Ning County or Ningxian () 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 ...

in the east of

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, China. It is 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 Qingyang. Its postal code is 745200, and its population in 2018 was 561,240 people.

History

The area of Ningxian is one of the earliest sites of Chinese civilization. The capital of the Yiqu was located in present Ningxian. Ningxian was established as a county during the

Qin dynasty The Qin dynasty ( ) was the first Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China. It is named for its progenitor state of Qin, a fief of the confederal Zhou dynasty (256 BC). Beginning in 230 BC, the Qin under King Ying Zheng enga ...

, later it was known as Ningzhou (). In 1913 its name was changed to the present Ningxian.

Geography

Ningxian is located on the

Loess Plateau The Loess Plateau is a plateau in north-central China formed of loess, a clastic rock, clastic silt-like sediment formed by the accumulation of Dust#Atmospheric, wind-blown dust. It is located southeast of the Gobi Desert and is surrounded by t ...

and has a rather humid climate. The main rivers in the county are the Jinghe river and the Malian river. A significant area of the county is forested.

Climate

Economy

The county relies mostly on agriculture, its produce includes mutton, apples, apricots, carrots, dates, day lilies and morel mushrooms. The town of Changqingqiao is the industry cluster of the county, home to chemical industry utilizing its coal, oil and natural gas reserves.

Administrative divisions

Ning County is divided to 14 towns and 4 townships. ;Towns ;Townships

Culture

Local food from Ningxian includes 'dog tongue bun' ( zh, s=狗舌头馍, p=Gǒu shétou mó), a bread shaped like a dog's tongue and 'sugar coins' ( zh, s=糖角子, p=Gǒu shétou mó), a sugar-filled wheat bun. In the TV series The Legend of Mi Yue, the capital of the Yiqu Country is set in Ningxian.

Transportation

* G22 Qingdao–Lanzhou Expressway * China National Highway 211

References

Official website (Chinese)
Ning County Qingyang {{Gansu-geo-stub