Baiyin District () is the main urban district of and the economic, cultural and political center of the
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 Chi ...
of
Baiyin
Baiyin () is a prefecture-level city in northeastern Gansu province, People's Republic of China. Established in the 1950s as a base for mining non-ferrous metals, its mines are becoming exhausted in recent decades, requiring the city to reinvent ...
,
Gansu
Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province.
The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibe ...
province of the
People's Republic of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
. It has a population of 290,000, 90% of whom live in the urban area.
It was established as an administrative division in 1961.
Geography
The urban area is located in a mountain basin at an elevation of around 1,700 m. The south of Baiyin district is traversed by the
Yellow River
The Yellow River or Huang He (Chinese: , Mandarin: ''Huáng hé'' ) is the second-longest river in China, after the Yangtze River, and the sixth-longest river system in the world at the estimated length of . Originating in the Bayan Ha ...
, the only non-intermittent river in the district, and the main source of water for drinking and irrigation. The plains along the river are at circa 1,500 m. In 1998, floods caused economic damage and 3 people went missing in the towns near the river. Since then, hydropower dams have been built on the Yellow River.
The climate is
temperate continental and
semi-arid
A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi- ...
. The average temperature is 8.5 °C. The average annual precipitation is 204.3 mm, concentrated in the summer months. Due to the dry climate, the natural vegetation is mainly limited to arid grasslands. Baiyin is frequently hit by sandstorms.
Baiyin District had large non-ferrous metal resources, which have been exploited through open-pit mines. By 2008, most mines had become exhausted.
Economy
Baiyin District ranks in the middle regions of GDP per capita in Gansu province.
Formerly a mining town, the economy has come to rely on production of building materials, chemicals and agriculture.
Administrative divisions
Baiyin District is divided to 5 subdistricts, 3 towns and 2 townships.
;Subdistricts
;Towns
* Shuichuan()
* Silong()
* Wangxian()
;Townships
*
Qiangwan Township()
* Wuchuan Township()
See also
*
List of administrative divisions of Gansu
Gansu, a province of the People's Republic of China, is made up of the following administrative divisions.
Administrative divisions
These administrative divisions are explained in greater detail at Administrative divisions of the People's Rep ...
References
County-level divisions of Gansu
Baiyin
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