As provincial administrative region , Ningxia is really very small. Ningxia covers an area of only 66,400 square kilometers, which is smaller than the municipality of Chongqing. Ningxia also has few adjacent provincial administrative regions, only bordering Inner Mongolia, Gansu, and Shaanxi. Shaanxi only has a short-distance border with the eastern part of Ningxia, and Ningxia borders Inner Mongolia to the northwest, due north, and northeast. It borders Gansu to the southwest, due south and southeast.
We all know that there is a huge "tail" in the southeast of Gansu, namely Pingliang and Qingyang, which only have a narrow border with the main body of Gansu, which is "thanks" to Ningxia. The big tail of Gansu is like a big hand, holding Ningxia in its hand.
Ningxia is not large in area. Except for the fact that it is not along the coast, various terrains are distributed in Ningxia. Ningxia has plains, plateaus, hills, deserts and large rivers. In the northwestern part of Ningxia and Inner Mongolia, there is the Helan Mountain. To the east of the Helan Mountain is the famous Yinchuan Plain, which is the most important agricultural area in Ningxia. To the south is the Loess Plateau. As one of my country's mother rivers, the Yellow River enters Ningxia like a tiger down the mountain and flows on the Yinchuan Plain, providing energy for Ningxia's living and production water.
In people's traditional impression, Ningxia, located in the northwest, should have loess all year round and a dry climate. In reality? In the Han Dynasty more than 2,000 years ago, there were many lakes on the Yinchuan Plain. With the development of Ningxia in the past dynasties, there are fewer and fewer lakes, but the area of the plains has basically remained unchanged.
Although Ningxia's climate is relatively arid, with annual precipitation of only 200 millimeters, the roaring Yellow River can deliver more than 30 billion cubic meters of water to Ningxia every year, enough for the small Yinchuan Plain. If you come to Ningxia, don't be surprised to see that rice is grown all over the Yinchuan Plain. This is an important large granary in the northwest, and Ningxia rice is famous all over the world.
In 578 AD, the Northern Zhou that had just wiped out the Northern Qi was engaged in the Luliang and the Southern Dynasty Chen in a battle that determined the fate of the country. The Northern Zhou Dynasty won a great victory, and most of the captured Chen troops were exiled to what is now Ningxia. Chen Jun is a farmer from the south who is good at growing rice. They took root in Ningxia, and Ningxia's large granary gradually took shape. The Yinchuan Plain also has a well-known name "Fortress Jiangnan". There is a ballad in Ningxia: "Ningxia River, pointed at both ends, borders the Yellow River in the east and Helan Mountain in the west, and the Jinchuan Yinchuan Miliang River.
Hundreds of years later, a generation of heroes Li Yuanhao inherited the legacy of his ancestors and father and established the Western Xia Dynasty, which brought the Northern Song Dynasty to disgrace. The Western Xia territory included most of Gansu, western Inner Mongolia, the northernmost part of northern Shaanxi, and northern Ningxia. It can be called the core area of the Xixia Dynasty, because the capital of Xingqing is here, which is now Yinchuan. The reason why Xixia set its capital in Yinchuan is because the rich Yinchuan plain can provide the dynasty with the food they need. During the period of Li Jiqian and Li Deming, it was unimaginable that Xixia could have been established for 190 years without the supply of the Yinchuan Plain.
But after the fall of Xixia, Ningxia became less lively. In the Ming Dynasty , there were nine important towns, among which. There is Ningxia Town . From the Qing Dynasty to modern times, Ningxia seems to have always been "forgotten" for various reasons. Until now, Ningxia has a small population of only 7.25 million, not to mention Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. For example, some of the larger prefecture-level cities in the east have a population of eight to nine million.
Because of its small area, Ningxia has only 5 prefecture-level cities. From north to south, they are: Shizuishan, the capital Yinchuan, Wuzhong, Zhongwei , Guyuan . Among them, the main urban areas of Shizuishan, Yinchuan, Zhongwei and Wuzhong are on the Yinchuan Plain, so Guyuan is located on the Loess Plateau and has a small population.
Yinchuan is actually "strong" in Ningxia. The "provincial capital" model just doesn't have this title. In Yinchuan City, which has a population of 7.25 million in Ningxia and an area of only 9,000 square kilometers, the population is about 2.85 million, accounting for nearly 40%.Among the provincial capitals (capitals) of western provincial administrative regions, Yinchuan is not large in scale, but it is the absolute largest in Ningxia.
We can also see clues from the population growth rate from 2010 to 2020. The population growth rate of Yinchuan is 43.45%, which shows that in addition to the flow of Ningxia's population to other provinces, basically all of Ningxia's population flows to Yinchuan.
The second largest population growth rate is Wuzhong, with 8.55%. The main urban area of Wuzhong is located in the hinterland of Yinchuan Plain, with relatively good geographical conditions and close to Yinchuan. The total population of Wuzhong is about 1.38 million, which is only larger than that of Yinchuan in Ningxia.
The third highest population growth rate is Shizuishan in the northernmost part of Ningxia. The geographical conditions of Shizuishan are similar to those of Yinchuan, but the disadvantage is that the main urban area of Shizuishan is far away from the Yellow River and not close to the train station. Shizuishan has a small population, which is somewhat related to these two relative disadvantages. The population is only about 750,000.
Zhongwei is somewhat southwest compared to Yinchuan and Wuzhong. However, because the Baolan Railway and the Baozhong ( Baoji to Zhongwei) railway directly pass through the main urban area of Zhongwei, the transportation in Zhongwei is more convenient. The population of Zhongwei is larger than that of Shizuishan, with about 1.06 million people. However, the population growth rate of Zhongwei is negative, -1.25%
The southernmost Guyuan, among the five cities in Ningxia, should have poorer geographical conditions. The entire territory is on the Loess Plateau, and there is the famous Liupan Mountain in the southwest. . Although the Baozhong Railway passes through the main urban area of Guyuan, the transportation in Guyuan is still not very convenient. Among the five cities in Ningxia, Guyuan has the lowest population growth rate, at -7%. It covers an area of 10,500 square kilometers and has a population of approximately 1.14 million.
In the context of the country's emphasis on western development , coupled with counterpart support from Fujian, an economically powerful province, Ningxia's future will be better. Last year's TV series " Mountains and Seas " told the story of Fujian's support for Ningxia (Guyuan).
