Jining District (

Mongolian Mongolian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Mongolia, a country in Asia * Mongolian people, or Mongols * Bogd Khanate of Mongolia, the government of Mongolia, 1911–1919 and 1921–1924 * Mongolian language * Mongolian alphabet * ...

: ; ) 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, municip ...

that serves as the administrative seat of

Ulanqab Ulanqab or Ulan Chab ( zh, s=乌兰察布, p=Wūlánchábù; ''Ulaɣančab qota-means in Mongolian Ulaan-red, Tsab/tsav is-hills''; Mongolian Cyrillic: Улаанцав хот) is a region administered as a prefecture-level city in south-centr ...

, a region governed as a

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

in the mid-western part of

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of China. Its border includes two-thirds of the length of China's China–Mongolia border, border with the country of Mongolia. ...

, China. It has an area of approximately 114.2 km² and is in the southern foothills of the

Yinshan mountains The Yin Mountains, also known by their Chinese language, Chinese name as the Yin Shan or Yinshan and by various romanizations as the Daqing Mountains, are mountains in the Eastern Gobi Desert steppe of the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region of Chin ...

. As of 2011, it had a population of roughly 377,100, including members of the

Mongol Mongols are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, China (Inner Mongolia and other 11 autonomous territories), as well as the republics of Buryatia and Kalmykia in Russia. The Mongols are the principal member of the large family of M ...

Hui The Hui people are an East Asian ethnoreligious group predominantly composed of Chinese-speaking adherents of Islam. They are distributed throughout China, mainly in the northwestern provinces and in the Zhongyuan region. According to the 2 ...

Manchu The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic peoples, Tungusic East Asian people, East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized Ethnic minorities in China, ethnic minority in China and the people from wh ...

, Daur,

Tibetan Tibetan may mean: * of, from, or related to Tibet * Tibetan people, an ethnic group * Tibetan language: ** Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard ** Standard Tibetan, the most widely used spoken dial ...

Uyghur Uyghur may refer to: * Uyghurs, a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia (West China) ** Uyghur language, a Turkic language spoken primarily by the Uyghurs *** Old Uyghur language, a different Turkic language spoken in the Uyghur K ...

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 ...

, and Yi

national minorities The term "minority group" has different meanings, depending on the context. According to common usage, it can be defined simply as a group in society with the least number of individuals, or less than half of a population. Usually a minority g ...

. 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: the

Trans-Mongolian Railway The Trans-Mongolian Railway (, ) connects Ulan-Ude on the Trans-Siberian Railway in Buryatia, Russia, with Ulanqab in Inner Mongolia, China, via Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. It was completed in 1956, and runs from northwest to south ...

terminates her and runs via the border town of

Erenhot Erenhot ( ; zh, s=二连浩特, p=Èrliánhàotè, commonly shortened to Ereen or Erlian) is a county-level city under jurisdiction of the Xilingol League, Inner Mongolia, China, located in the Gobi Desert along the Sino-Mongolian border, ac ...

(Erlian) through Mongolia to Russia in the north,

Hohhot Hohhot,; abbreviated zh, c=呼市, p=Hūshì, labels=no formerly known as Kweisui, is the Capital (political), capital of Inner Mongolia in the North China, north of the China, People's Republic of China, serving as the region's administrativ ...

and

Baotou Baotou; is the largest city by urban population in Inner Mongolia, China. Governed as a prefecture-level city, as of the 2020 census, its built-up (''or metro'') area made up of its 5 urban districts is home to 2,261,089 people with a total po ...

to the west,

Shanxi Shanxi; Chinese postal romanization, formerly romanised as Shansi is a Provinces of China, province in North China. Its capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-level cities are Changzhi a ...

province's

Datong Datong is a prefecture-level city in northern Shanxi Province, China. It is located in the Datong Basin at an elevation of and borders Inner Mongolia to the north and west and Hebei to the east. As of the 2020 census, it had a population o ...

to the south, and the Jining–Tongliao railway to the east.

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 that ruled in the Yellow River valley during the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty and followed by the Western Zhou d ...

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

Yunzhong Commandery Yunzhong Commandery 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 commandery was c ...

(); it was placed under the administration of

during the

Jin dynasty (1115–1234) The Jin dynasty (, ), officially known as the Great Jin (), was a Jurchen people, Jurchen-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and empire ruled by the Wanyan clan that existed between 1115 and 1234. It is also often called the ...

. During the

Yuan dynasty The Yuan dynasty ( ; zh, c=元朝, p=Yuáncháo), officially the Great Yuan (; Mongolian language, Mongolian: , , literally 'Great Yuan State'), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after Div ...

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

Plain Yellow Banner The Plain Yellow Banner () was one of the Eight Banners of Manchu military and society during the Later Jin and Qing dynasty of China. The Plain Yellow Banner was one of three "upper" banner armies under the direct command of the emperor himself ...

Chahar Province Chahar (; ), 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 Mongols. Administ ...

, 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 purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

. 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 League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football * ''League of Legends'', a 2009 multiplayer online battle a ...

, 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 city () is a County-level divisions of China, county-level administrative division of the China, People's Republic of China. County-level cities have judiciary, judicial but no legislature, legislative rights over their own local or ...

to a

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

Administrative divisions

Jining District is divided into 8

subdistricts A subdistrict or sub-district is an administrative division that is generally smaller than a district. Equivalents * Administrative posts of East Timor, formerly Portuguese-language * Kelurahan, in Indonesia * Mukim, a township in Brunei, Indon ...

, 1

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

, and 1

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

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, Jining-Tongliao, and Trans-Mongolian railways, making the city a short connection away from urban centres such as

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 southwest ...

, and

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

. 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 ...

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 Nov ...

, and the

G6 Beijing–Lhasa Expressway The Beijing–Lhasa Expressway (), commonly abbreviated to Jingzang Expressway (), is part of the Expressways of China, Chinese national expressway network and is planned to connect the nation's capital, Beijing, to the capital of the Tibet Autono ...

. Intercity buses are available to neighboring cities and towns.

Natural resources

The Jining area is a source of

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

and

turquoise Turquoise is an opaque, blue-to-green mineral that is a hydrous phosphate of copper and aluminium, with the chemical formula . It is rare and valuable in finer grades and has been prized as a gemstone for millennia due to its hue. The robi ...

References

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