Aerial photo shows the scenery of Yinchuan, Ningxia Hui autonomous region. [Photo/yinchuan.gov.cn]
Yinchuan is the capital city of Ningxia Hui autonomous region and covers an area of 9,025.38 square kilometers. Yinchuan oversees the administration of three districts, two counties, one city and six industrial parks, and is the economic, scientific, technological and cultural center of Ningxia Hui autonomous region. It is an important central city in Northwest China.
With more than 2,100 years of history, Yinchuan is a famous historical and cultural city in China and was among the first batch of International Wetland Cities. The Yellow River runs through more than 80 kilometers of Yinchuan's area. Yinchuan has more than 200 natural lakes and 531 square kilometers of wetland area, accounting for 7.65 percent of the city's entire area. It is a key city of the Belt and Road Initiative.
Yinchuan is the permanent venue of China-Arab States Expo and is a key area for China's opening up to countries in Central Asia and West Asia. Yinchuan is the core area of the Yellow River Basin ecological protection and high-quality development pilot area in Ningxia. It has 142,000 hectares of farmland, 146,200 hectares of forest land and 42.1 percent of its built-up area is covered by greenery. Ningxia is a national civilized city, national garden city, China's happiest city and a national health city.
During the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) and the following period, Yinchuan will focus on the ecological protection of the Yellow River Basin and the high quality development of the pilot area. It will concentrate on the development of nine industries: goji berries, wine, milk, beef and sheep, electronic information, new materials, green food, clean energy and cultural tourism.
Aerial photo shows the scenery of Yinchuan, Ningxia Hui autonomous region. [Photo/yinchuan.gov.cn]
The wine industry is a major part of Yinchuan's economy. The eastern foothills of Helan Mountain are recognized among the best zones in the world for growing wine grapes and producing high-end wines. Each year, Yinchuan plants 15,733 hectares of grapes for wine fermentation and the city has an annual output of 70,000 tons. There are 58 wine enterprises in Yinchuan, with annual wine output of 46,000 tons (61 million bottles). Yinchuan receives 450,000 tourists annually, with the comprehensive output value reaching 20.6 billion yuan ($3.2 billion).
Yinchuan has huge potential in the electronic information industry. Ningxia is China's first demonstration area for "Internet + education" and "Internet + medical health." Zhongwei cloud base has been built into an important data storage center in West China. Yinchuan was approved as the pilot city for national cross-border trade and e-commerce, becoming a platform for the development of the electronic information industry with a focus on semiconducting materials and big data storage. Yinchuan has built an intelligent terminal industrial park gathering consumer electronics product manufacturers from Guangdong and Fujian provinces. Yinchuan has 68 enterprises in the fields of memory chips and software information, accounting for 90 percent of the total in Ningxia.
Yinchuan's new material industry focuses on metallic materials such as aluminum-magnesium alloy and copper-based materials, non-metallic materials such as thyrite, battery materials and cutting-edge materials. It has built up the world's largest production base for single-crystal silicon rods and silicon wafers and a production base for aluminum nitride ceramic powder and substrate. It is also China's largest production base for industrial sapphire crystal bars, semiconductor large silicon wafers, graphene ternary cathode materials and conductive slurry materials.
Yinchuan was identified among the first batch of national new energy demonstration cities in 2014, which has formed the manufacturing industry for solar photovoltaic products, new energy automobiles and storage materials.
Yinchuan has a distinctive cultural tourism industry. In 2020, Yinchuan received 25.617 million domestic visitors and 77,600 overseas visitors. Its famous scenic spots include the Western Xia Imperial Tombs, the China Film Studio and the Shuidonggou ancient human cultural site. Yinchuan is an ideal place for leisure and entertainment.