Tongxin County (,

Xiao'erjing Xiao'erjing, Xiaorjing, Xiaojing or Benjing, is a Arabic script, Perso-Arabic script used to write Sinitic languages, including Lanyin Mandarin, Zhongyuan Mandarin, Northeastern Mandarin, and Dungan language, Dungan. It is used on occasion ...

: طْوثٍ ثِيًا) is 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 ...

under the administration of the

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 ...

of Wuzhong in the central part of the

Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region Ningxia, officially the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region in Northwestern China. Formerly a province, Ningxia was incorporated into Gansu in 1954 but was later separated from Gansu in 1958 and reconstituted as an autonomous ...

of China, bordering

Gansu Gansu is a provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibetan Plateau, Ti ...

province to the east. It has a total area of 7,021 square kilometers with a population of approximately 360,000 people.

Characteristics

Due to its topography, Tongxin County's economic conditions and foundation are extremely poor, and the county is often stricken by drought. However, farmers still make up two-thirds of the county's population. The county government has sought to use high technological methods to improve the standard of living in the region. The county government is located in the town of Tongxin.

History

In his ''

Red Star Over China ''Red Star Over China'' is a 1937 book by Edgar Snow based on his visit on the eve of the Second Sino-Japanese War to areas controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), when it was largely obscure to Westerners. The book made an impact on ...

'',

Edgar Snow Edgar Parks Snow (July 19, 1905 – February 15, 1972) was an American journalist known for his books and articles on communism in China and the Chinese Communist Revolution. He was the first Western journalist to give an account of the history of ...

mentions visiting the small towns of Yuwang Bao and Yuwang (, ) located in today's Tongxin County. At the moment (summer/fall 1936), Yuwang Bao was the location of the headquarters of the First Front Red Army, where Edgar Snow met with the army's commander,

Peng Dehuai Peng Dehuai (October 24, 1898November 29, 1974; also spelled as Peng Teh-Huai) was a Chinese general and politician who was the Minister of National Defense (China), Minister of National Defense from 1954 to 1959. Peng was born into a poor ...

there. Edgar Snow described Yuwang Bao as follows:

On the high, stout walls of Yu Wang Pao a squad of Red buglers was practicing, and from a corner of this fortlike city flew a big scarlet flag, its yellow hammer and ciskle cracking out in the breeze... We could look down on one side to a clean courtyard, where Muslim women were hulling rice and baking. Washing hung from a line on another side. In a distant square some Red soldiers were practicing wall scaling, broad jumping, and grenade throwing.

Yuwang (40 li north-west of Yuwang Bao), recently captured by the Reds from the troops of

Ma Hongkui Ma Hongkui ( zh, s=马鸿逵 , t=馬鴻逵 , p=Mǎ Hóngkuí , w=Ma Hung-k'uei , first=t, Xiao'erjing: ; March 14, 1892 – January 14, 1970) was a prominent Hui people, Chinese Muslim warlord during the Republic of China (1912–1949), R ...

after a ten-day siege, was described as

an ancient Muslim city of four or five hundred families, with a magnificent wall of stone and brick. Outside of the wall was a
Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

mosque A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard. Originally, mosques were si ...
, with its own wall of beautiful glazed brick unscarred. But other buildings showed signs of the siege this city had undergone before it was taken by the Reds.

In October 1936, a public meeting was held at the

Tongxin Great Mosque The Tongxin Great Mosque () is a mosque in Tongxin County, Wuzhong City, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China. The mosque is the oldest and largest mosque in Ningxia. History The mosque was likely built in the fourteenth century during the Yuan ...

, establishing the Yuwang Hui Autonomous Government - the first

autonomous county Autonomous counties () and autonomous banners () are Counties of China, county-level autonomous administrative divisions of China. Autonomous counties tend to have a large number of ethnic minority citizens compared to ordinary counties (if not ...

in Communist China. Although this autonomous unit was short-lived, the mosque building was protected as a revolutionary historical site, and became the only major Islamic building in Ningxia to survive destruction during the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...

Administrative divisions

Tongxin County has 7 towns and 4 townships. ;Towns * Yuhai (, ) * Dingtang (, ) * Wangtuan (, ) * Xiamaguan (, ) * Weizhou (, ) * Hexi (, ) * Yuwang (, ) ;Townships * Xinglong (, ) * Magaozhuang (, ) * Tianlaozhuang (, ) * Zhangjiayuan (, )

Demographics

According to the regional census of 1983, Tongxin County had the second-highest percentage of the

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 ...

(Muslim Chinese) people in its population among all counties in Ningxia, second only to Jingyuan County. 79.0% of its population at the time (172,906 out of 218,967) were Hui.Gladney (1991), p. 120

Climate

References

Bibliography

* Dru C. Gladney, ''Muslim Chinese: Ethnic Nationalism in the People's Republic''. 1st ed.: Harvard University Press, 1991, ; 2nd ed., 1996. . {{Authority control County-level divisions of Ningxia Wuzhong, Ningxia