Jining District (

Mongolian script The classical or traditional Mongolian script, also known as the , was the first writing system created specifically for the Mongolian language, and was the most widespread until the introduction of Cyrillic in 1946. It is traditionally written ...

: ; ) is an urban

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...

that serves as the administrative seat of

Ulanqab Ulanqab or Ulan Chab (; mn, ''Ulaɣančab qota''; Mongolian cyrillic.Улаанцав хот) is a region administered as a prefecture-level city in south-central Inner Mongolia, China. Its administrative centre is in Jining District, which w ...

, a region governed as a

prefecture-level city A prefecture-level city () or prefectural city is an administrative division of the People's Republic of China (PRC), ranking below a province and above a county in China's administrative structure. During the Republican era, many of China ...

in the mid-western part of

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...

, China. It has an area of approximately 114.2 km² and is in the southern foothills of the Yinshan mountains. As of 2011, it had a population of roughly 377,100, including members of the

Mongol The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal member ...

Hui The Hui people ( zh, c=, p=Huízú, w=Hui2-tsu2, Xiao'erjing: , dng, Хуэйзў, ) are an East Asian ethnoreligious group predominantly composed of Chinese-speaking adherents of Islam. They are distributed throughout China, mainly in the n ...

, Manchu, Daur, Tibetan, Uyghur,

Hmong Hmong may refer to: * Hmong people, an ethnic group living mainly in Southwest China, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand * Hmong cuisine * Hmong customs and culture ** Hmong music ** Hmong textile art * Hmong language, a continuum of closely related to ...

, and Yi

national minorities The term 'minority group' has different usages depending on the context. According to its common usage, a minority group can simply be understood in terms of demographic sizes within a population: i.e. a group in society with the least number o ...

. Administratively speaking, Ulanqab is a "city" and Jining a "district", in reality Jining is a ''de facto'' city, while Ulanqab is an administrative division covering a much larger area. See

for more information on this arrangement. Jining South Railway Station () serves as a railway intersection to the border town of

Erenhot Erenhot ( mn, ; , commonly shortened to Ereen or Erlian) is a county-level city of the Xilin Gol League, in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, located in the Gobi Desert along the Sino-Mongolian border, across from the Mongolian town of Za ...

to the north, Hohhot and Baotou to the west, and Shanxi province's Datong to the south.

History

Recorded human activity in the Jining area dates back to the

Shang dynasty The Shang dynasty (), also known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese royal dynasty founded by Tang of Shang (Cheng Tang) that ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty and ...

. It was originally named Bingzhou (). In the Song dynasty it was part of the

Yunzhong Commandery Yunzhong Commandery ( zh, 雲中郡) was a historical commandery of China. Its territories were located between the Great Wall and Yin Mountains, and correspond to part of modern-day Hohhot, Baotou and Ulanqab prefectures in Inner Mongolia. The ...

(); it was placed under the administration of Datong during the Jin dynasty (1115–1234). During the

Yuan dynasty The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fift ...

, it was named "Jining" for the first time. In 1675, the Jining area was placed under the administration of the Plain Yellow Banner of

Chahar Province Chahar ( mn, , Чахар; ), also known as Chaha'er, Chakhar or Qahar, was a province of the Republic of China in existence from 1912 to 1936, mostly covering territory in what is part of Eastern Inner Mongolia. It was named after the Chahar ...

, and in 1750 was transferred to Fengzhen City's administration. In 1922, it was renamed Jining and became a municipality, and the following year a

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

. In 1948 Jining fell under the control of the Communist Party. The urban core was subsequently renamed Chengguan Town (roughly, "urban district"), then Pingdiquan Town (), then finally back to Jining in April 1956. In 2004,

League, to which it is the seat of government, was 'converted' to a

, and Jining is correspondingly changed from a

county-level city A county-level municipality (), county-level city or county city, formerly known as prefecture-controlled city (1949–1970: ; 1970–1983: ), is a county-level administrative division of the People's Republic of China. County-level ...

to a

. Ulanqab is named Chaborte in the writings of P. Evariste Huc.

Transportation

Jining is a major transport node in central Inner Mongolia. It is on the Beijing-Baotou railway, and the terminus of the Jining-Erenhot Railway, making the city a short connection away from urban centres such as Hohhot, Baotou,

Zhangjiakou Zhangjiakou (; ; ) also known as Kalgan and by several other names, is a prefecture-level city in northwestern Hebei province in Northern China, bordering Beijing to the southeast, Inner Mongolia to the north and west, and Shanxi to the south ...

, Datong, and

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

. High-speed rail access is available to Hohhot and Baotou; travel time to the regional capital is approximately an hour. Jining is also on the route of

China National Highway 208 China National Highway 208 (G208) runs from Erenhot, Inner Mongolia to Xichuan County, Henan province. It is 990 kilometres in length and runs south from Erenhot, via Shanxi towards Henan province. Route and distance See also * China National H ...

China National Highway 110 China National Highway 110 (G110) runs from Beijing to Qingtongxia, via Hohhot, Baotou in Inner Mongolia, and Yinchuan. It heads northwest from Beijing to Zhangjiakou then heads straight west, and runs to approximately . In October 2004 and Nove ...

, and the G6 Beijing–Lhasa Expressway. Intercity buses are available to neighboring cities and towns.

Natural resources

The Jining area is a source of

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

and

turquoise Turquoise is an opaque, blue-to-green mineral that is a hydrated phosphate of copper and aluminium, with the chemical formula . It is rare and valuable in finer grades and has been prized as a gemstone and ornamental stone for thousands of year ...

. {{authority control Ulanqab County-level divisions of Inner Mongolia