Autonomous region · Northwest China
Ningxia
宁夏
Yellow River oasis of the Western Xia and the Hui
The Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region is a small region in north-west China on the upper Yellow River, set up in 1958 for the Hui, China's largest Chinese-speaking Muslim community, who make up about a third of its population. Irrigated since the Qin and Han, its northern plain was the heartland of the Western Xia (1038–1227), whose imperial tombs were inscribed as a World Heritage site in 2025; its capital is Yinchuan.
Key facts
- Capital
- Yinchuan
- Abbreviation
- 宁 (Níng)
- Area
- about 66,400 km²[1]
- Resident population
- 7.32 million(as of end of 2025)[2]
- Gross regional product
- CNY 569.6 billion(as of 2025)[2]
- Census population
- 7.20 million(as of 2020 census)[3]
- Divisions
- 5 prefecture-level cities[1]
- Autonomous region since
- 25 October 1958
- UNESCO World Heritage
- Xixia Imperial Tombs (2025)[4]
Profile
- Chinese name
- 宁夏
- Abbreviation (简称)
- 宁
- Type
- Autonomous region
- Region
- Northwest China
- Capital
- Yinchuan
- Area
- about 66,400 km²
- Divisions
- 5 prefecture-level cities (Yinchuan, Shizuishan, Wuzhong, Guyuan, Zhongwei)
- Ethnic groups
- Han, Hui, Manchu, Mongol, Dongxiang
- Languages
- Lanyin Mandarin, Central Plains Mandarin, Jingtang language
- Neighbours
- Gansu, Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia
Languages
Lanyin Mandarin
银川话
Spoken on the northern plain around Yinchuan, related to the speech of Lanzhou.
Central Plains Mandarin
固原话
Spoken in the southern uplands, close to the dialects of eastern Gansu and Shaanxi.
Jingtang language
经堂语
The register of Chinese used in mosque schools, with Arabic and Persian terms for religious concepts.
Name and abbreviation
Ningxia means “pacified Xia”. After the Mongols destroyed the Tangut state of Western Xia (Da Xia) in 1227, the Yuan named the administration of its former capital region the Ningxia circuit in 1288. The name passed to a Ming garrison, a Qing prefecture and, in 1929, a province of the Republic. That province was merged into Gansu in 1954; the autonomous region was created on 25 October 1958. The abbreviation 宁 is the first character of the name.
Historic names
Western Xia
西夏
The Tangut empire (1038–1227) with its capital at Xingqing, today's Yinchuan.
朔方
Han commandery and Tang military command on the northern frontier, including the Ningxia plain.
塞上江南
“Jiangnan beyond the frontier”
Old epithet for the irrigated plain, likened to the lush Yangtze delta.
西海固
The dry southern uplands of Xiji, Haiyuan and Guyuan, long among the poorest areas of China.
Land and climate
Ningxia falls into two parts. In the north the Yellow River flows through the Ningxia Plain, a flat oasis of rice, wheat, vineyards and wetlands irrigated by canals, shielded from the Tengger Desert and the Alxa plateau by the Helan Mountains. The Mu Us Sandy Land lies to the east. South of the plain the land rises into dry loess hills and the Liupan Mountains, a region of terraced fields and scarce water.
Landforms
Helan Mountains
贺兰山
The range on the border with Inner Mongolia, rising to about 3,556 m; known for its rock art and the Western Xia tombs at its foot.
Ningxia Plain
宁夏平原
The Yinchuan and Weining plains along the Yellow River, irrigated for more than two thousand years.
Liupan Mountains
六盘山
Forested range in the south, source of the Jing River and a cool, wet island in the loess hills.
Tengger Desert
腾格里沙漠
Reaches the Yellow River at Shapotou near Zhongwei.
Rivers and lakes
Yellow River
黄河
Enters at Zhongwei, flows north for about 400 km and leaves for Inner Mongolia at Shizuishan; the region's lifeline.
Qingshui River
清水河
Tributary flowing north from the Liupan Mountains to the Yellow River near Zhongning.
Jing River
泾河
Rises in the Liupan Mountains and flows south-east into Gansu and Shaanxi.
Climate
The climate is temperate continental and dry, with plenty of sunshine, hot days and cool nights in summer, and cold winters. Rainfall is low on the northern plain, which depends on irrigation, and higher in the Liupan Mountains. Spring brings dust storms; late summer and autumn are the most pleasant seasons.
History
Stone tools at Shuidonggou show that people lived here in the Palaeolithic, and thousands of petroglyphs survive in the Helan Mountains. The Qin and Han dug the first irrigation canals from the Yellow River and garrisoned the frontier; later the region was contested between Chinese dynasties and steppe peoples. From 1038 to 1227 it was the heartland of the Tangut empire of Western Xia, destroyed by the Mongols. Muslim communities settled from the Yuan onwards, and the Hui became a large part of the population. The region suffered in the Northwest Hui war of the 1860s and in the Haiyuan earthquake of 1920. The Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region was established in 1958.
c. 40,000–30,000 years ago
Shuidonggou
Palaeolithic site near Lingwu, excavated from 1923, with stone tools resembling those of Upper Palaeolithic Siberia and Mongolia.
3rd–2nd century BCE
Qin and Han canals
The first irrigation channels from the Yellow River began the transformation of the plain into an oasis; the Qin and Han canals still carry those names.
756
Emperor Suzong enthroned at Lingwu
During the An Lushan Rebellion the Tang crown prince was proclaimed emperor at Lingwu, the base from which the dynasty recovered.
1038
Western Xia founded
Li Yuanhao proclaimed himself emperor of Great Xia at Xingqing, with its own Tangut script.
1227
Mongol conquest
Genghis Khan's army destroyed the Western Xia; Genghis died during the campaign.
1288
Ningxia circuit
The Yuan gave the region the name Ningxia.
1871
Fall of Jinjipu
The Qing captured the stronghold of the Hui leader Ma Hualong near Wuzhong, ending the Hui rising in the region.
16 December 1920
Haiyuan earthquake
One of the deadliest earthquakes of the twentieth century, killing well over 200,000 people across the region and eastern Gansu.
1936
Hui autonomous government at Tongxin
During its western expedition the Red Army set up a Hui autonomous county government in Tongxin, an early model of the Party's policy on ethnic autonomy.
25 October 1958
Autonomous region established
Ningxia was separated again from Gansu as a Hui autonomous region.
1996
Fujian–Ningxia partnership
Fujian began a paired assistance programme with Ningxia, including resettlement of families from the southern uplands to new villages such as Minning.
2025
Western Xia tombs on the World Heritage List
The imperial necropolis at the foot of the Helan Mountains was inscribed by UNESCO.
World heritage
World Heritage sites
Cultural · inscribed 2025
Xixia Imperial Tombs
西夏陵
The necropolis of the Western Xia emperors west of Yinchuan: nine imperial tombs and more than two hundred satellite tombs, with conical earthen mounds rising from the plain below the Helan Mountains.
Intangible cultural heritage (UNESCO lists)
Inscribed 2009
Hua'er
花儿
Folk songs sung by Hui and Han singers in the southern uplands and shared with Gansu and Qinghai.
Culture
Ningxia is the only provincial-level region created for the Hui. Its mosques range from Chinese-style courtyard complexes such as the Tongxin Great Mosque to modern domed buildings, and several Sufi orders (menhuan) have their centres here. Hui life shapes the food, festivals and rhythm of towns across the region, while the north also keeps the memory of the Western Xia and the south the rural culture of the loess hills.
大漠孤烟直，长河落日圆。Dà mò gū yān zhí, cháng hé luò rì yuán.
“In the great desert a lone column of smoke rises straight; over the long river the setting sun is round.”
— Wang Wei, “On a Mission to the Frontier” (使至塞上), 737
Opera, music and dance
Hui jaw harp
口弦
A small bamboo or metal mouth harp traditionally played by Hui women.
Hua'er
花儿
Improvised love songs of the mountain districts.
Qinqiang
秦腔
The Shaanxi opera is widely performed in southern Ningxia.
Crafts
Helan inkstones
贺兰砚
Inkstones carved from the purple-and-green banded stone of the Helan Mountains.
Hui brick carving
回族砖雕
Carved floral and calligraphic brickwork on mosques and gongbei tomb shrines.
Tan sheep fur
滩羊皮
Soft, curly lambskin of the local Tan sheep, once prized for winter coats.
Festivals and customs
Eid al-Fitr
开斋节
The festival at the end of Ramadan, with prayers at the mosques and fried youxiang cakes.
Eid al-Adha (Qurban)
古尔邦节
The feast of sacrifice, when families slaughter a sheep and share the meat.
Lidded-bowl tea
盖碗茶
The Hui “eight-treasure” tea of green tea, rock sugar, dates, goji, longan and raisins, served in a three-piece covered bowl.
Cuisine
Ningxia food is mostly halal and built on lamb — especially the tender meat of the Tan sheep — beef, wheat and potatoes. Lamb is eaten boiled with the hands, stewed, in offal soup and in noodle dishes; fried breads and sweet tea accompany festivals. The plain also produces rice, and goji and wine are the region's best-known products.
Signature dishes
Hand-held lamb
手抓羊肉
Tan-sheep lamb boiled with salt and eaten with garlic and chilli.
Lamb offal soup
羊杂碎
Spicy soup of lamb tripe, lungs and liver, a breakfast staple.
Huixiaochi
烩小吃
A bowl of meatballs, fried tofu, vermicelli and vegetables in broth.
Youxiang
油香
Round fried bread made for Hui festivals and family occasions.
Haozi noodles
蒿子面
Thin, springy noodles made with seed flour of a desert plant, a speciality of Zhongwei.
Specialities
Zhongning goji
中宁枸杞
Goji berries from Zhongning county, the best-known in China.
Helan Mountain East wine
贺兰山东麓葡萄酒
Wine from vineyards on the gravel slopes east of the Helan Mountains, a region developed since the 1980s.
Yanchi Tan sheep
盐池滩羊
Lamb from the steppe of Yanchi county, prized for its mild flavour.
Five treasures of Ningxia
宁夏五宝
A traditional list of red goji, yellow licorice, blue Helan stone, white Tan sheep fur and black facai; the gathering of facai has been banned since 2000 to protect the grasslands.
Notable people
Li Yuanhao (1003–1048)
李元昊
Founding emperor of the Western Xia, who proclaimed the Tangut state at Xingqing in 1038.
Ma Hualong (d. 1871)
马化龙
Leader of the Jahriyya Sufi order and of the Hui rising in Ningxia, executed after the fall of Jinjipu.
Zhang Xianliang (1936–2014)
张贤亮
Novelist who spent two decades in labour camps in Ningxia and later founded the Zhenbeibao film studio outside Yinchuan.
Economy
Ningxia's economy combines energy and chemicals with irrigated agriculture. The Ningdong base east of Yinchuan converts coal into chemicals and electricity, much of which is sent east by high-voltage lines; wind and solar farms have grown rapidly. The region is a national hub for data centres, centred on Zhongwei. Agriculture produces goji, wine, dairy, Tan sheep, rice and potatoes, and Ningxia promotes itself as a link with the Arab world through the China–Arab States Expo.
Main industries
- Coal, coal chemicals and thermal power (Ningdong)
- Wind and solar power
- Data centres and cloud computing (Zhongwei)
- Wine, goji and dairy
- Halal food processing
- Metallurgy and new materials
Zones, ports and hubs
Ningdong Energy and Chemical Base
宁东能源化工基地
National coal-to-chemicals and power base east of the Yellow River.
Ningxia Inland Open Economy Pilot Zone
宁夏内陆开放型经济试验区
Region-wide pilot zone approved in 2012 to develop trade with Arab and Muslim countries.
China–Arab States Expo
中国—阿拉伯国家博览会
Trade fair held in Yinchuan since 2013.
Cities
- Yinchuan银川Capital · Historic cityCapital of the Western Xia between the Helan Mountains and the Yellow River
- Zhongwei中卫Scenic area · Industrial centreWhere the Tengger Desert meets the Yellow River
- Guyuan固原Historic cityFrontier city of the Xiao Pass and the Xumishan grottoes
- Wuzhong吴忠Historic city · Cultural centreHui heartland on the Yellow River canals
Getting there
- Yinchuan Hedong International Airport, east of the Yellow River, is the main airport; Zhongwei and Guyuan have regional airports.
- High-speed lines link Yinchuan with Xi'an and, via Zhongwei, with Lanzhou; the Baotou–Lanzhou railway follows the Yellow River through the region.
Entry rules for foreign visitors are on the visa and entry pages.
Frequently asked questions
Sources
- Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region People's Government — Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region People's Government (retrieved 27 September 2026)
- 宁夏回族自治区2025年国民经济和社会发展统计公报 (Statistical Communiqué of Ningxia on the 2025 National Economic and Social Development) — Statistics Bureau of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region (retrieved 27 September 2026)
- Seventh National Population Census communiqués — National Bureau of Statistics of China (retrieved 27 September 2026)
- World Heritage List: China — UNESCO World Heritage Centre (retrieved 27 September 2026)
- Intangible Cultural Heritage: China — UNESCO (retrieved 27 September 2026)
- Ningxia — Encyclopaedia Britannica (retrieved 27 September 2026)
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