HSI-NING

Pinyin Xining, also spelled Sining city in Tsinghai Province (sheng), western interior of China. Hsi-ning is the provincial capital and is situated in a fertile mountain basin in the valley of the Huang Shui (river), a tributary of the Huang Ho. The city lies about 125 miles (200 km) west of Lan-chou in Kansu Province, on what was traditionally the main trade route from northern China into Tibet and the Tsaidam Basin. These routes are now followed by modern highways. Since 1959 Hsi-ning has been connected by rail to the main Chinese system at Lan-chou; this railway extends into the Tsaidam area via Hai-yen near Koko Nor to Golmud. Hsi-ning has always been a strategic point on the Chinese western frontier. Under the Han dynasty (206 BCAD 220) a county (hsien) there called Lin-ch'iang controlled the local Ch'iang tribesmen. It was again a frontier county under the Sui (581618) and T'ang (618907) dynasties; during the 7th and early 8th centuries it was a centre of constant warfare with the T'u-y-hun and (later) the Tibetan peoples. In 763 it was overrun by the Tibetans and while under Tibetan control was known to the Chinese as Ch'ing-t'ang-ch'eng. Recovered by the Sung dynasty in 1104, it received the name Hsi-ning (meaning peace in the west) and has been the seat of a prefecture or superior prefecture under that name since that time. With the rise of Tibetan Buddhism (Lamaism), which began in the 7th century AD, Hsi-ning became an important religious centre; Tsinghai's largest lamasery, a holy place to the Yellow Hat sect of Buddhists, was located at Kunbum, some 12 miles (19 km) to the southeast. Hsi-ning became the provincial capital when Tsinghai was established as an independent province in 1928, and it was given municipal status in 1945. Since the late 1950s, when the Liu-chia Gorge Dam and hydroelectric project came into operation in neighbouring Kansu province, Hsi-ning has been linked by a high-tension electrical grid to both Liu-chia and Lan-chou. It also uses local coal from mines at Ta-t'ung-hsien to the north. A modern woolen mill was installed at Hsi-ning before 1957. The city also has a leather industry and is a market for salt from the Tsaidam region. During the late 1950s medium-sized iron- and steelworks were built there, supplying metal to Lan-chou. Pop. (1990 est.) 551,776.