宁夏回族自治区
Níngxià Huízú Zìzhìqū

Abbreviation: 宁 (pinyin: Níng)
Origin of Name	宁 níng - tranquil 夏 xià - Western Xia "tranquil Xia"
Administration Type	Autonomous region
Capital and Largest City	Yinchuan
CPC Ningxia Committee Secretary	Chen Jianguo
Chairman	Ma Qizhi
Area	66,000 km² (27th)
Population (2002)  - Density	5,720,000 (29th) 87/km² (25th)
GDP (2002)  - per capita	32.9 billion ¥ (30th) 5757 ¥ (24th)
Major Nationalities (2000)	Han - 79% Hui - 20% Manchu - 0.4%
Prefecture-level divisions	5
County-level divisions	21
Township-level divisions	227
ISO 3166-2	CN-64

Ningxia () is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located on the northwest loess highland, the Yellow River flows through a vast area of its land.

Contents

1 History 2 Geography 3 Economy 4 Culture 5 Tourism 6 Miscellaneous topics 7 External links

History

Geography

Ningxia borders the Shaanxi and Gansu provinces, and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

• Rivers include: Yellow River

Ningxia is a relatively dry, desert region. There is a great deal of irrigation in order to support the growing of Wolfberries (a popular snack fruit throughout the region).

• Deserts include: Tengger desert in Shapotou

Economy

Ningxia is the home of the Hui, one of the officially recognized Chinese minority groups. While ethnically indistinguishable from the Han (the major Chinese ethnic group) the Hui have been Muslims for many centuries. As a stop along the legendary Silk Road, the Hui were converted by the Islamic traders.

Culture

Tourism

Miscellaneous topics

External links

• Ningxia regional government website (simplified Chinese)