Yinchuan (Chinese: 银川; pinyin:Yínchuān; lit. "Silver River") is a prefecture‑level city and the capital of theNingxia Hui Autonomous Region in northwest China. It served as the imperial capital of the Tangut‑ledWestern Xia (1038–1227).
Yinchuan hosts the biennialChina–Arab States Expo.[3] As of the2020 Chinese census, Yinchuan’s administrative area had 2,859,074 inhabitants; the built‑up area had 2,564,918 residents, comprising the three urban districts and the urbanized parts of Helan and Yongning counties.[4] At the end of 2024, the resident population of the city was 2,914,700, an increase of 66,600 over the end of the previous year. Among them, the urban population is 2,429,400.[5]
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.[10][13] 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.[14][15] The Mongols knew the city as "Iryai".
Under theMing (1368–1644) andQing (1644–1911) dynasties, it was aprefecture ofNingxia. During theDungan revolt, Dungan forces massacred 100,000 people in Yinchuan.
In 1739, the city was heavily affected by theYinchuan–Pingluo earthquake. A maximum intensity of XII was determined on theChinese seismic intensity scale, and XI on the Mercalli intensity scale. The earthquake collapsed most houses, temples, offices, and a city wall 10 m (33 ft) tall and 6 m (20 ft) wide. Ground fissures up to a meter wide, and 100 m (330 ft) long, and great subsidence were accounted in historical records.[16] Over 15,300 people killed and the city was completely leveled. 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 100 m (330 ft), where sand and black water erupted.[17] Aftershocks persisted for more than two years with the largest being a 5.5 on 13 February that same year.[17]
In 1928, when the province of Ningxia was formed from part ofGansu, Yinchuan became the capital city. In 1954, whenNingxia province was abolished, the city was put in Gansu province; but, with the establishment of the Ningxia Hui autonomous region in 1958, Yinchuan once again became the capital.
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 theYellow River, nearShizuishan, 100 km (62 mi) 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 theHan (206 BC–AD 220) andTang (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 thenationwide 1989 Protests that followed the death ofHu Yaobang, Yinchuan was the site of student demonstrations responding to theApril 26 Editorial.[18] On 28 May, numbers dropped drastically when only 3,000 students took to the streets.[19] A similar number of people would march again, this time with wreaths and banners, when they heard the news about the June 4 crackdown inBeijing.[20]
Yinchuan lies in the middle of theYinchuan Plain.[22] It is sheltered from the deserts of Mongolia by the high ranges of theHelan Mountains to its west. The Yellow River runs through Yinchuan from southwest to northeast. The average elevation of Yinchuan is 1,100 meters (about 3,608 feet). The urban center of Yinchuan lies about halfway between the Yellow River and the edge of Helan Mountains.
Yinchuan has a colddesert climate (KöppenBWk) with an annual rainfall of 194 mm (7.64 in). Yinchuan has distinct seasons, with dry, cold winters, late springs and short hot summers. The monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from −6.8 °C (19.8 °F) in January to 24.4 °C (75.9 °F) in July, with the annual mean at 10.1 °C (50.2 °F). Diurnal temperature variation tends to be large due to the aridity, which also partly contributes to the sunny climate; with monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 58 percent in January to 67 percent in November, the city receives 2,761 hours of bright sunshine annually. There are 158 frost-free days.
Climate data for Yinchuan, elevation 1,112 m (3,648 ft), (1991–2020 normals, extremes 1951–present)
Of the city's population, 79.05% live in urban areas as of 2019.[27] This proportion is highest inXixia District, where 91.28% of the population lives in urban areas, and is lowest inLingwu, where 58.22% of the population lives in urban areas.[27]
The city's gross domestic product per capita was ¥31,436 (US$4,526) in 2008, ranking 197th of 659 Chinese cities. In 2010, Yinchuan was designated as the site for theChina-Arab States Cooperation Forum.[citation needed] At the national level, Yinchuan hosts the China-Arab States Expo, to function as a commercial link between China and Arab States.[28]: 176 Yinchuan has an aircraft tire plant owned by Singapore-basedGiti Tire.[29]
Yinchuan classifies itself as asmart city, where modern technology is employed such as facial recognition for public transport payments, connected trash bins and digital citizen service centres.[30][31][32][33]
Until the 1950s, the Yellow river, which is navigable downstream as far asBaotou in theInner Mongolian autonomous region and upstream toZhongwei andZhongning, was the chief communication link. Yinchuan still has a river port atHengcheng, about 15 km (9.3 mi) to the east.
Yinchuan is the first Chinese city to implement a monorail beyond demonstrational use, transporting visitors around the Yinchuan International Flower Expo park. TheBYD Skytrain based system entered operation in September 2017.[36]
Highways link the city to Baotou along the river, toLanzhou in Gansu province to the southwest, toWuwei in Gansu to the west, and toXi'an in Shaanxi province to the southeast.
In Q1 2018, Yinchuan ranked first in traffic congestion severity in China. According to research byAutoNavi, and the Planning and Research Institute of theMinistry of Transport, this was caused by numerous construction works and the poor structure of the road network, rather than pure traffic volume.[37] After reorganization of the road network and bottleneck intersections, congestion has reduced.[38]
It is served byYinchuan Hedong International Airport. It is 25 km (16 mi) from Yinchuan and has flights to Beijing, Chengdu, Dunhuang, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Xian, and Zhengzhou.
Although most residents are Han Chinese, Yinchuan is a center for the MuslimHui people, who constitute slightly over a quarter of the population.[27] Hui Muslims play a vital role as being middlemen in trade between the Middle East and China, and the China-Middle East trade has become increasingly important to the country. Consequently, the national government has started constructing a $3.7 billion Islamic theme park called "World Muslim City" in Yinchuan. Unlike Uyghurs, who faces far more restrictions in religious freedoms, Hui Muslims generally do not seek independence from China and have a cultural affinity to the Han, and are far moreassimilated into mainstream Chinese life.[39]
A number of cultural festivals are celebrated in Yinchuan. These include anInternet Film Festival, a Car and Motorcycle Tourism Festival, and anInternational Poetry Festival.[40][41][42] Until 2000, Yinchuan was also the traditional host of an August festival celebrating the harvesting ofGoji berries (a major product of Ningxia).[43]
The city's attractions include the Sand-lake, theWestern Xia tombs, and the China Western film Studios.
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.
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 theChengtiansi Pagoda in the west.
^Sun Jinji; Feng Yongqian; Su Tianjun; The Editorial Committee of Integrated Chinese Archaeology.Integrated Chinese Archaeology. Beijing Publishing House. pp. 5062–.
^abJack WeatherfordGenghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, p.85
^Xu, Cheng 许成 (1989).宁夏考古史地研究论集 [Collected research papers on the archaeology, history and geography of Ningxia]. Yinchuan: Ningxia renmin chubanshe. p. 84.
^Zhang, Buchun; Liao, Yuhua; Guo, Shunmin; Wallace, Robert E.; Bucknam, Robert C.; Hanks, Thomas C. (October 1986). "Fault Scarps Related to the 1739 Earthquake and Seismicity of the Yinchuan Graben, Ningxia Huizu Zizhiqu, China".Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America.76 (5):1253–1287.Bibcode:1986BuSSA..76.1253Z.CiteSeerX10.1.1.958.6440.doi:10.1785/BSSA0760051253.
^abNational Geophysical Data Center (1972)."Significant Earthquake Information CHINA: NINGXIA".National Geophysical Data Center / World Data Service (NGDC/WDS): NCEI/WDS Global Significant Earthquake Database. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information.doi:10.7289/V5TD9V7K. Retrieved17 December 2020.
^Zhang Liang.The Tiananmen Papers. New York: PublicAffairs, 2001.ISBN978-1-58648-122-3. p. 181.
^Zhang Liang.The Tiananmen Papers. New York: PublicAffairs, 2001.ISBN978-1-58648-122-3. p. 316.
^Zhang Liang.The Tiananmen Papers. New York: PublicAffairs, 2001.ISBN978-1-58648-122-3. p. 393.
^abcdef2019年末银川市常住人口229.31万人 (in Chinese). Yinchuan City Statistics Bureau. 27 February 2020.Archived from the original on 18 August 2020. Retrieved17 August 2020.
^Zhang, Chuchu (2025).China's Changing Role in the Middle East: Filling a Power Vacuum?. Changing Dynamics in Asia-Middle East Relations series. Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY:Routledge.ISBN978-1-032-76275-3.
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