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The Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, which is called Ning for short, is located in northwest China, on the upper reaches of the Yellow River. Ningxia covers a total area of 66,000 square kilometers and has a population of 5.62 million, one third of who are Hui minority people. Yinchuan is the capital of it.
Ningxia has a temperate continental climate of long, cold winters and short, hot summers. Its climate is summer temperature rising to as high as 39 degrees Centigrade and winter temperature plummeting to as low as 30 degrees below zero. The day\night temperature variation in summer is 17 degrees. Annual rainfall averages from 190-700 millimeters.
Ningxia, a region as culturally rich as the entire area south of the Yangtze River, continues to be admired for its resplendent cultural heritage garnered from the long river of history. During the time of the Tang and Han Dynasties (206 BC - 907 AD) Ningxia was the main place for trade and transportation between the eastern and western regions of ancient China. Ruins of the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty can be found in east Ningxia.
Ningxia has a long history of diverting water from the Yellow River for irrigation. As far back as some 2,000 years ago, the people in this area had taken advantage of the unique natural conditions to dig canals to divert the water into farmland. There are crisscrossed irrigation channels, the fertile soil, high yield rice and wheat, delicious and sweet watermelon and fruit on the Yinchuan Plain. These make the Yinchuan Plain known as "the lush southern-type fields in the northern frontier; land teeming with fish and rice". The resources of coal and gypsum hold an important position in China.
Ningxia has a long history. There are a lot of historic relics. The places of interest are Ming-Dynasty (1368-1644) Great Wall at the Sanguan Pass, Mausoleums of Western Xia Kingdom (Chinese Pyramids), the Haibao Pagoda, the Nanguan Muslim Mosque, the Chengtian Temple, and 108 towers in the Qingtong Gorge, etc.
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