History

Ningxia has a long history. In Shuidonggou, Lingwu County and Zhongwei County, archaeologists found that 30,000years ago there were human being of Paleolithic leaving cultural ruins. In BC 221, Qin Kingdom unified China. Ningxia was called Beidi County at that time. A lot of people migrated to Ningxia, exploring wasteland and building irrigating system, which laid a foundation for the development of Ningxia agriculture. Those canals are still in use today. In Xihan(Western Han) Dynasty, more people migrated to Ningxia, bringing advanced farming techniques. To enlarge the farmland, they built new canals.

<Rice & Grain & River>

At the end of Donghan Dynasty, central plain of China was suffering from wars. Ningxia became the battle field where Qiang Nationality, Hun and Serbi fought with each other. Between 407 and 431, leader of Hun ruled the place and named it Daxia. Places of Guyuan, Lingwu and Yinchuan were once within Daxia. In Tang Dynasty, Ningxia became a prefecture and had administrative offices and army of 60,000 soldiers. And it was the political, military, economic and traffic center in northwest. In the boom time of Tang Dynasty, Ningxia had fast economic development.

In 1038, Yuanhao established Xia Kingdom, for it was in the west of Beisong Kingdom, it is called Xixia (Western Xia). Its capital Xingqingfu( now it is Yinchuan city) was Xixia' s political, and economic center and the hinge of irrigation. Xixia had booming stock-raising. Song Kingdom bought most horses from Xixia and Genghis khan( Mongol conqueror) bought a lot of camels. And Xixia also had developed handicraft industry producing tanning leather, wool and carpets. Chengtian Temple Pagoda, built in Liangzuo(son of Yuanhao) period, still stands in Yinchuan, symbolizing the outstanding constructing technique.

In 1227, after defeating Xixia, Genghis khan, founder of Yuan Dynasty built a road from which Hui nationality moved in. In Ming Dynasty, Ningxia became the frontier fortress.

In 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang, one of the emperors of Ming Dynasty announced that farmers could own the land where they cultivated and did not need to pay tax. And irrigating system was built by military. Around 1412, there was a birth boom and food supplies soared. The food storage at that time was enough for 10 years payment. However, after middle of Ming Dynasty, wars were waged and a large amount of people died, and Ningxia was sabotaged a lot. Qing Dynasty established government office in Ningxia and

<Terrace>

In October 1949, Ningxia was taken over by Chinese Communist Party and remain its old area and organization. In 1954 Ningxia was merged into Gansu Province. In October 1958, Ningxia Hui Nationality Autonomy was established.