Baiyin () is 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 Chi ...

in northeastern

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, People's Republic of China. Established in the 1950s as a base for mining

non-ferrous metal In metallurgy, non-ferrous metals are metals or alloys that do not contain iron ( allotropes of iron, ferrite, and so on) in appreciable amounts. Generally more costly than ferrous metals, non-ferrous metals are used because of desirable prop ...

s, its mines are becoming exhausted in recent decades, requiring the city to reinvent its economy. Located around from Gansu's capital

Lanzhou Lanzhou (, ; ) is the capital and largest city of Gansu Province in Northwest China. Located on the banks of the Yellow River, it is a key regional transportation hub, connecting areas further west by rail to the eastern half of the country. H ...

, it is part of the Lanzhou-Baiyin Economic Belt.

Geography and climate

Baiyin is part ''

loess Loess (, ; from german: Löss ) is a clastic, predominantly silt-sized sediment that is formed by the accumulation of wind-blown dust. Ten percent of Earth's land area is covered by loess or similar deposits. Loess is a periglacial or aeoli ...

'' plateau, part desert. Elevation ranges from above sea-level. The climate is very arid with only of annual precipitation. Annual evaporation is resulting in a net loss of approximately . 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 ...

flows from south to north for through Baiyin. The area is , of that urban.

Administration

Baiyin has 2 urban districts, 3 counties, 64 townships, 18 towns, and 7 sub-districts with a total population of 1,746,800(2011).

Economy

The Baiyin Nonferrous operates

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pink ...

zinc Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...

and

selenium Selenium is a chemical element with the symbol Se and atomic number 34. It is a nonmetal (more rarely considered a metalloid) with properties that are intermediate between the elements above and below in the periodic table, sulfur and tellurium, ...

mines around Baiyin, although these mines are getting exhausted of ore. Financed by development funds, a high-tech park is being built, which is home to a

contact lens Contact lenses, or simply contacts, are thin lenses placed directly on the surface of the eyes. Contact lenses are ocular prosthetic devices used by over 150 million people worldwide, and they can be worn to correct vision or for cosmeti ...

factory. Pingchuan District and Huining County are the largest coal production bases in Gansu province. The Yinguang Group, a subsidiary of

Norinco China North Industries Group Corporation Limited, doing business internationally as Norinco Group (North Industries Corporation), and known within China as China Ordnance Industries Group Corporation Limited (), is a Chinese state-owned defense ...

, operates a major factory making chemicals for defense and civilian use, the factory was a key project of the

first five-year plan The first five-year plan (russian: I пятилетний план, ) of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was a list of economic goals, created by Communist Party General Secretary Joseph Stalin, based on his policy of socialism in ...

Transportation

Baiyin is directly served by the Baotou–Lanzhou railway, Honghui railway,

China National Highway 109 China National Highway 109 connects Beijing with Lhasa. It runs westwards from Beijing via Datong, Yinchuan and Xining to Golmud before turning southwest to Lhasa. The portion of the highway from Xining to Lhasa is known as the Qinghai-Tibet Hig ...

China National Highway 341 China National Highway 341 will run from Jiaonan in Shandong to Haiyan in Qinghai. It is one of the new trunk highways proposed in the China National Highway Network Planning (2013 - 2030). Status ;Shandong Complete between Jiaonan and Zhuchen ...

and G6 Beijing–Lhasa Expressway.

Notable people

Chen Hualan Chen Hualan (; born March 1969) is a Chinese people, Chinese Veterinary virology, veterinary virologist best known for researching animal epidemic diseases. She is a member of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and a member of the Foo ...

– veterinary virologist

References

External links

Official Website (Chinese)
{{authority control Prefecture-level divisions of Gansu