(1)外文名称: Yinchuan City (Ningxia)
    (2)中文名称: 银川市(宁夏回族自治区)
    (3)内容:
                        Yinchuan City
    Yinchuan, capital city of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, serves as the gate to northwest China. It has a history of more than 1,300 years, with rich   resources of cultural relics and scenic spots.
   Situated in the middle part of a vast plain, Yinchuan faces the Yellow   River in the south and has the Helan Mountain in the west. Covering a total area of 4,487 sq km, it consists of the city proper, two  counties and the new urban area, stretching for more than 20 kilometer  from east to west and 2 to 3 km from north to south.
                         History
   Yinchuan is a renowned frontier city with a history of a thousand year, and people like to call it the "city of the phoenix". in 1038, Li Yuanhao, leader of the Dangxiang ethnic group, established the Western Xia Dynasty (1038-1227), with Xingqing(the present-day Yinchuan) as its capital.
   The Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region was established on Oct. 25th, 1958; and Yinchuan became the prime city, serving as the political, economic and cultural center.
                      Natural Condition
   Yinchuan is located in the center of the Yellow River irrigation  area, with the Yellow River to the east and Mt. Helan to the west.  The Yellow  River flows through the eastern outskirts of Yinchuan, irrigating more  than 70,000 hectares of cultivated land.
   The city enjoys ample sunshine, with a climate not very hot in summer and not very cold in the winter. Its four seasons are clearly divided, with an annual average temperature of 8-9 degrees Centigrade and a frost-free period  of about 158 days. Such weather conditions are favorable for agricultural  development in the city, which is known as "Jiangnan (areas south of the Yangtze River) in the North."   The  main native products here include Chinese wolfberry, licorice root, Helan   inkslab, sheep skin, black moss, apple, mutton and Muslem food.
                          Resources
   Mt. Helan to the west of Yinchuan has an elevation of 3,556 meters. Rich non-metallic mineral resources, mainly coal, diabase and quartz sand, have  been discovered in the place. Zhongwei, a county 100 kilometers from Yinchuan, is a production base of gypsum, with verified reserves of 1.267 billion tons.
   Shizuishan City and Lingwu County, both adjacent to Yinchuan, are famous coal production bases in China. They have fine-quality coal reserves estimated at 30.45 billion tons. The newly-discovered Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia super-large oil  and gas field is also very near Yinchuan, providing a very good  opportunity for the city to develop the chemical industry.
                          Administration
   Yinchuan now has two counties (Yongning and Helan) and three  districts (Urban District, New Urban District and Suburban District) under its jurisdiction.   It covers a total area of 3,499 square kilometers, including an urban area of 1,457 square kilometers).  At the end of 1995, its population stood at 893,800, including 163,200 Hui people, accounting  for 18.25% and 476,300 non-agricultural residents.
                            Economy
   Over the past four decades and especially since the late 1970s, Yinchuan has reported steady economic growth, constant progress in social undertakings and substantial expansion of its  comprehensive economic strength. In 1995, its gross domestic product reached 6.2 billion yuan, comprising 1.01 billion yuan from the primary industry, 2.91 billion from the secondary industry and 2.28 billion yuan from the tertiary industry.
   To give fuller play to its agricultural advantages, the city  government has worked out two rural development programs -- Rural Well-Off  Program and Food Basket Program. These programs are designed to introduce  market forces into the rural economy.
   The city's industrial sector has developed and improved constantly. By now, Yinchuan has established four pillar industries, namely, chemicals based on chemical fertilizer, oil refining, tires, conveyer belts, metallic sodium, synthetic detergents and plastic products; machinery based on bearings, cranes, machine tools, transformers, electric welding rods, auto fittings and ferro-silicon; food processing based on citric acid, dairy products, canned asparagus and liquor; and building materials based on glass, silicon carbide, cement and steel windows.
   Yinchuan is an important commercial city along the ancient Silk Road and the new Eurasia Land Bridge. In recent years, it has built and expanded a number of large and medium-sized commercial facilities, such as the Ningxia Market, Xinhua Shopping Center and Yinchuan Market. Its circulation function and extension force have become more powerful.   Its drive of  opening to external investment has been stepped up and its foreign trade has developed.
                            Education
  The city government also has launched the "Scientific-technological and Education Development Program" to promote local economic construction and coordinated development of all social undertakings.
  The nine-year compulsory education program has become universal in the whole city, with the in-school rate of school-age children hitting 100%, that of primary schools hitting 98.3%, and that of junior middle schools hitting 64.6%.  In 1995, the number of students in universities and colleges reached 9,901; that in adult higher education schools, 5,845; and that in polytechnic schools, 14,039.
  Yinchuan enjoys ample electricity supply as it is located between the Shizuishan and Qingtongxia power stations.  It has four waterworks with a daily supply capacity of 140,000 cubic meters, sufficient for its production and local people's lives.
                           Communication
  Yinchuan is the communications hub in Ningxia.  Its civil aviation industry has opened five routes to Beijing, Xi'an, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu.
  When the new Yinchuan Hedong Airport opens to traffic, the annual passenger handling capacity will reach 600,000 person times.  The city is cut through by the Baotou-Lanzhou Railway Line, with direct railway services to Beijing and Lanzhou.
  There are many highways in the city, which are connected to those in neighboring provinces and regions. The city also has opened direct dialing telephone services to 196 other countries and regions, as well as to 1,046 Chinese cities.