 lived in the built-up (or metro) area made of 5 urban districts. The city lies in the Huangshui River, also known as Tsongkha (Tibetan script: ཙོང་ཁ་), and owing to its high altitude, has a cool climate on the borderline between cool semi-arid and dry winter humid continental.
Xining was a commercial hub along the Northern Silk Road's Hexi Corridor for over 2000 years, and was a stronghold of the Han dynasty, Sui dynasty, Tang dynasty, and Song dynasty dynasties' resistance against nomadic attacks from the west. Although long a part of Gansu province, Xining was added to Qinghai in 1928. Xining holds sites of religious significance to Muslims and Buddhists, including the Dongguan Mosque and Kumbum Monastery. It is connected by the Qinghai–Tibet railway to Lhasa and connected by a high-speed railway to Lanzhou and Ürümqi, Xinjiang.
The city is home to Qinghai University, a comprehensive university and the only Double First-Class University in Xining.
Under the Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD), a county called Linqiang was established to control the local Qiang tribesmen. It was again a frontier county under the Sui dynasty (581–618) and Tang dynasty (618–907) dynasties; during the 7th and early 8th centuries it was a center of constant warfare with Tuyuhun and Tibetan Empire. In 763, it was overrun by the Tibetans and while under Tibetan control was known to the Chinese as Qingtang cheng (青唐城). Recovered by the Song dynasty in 1104, it received the name Xining (meaning "peace in the west") and has been the seat of a prefecture or superior prefecture under that name since that time. The founder of Gelug Tsongkhapa (Tibetan script: ཙོང་ཁ་པ་, meaning: "the man from Tsongkha". c. 1357–1419) was born in the 14th century, and on the site of his birthplace the Kumbum Monastery was founded in the late 16th century, establishing Xining as an important religious center for the Gelug School of Buddhists.
A major earthquake occurred May 22, 1927, measuring at a magnitude of 7.6. It was one of the deadliest earthquakes in China with a total count of over 40,000 deaths. It also caused large land fractures.
Xining was the extraterritorial capital of the Koko Nor territory and remained in Gansu until 1928, when it became the provincial capital of the newly established independent province of Qinghai. (1979). 9780674119680, The Peabody Museum, distributed by Harvard University Press. . ISBN 9780674119680 (Original from the University of Michigan)
Xining was subjected to aerial bombardment by Japanese warplanes in 1941 during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The bombing spurred all ethnicities in Qinghai, including the local Qinghai Mongols and Qinghai Tibetans, against the Japanese. The Salar Muslim General Han Youwen directed the defense of the city of Xining during air raids by Japanese planes.http://www.kunlunpai.cn/thread-1211-1-1.html
Xining was given municipal status in 1945.
Under the rule of Governor Ma Bufang, Xining, like the rest of Qinghai, underwent industrialization and modernization. In 1947 the USA sold Ma Bufang a piped water (sewage) system which was installed in Xining. Ma Bufang also promoted education. He made businessmen methodically clean up Xining by serving as insect exterminators. Since the late 1950s, when the Liujiaxia Dam and hydroelectric project came into operation in neighboring Gansu province, Xining has been linked by a high-tension electrical grid to both Liujia and Lanzhou. It also uses local coal from mines at Datong County to the north, but however, a modern woollen mill was installed at Xining before 1957. The city also has a leather industry and is a market for salt from the Qaidam region. During the late 1950s medium-sized iron and steelworks were built there, supplying metal to Lanzhou.
Construction of a highway to the mineral-rich Qaidam basin, and completion in 1959 a link to the Chinese rail network via Lanzhou in Gansu province, has spurred industrial development. This effort was part of a plan of the central government to rapidly exploit oil and pasturage in the Xining area beginning in the 1950s.
Xining is located on the eastern edge of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau and the upper reaches of the Huangshui River. It is the political, economic, and cultural center of Qinghai Province with an average altitude of about . Human activity in the region can be traced to 2,100 years ago. During the Han dynasty, owing to its developing agriculture, Xining was paid notice due to its economic and military significance. As well as being an important hinge between the Central Plains and the western part of China in ancient times, Xining was an important link in the Silk Road. It continues to be an important rail and road link to the hinterlands of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau.
Xining has also been dubbed the Summer Resort Capital of China owing to its cool summer, with a borderline cold semi-arid climate (Köppen BSk)/dry winter humid continental climate ( Dwb). Conditions are influenced by the aridity and high altitude. Nights are cold or cool throughout the year, and the diurnal temperature variation often reaches or exceeds . The monthly 24-hour average temperatures ranges from in January to in July; the annual mean is , still making it one of the warmest locations in Qinghai due to the low elevation by provincial standards. Rainfall falls mainly from May to September, and the area is often dry and sunny: with monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 49 percent in September to 67 percent in November, the city receives 2,540 hours of bright sunshine per year. Extreme temperatures have ranged from to . Snow cover is very sparse due to the dry winters.
XETDZ enjoys a convenient transportation system, connected by the Xining–Lanzhou expressway and run through by two main roads, the broadest roads of the city. It is away from the railway station, from Xining Airport.
It focuses on the development of following industries: chemicals based on salt lake resources, nonferrous metals, and petroleum and natural gas processing; special medicine, foods and bio-chemicals using local plateau animals and plants; new products involving ecological and environmental protection, high technology, new materials as well as information technology; and services such as logistics, banking, real estate, tourism, hotel, catering, agency and international trade.
At present, four districts, three counties and a national economic and technological development zone are under the administration of the local government. With a population of more than two million, Xining is the first city on the upper reaches of the Yellow River to achieve a population in the millions.
Having a history of over 600 years, the Dongguan Mosque, located in the Xining City Zone, is one of the most famous in the northwest region of China. It has splendid and diversiform towers, walls and halls in the mosque.
Another unique religious structure is the Beishan Si (North Mountain Temple), a Taoist facility.
There are more than 300 Christian meeting points in Xining.
The Catholic minority is pastorally served by the (pre-diocesan) Apostolic Prefecture of Xining.
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| Urban | |||||||
| Chengzhong District | 城中区 | 11 | 296,987 | 26,999 | |||
| Chengdong District | 城东区 | 115 | 359,688 | 3,128 | |||
| Chengxi District | 城西区 | 79 | 242,627 | 3,071 | |||
| Chengbei District | 城北区 | 138 | 299,002 | 2,167 | |||
| Suburban | |||||||
| Huangzhong District | 湟中区 | 2,430 | 437,835 | 180 | |||
| Rural | |||||||
| Huangyuan County | 湟源县 | 1,609 | 136,632 | 85 | |||
| Datong Hui and Tu Autonomous County | 大通回族土族自治县 | 3,090 | 435,937 | 139 | |||
The second major railway serving Xining is the Lanzhou–Xinjiang High-Speed Railway, opened in December 2014. When first opened, it just provided high-speed train service to Lanzhou and Urumqi (and points in between). With the opening of the Baoji–Lanzhou high-speed railway on July 9, 2017, it has been connected to the rest of the nation's high-speed rail network.
Unlike many other Chinese cities, where the conventional and high-speed trains stop at different train stations, Xining railway station is served by both types of trains. Thus it can be used as a transfer point for e.g. a passenger traveling from Xinjiang to Tibet.
Local specialties include: Feng'er Liji (a round lamb tenderloin), Danbai Chongcao Ji (a medicine cuisine made of chicken, Chinese caterpillar fungus and eggs), and Jinyu Facai (pork wrapped in flagelliform nostoc and shaped as a goldfish).
There are also many small restaurants offering noodles. Gan Ban is a very common noodle dish. Perhaps Mian Pian, which means "noodle leaves" is the most common noodle plate among the Qinghai people. On the streets, many Muslims sell spicy Shish kebab. Due to the cold climate, residents of Xining are also fond of strong spirits; Xining has the reputation of being one of the regions of heaviest alcohol consumption in China.
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