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Yinchuan is the capital of the Ningxia, China, and was the capital of the Tangut people-led Western Xia. It has an area of and a total population of 2,859,074 according to the 2020 Chinese census, and its built-up area was home to 2,564,918 inhabitants spread between three urban districts and Helan and Yongning counties largely being urbanized. The city's name literally means "silver river".
Yinchuan is now the permanent site for the China-Arab Expo, a platform for cultural and economic exchanges between China and Arab world.
The city is also home to Ningxia University, the largest regional comprehensive university under Ningxia's Project 211.
Yinchuan was originally a county under the name of Fuping in the 1st century BCE; its name was changed to Huaiyuan in the 6th century CE.
In the autumn of 1209, the Mongols invaded Western Xia. They laid siege to Yinchuan, which by this point was known as "Zhongxing". The garrison of 150,000 managed to hold out against the Mongols, although Western Xia submitted to Mongol suzerainty regardless. After Xia attempted to reassert its independence, in 1227 the Mongols returned and slaughtered the city's entire population. Genghis Khan died during the siege under debated circumstances. The Mongols knew the city as "Iryai".
In 1739, the city was heavily affected by the Yinchuan–Pingluo earthquake. A maximum intensity of XII was determined on the Chinese seismic intensity scale, and XI on the Mercalli intensity scale. The earthquake collapsed most houses, temples, offices, and a city wall tall and wide. Ground fissures up to an meter wide, and long, and great subsidence were accounted in historical records. Over 15,300 people killed and the city was completely levelled. Blazing fires burned all the way through the night as many canals were destroyed, shutting off the flow of water. The ground opened for more than , where sand and black water erupted. Aftershocks persisted for more than two years with the largest being a 5.5 on 13 February that same year.
Traditionally, Yinchuan was an administrative and commercial center. In the 1950s, the city 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, to the north, have made Shizuishan a coal-mining center.
Yinchuan, however, remains largely non-industrial. The immediate plains area, intensively irrigated by a system developed as long ago as the Han dynasty (206 BC–AD 220) and Tang dynasty (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.
During the nationwide 1989 Protests that followed the death of Hu Yaobang, Yinchuan was the site of student demonstrations responding to the April 26 Editorial.Zhang Liang. The Tiananmen Papers. New York: PublicAffairs, 2001. . p. 181. On 28 May, numbers dropped drastically when only 3,000 students took to the streets.Zhang Liang. The Tiananmen Papers. New York: PublicAffairs, 2001. . p. 316. A similar number of people would march again, this time with wreaths and banners, when they heard the news about the June 4 crackdown in Beijing.Zhang Liang. The Tiananmen Papers. New York: PublicAffairs, 2001. . p. 393.
On 23 July 1993, China Northwest Airlines Flight 2119, in route from Yinchuan Xihuayuan Airport to Beijing Capital International Airport, crashed into a lake after it was unable to get airborne while attempting to take off at Yinchuan Airport, killing 54 passengers and 1 crew member on board.
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| City proper | ||||||
| Xingqing District | 兴庆区 | 755,441 | 768 | 984 | ||
| Jinfeng District | 金凤区 | 369,296 | 290 | 1,273 | ||
| Xixia District | 西夏区 | 362,842 | 987 | 368 | ||
| Satellite cities | ||||||
| Lingwu City | 灵武市 | 296,122 | 4,639 | 64 | ||
| Rural | ||||||
| Yongning County | 永宁县 | 245,570 | 1,295 | 190 | ||
| Helan County | 贺兰县 | 263,832 | 1,600 | 165 | ||
Yinchuan classifies itself as a smart city, where modern technology is employed such as facial recognition for public transport payments, connected trash bins and digital citizen service centres.
Yinchuan is the first Chinese city to implement a monorail beyond demonstrational use, transporting visitors around the Yinchuan International Flower Expo park. The BYD Skytrain based system entered operation in September 2017.
In Q1 2018, Yinchuan ranked first in traffic congestion severity in China. According to research by AutoNavi, and the Planning and Research Institute of the Ministry of Transport, this was caused by numerous construction works and the poor structure of the road network, rather than pure traffic volume. After reorganization of the road network and bottleneck intersections, congestion has reduced.
A number of cultural festivals are celebrated in Yinchuan. These include an Internet Film Festival, a Car and Motorcycle Tourism Festival, and an International Poetry Festival.[1] "Yinchuan News" Until 2000, Yinchuan was also the traditional host of an August festival celebrating the harvesting of Goji (a major product of Ningxia).[2] Xinhua News Agency, Opening ceremonies of Ningxia wolfberry festival, 3 August 2005.
Sand Lake is a lake in a desert 35 miles north of Yinchuan with birds, reeds, lotus and fish.
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.
China West Film Studio, which has been famed as 'One Superb in China, and Treasure of Ningxia Province', is at the eastern foot of the magnificent Helanshan Mountain, 25 kilometers from the railway station of Yinchuan City, and 48 kilometers from Hedong Airport. It produced The Herdsman, Red Sorghum, Lover's Grief over the Yellow River, New Dragon Gate Inn, Ashes of Time, A Chinese Odyssey, Qiao's Grand Courtyard (TV series) and nearly one hundred other films. In 2018, John Cena lived for five months in Yinchuan while working on a film, Project X-Traction, with Jackie Chan (the movie was never ultimately released).
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.
Parts of the Great Wall are near the city.
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