Qilihe District () is one of 5

districts 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 counties, several municipalities, subdivisions ...

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 ...

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 ...

, the capital of

Gansu Province 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 Tibet ...

Northwest The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each s ...

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 is one of 17 administrative districts of Gansu.

Geography

Qilihe District is located entirely on the southern bank of 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 ...

, and includes part of Lanzhou's main urban area, being the second most populous district of Lanzhou. In the east, it borders on Chengguan District (which includes the downtown Lanzhou), and in the west, on

Xigu District Xigu District () is one of 5 districts of the prefecture-level city of Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu Province, Northwest China. It is the westernmost part of the city of Lanzhou proper. Until 1952, Xigu was part of Gaolan County as a township an ...

. The district also includes some sparsely populated arid highlands south of the river, stretching for several tens of kilometers up to the border of the

Dingxi Dingxi (), also known as Longyou () is a prefecture-level city in the southeast of Gansu province, People's Republic of China. As of the 2020 census, its population was 2,524,097 inhabitants, of which 422,383 lived in the built-up (or metro) area ...

prefecture-level city.

History

The area of Qilihe district has been inhabited since the

Neolithic era The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

. In 1083, a fort was built at present A'gan Town. In the 1940 it was part of

Gaolan County Gaolan County () is a county of Gansu Province, China, it is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu, one of 58 counties of Gansu. Its postal code is 730200, and its population in 2019 was 147,000 p ...

, and two towns were located at the present urban centre, Huaqiao (握桥镇) in the east and Bingping (丙屏镇) in the west. In 1949, these two towns became the eighth and ninth districts of Lanzhou, which were renamed fourth and eighth district respectively in 1953. In 1955, the fourth district became Qilihe District. The name of the district is derived from a stream (hé), located seven (qī) li from downtown Lanzhou, and between the two former towns.

Demographics

In 2018, the district had a population of 635,000, of which about 100,000 minority population (

Hui The Hui people ( zh, c=, p=Huízú, w=Hui2-tsu2, Xiao'erjing: , dng, Хуэйзў, ) are an East Asian ethnoreligious group predominantly composed of Chinese-speaking adherents of Islam. They are distributed throughout China, mainly in the n ...

, Dongxiang, Uyghur, Mongolian, and

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 diale ...

). Most of the minority population of Lanzhou is concentrated in Qilihe.

Transport

Lanzhou's biggest railway station,

Lanzhou West railway station Lanzhou West railway station is located in Qilihe District, Lanzhou, Gansu Province on Xi Zhan Xi Road (). It is served by the Longhai Railway, Lan-Xin Railway, Lanzhou–Ürümqi High-Speed Railway, Lanzhou–Zhongchuan Airport Intercity ...

is located in Qilihe district. G212 starts in Qilihe and G109 passes through Qilihe,

G75 Lanzhou–Haikou Expressway The Lanzhou–Haikou Expressway (), designated as G75 and commonly referred to as the Lanhai Expressway () is an expressway in China that connects the cities of Lanzhou, Gansu, and Haikou, Hainan. When fully complete, it will be in length. It is ...

begins in Qilihe District. Long-distance buses depart from Lanzhou West Bus Station. Metro line 1 and line 2 (under construction) pass through the core of Qilihe.

Tourism

VM 6082 Lanzhou Xihu Park Mother Yellow River

The district's sights include the waterfront Xihu Park (), with a good view of the Yellow River and the well-known "Mother River" statue, symbolizing the role of the

for Chinese civilization. The monument is considered the symbol of Lanzhou.

Gansu Provincial Museum The Gansu Provincial Museum () is a museum in Lanzhou, China. Its collections include over 350,000 artefacts, in two main sections: history and natural science. Since its foundation, the museum has held almost 300 exhibitions, and items from its ...

is near the centre of Qilihe district. An amusement park is located in the northwest of Qilihe. Lanzhou's sole

aquarium An aquarium (plural: ''aquariums'' or ''aquaria'') is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aq ...

and Lanzhou Workers' Palace of Culture are also located in the district.

Economy

The local economy mainly depended on state-owned enterprises, but service industry and commerce has become of greater importance.

Education

Both of

Lanzhou University of Technology Lanzhou University of Technology () is a scientific and technological university located in Lanzhou, the provincial capital of Gansu Province, China. History Lanzhou University of Technology was established as Ganzhou Technical School in 1919. ...

's campuses are in Qilihe District

Healthcare

* Lanzhou General Military Hospital * Gansu Chinese Medicine Hospital * Lanshi Hospital * First People's Hospital of Lanzhou

Administrative divisions

The district administers 9

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 ...

, 5

towns A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an or ...

, 1

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, ...

, 59 administrative

villages A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

and 78 residential communities. ;Subdistricts * Xiyuan Subdistrict () * Xihu Subdistrict () * Jianlan Road Subdistrict() * Dunhuang Road Subdistrict () * Xizhan Subdistrict () * Yanjiaping Subdistrict () * Gongjiawan Subdistrict () * Tumendun Subdistrict () * Xiuchuan Subdistrict () ;Towns * A'gan Town () * Xiguoyuan Town () * Bali Town () * Pengjiaping Town () * Huangyu Town () -it is upgraded from Township. ;Townships * Weiling Township ()