Understand
Nicknamed the Phoenix City, Yinchuan is a rising northwest Chinese industrial city and the capital of Ningxia Autonomous Region. Being one of a very few parts of China where an ethnic minority Hui people hold the power of governance, it is a treasure of Chinese-Muslim culture.
Yinchuan has two parts, the new city, with all of the industry, universities and colleges, is huddled around the main train station while the old city, the more livable of the two, lies 8 km to the east. Rapid growth over recent years has been quickly drawing these two distinct centers together as foreign investment grows.
Yinchuan historically served as a trade route town made large for its convenient location between Western Chinese cities such as Urumqi and the Eastern ones such as Beijing and Shenyang.
