Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region

Ningxia is an autonomous region in Northwestern China covering an area of 66,399.73 km² (25,637.08 square miles) with a population of a little less than 8 million people. Formerly a province, Ningxia was incorporated into Gansu but was later separated and reconstituted as an autonomous region for the Hui people, one of the 56 officially recognised nationalities of China. Yinchuan is the capital and largest city with a population of c. 1.8 million. Twenty percent of China’s Hui population lives in Ningxia. Ningxia is bounded by Shaanxi to the east, Gansu to the south and west and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to the north. This sparsely settled, mostly desert region lies partially on the Loess Plateau and in the vast plain of the Yellow River and features the Great Wall of China along its northeastern boundary. Over about 2000 years, an extensive system of canals (with a total length of approximately 1397 kilometres) has been built from Qin dynasty. Extensive land reclamation and irrigation projects have made increased cultivation possible. The arid region of Xihaigu, which covers large parts of the province, suffers from severe water shortage, which the canals were intended to alleviate. Aobaogeda in the Helan Mountains is the highest point.

Ningxia is a relatively dry, desert-like region and features a diverse geography of forested mountains and hills, table lands, deserts, flood plains and basins cut through by the Yellow River. The Ningxia ecosystem is one of the least studied regions in the world. Significant irrigation supports the growing of wolfberries, a commonly consumed fruit throughout the region. Ningxia’s deserts include the Tengger desert in Shapotou. The northern section, through which the Yellow River flows, supports the best agricultural land. In 1920, the Haiyuan earthquake caused a series of landslides, 600 large loess landslides created more than 40 new lakes.

Yellow River, Shapotou – ©mayanming CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Roughly 34 percent of the region’s total surface consisted of grassland. This figure is down from approximately 40 percent in the 1990s. The grasslands are spread over the dry desert-steppe area in the northeast (which forms a part of the Inner Mongolian steppe region), and the hilly pastures located on the semi-arid Loess Plateau in the south. There is evidence of expanding grassland degradation and desertification. A major component of land management in Ningxia is a ban on open grazing, which has been in place since 2003. The ecological and socio-economic effects of this Grazing Ban in relation to the grasslands and pastoralists’ livelihood are contested. Animal husbandry is limited to enclosed pens and no open grazing be permitted in certain time periods set by Government.

Barren Hills – ©Bird-Photo-Tours ASIA

Ningxia is rich in mineral resources with proven deposits of 34 kinds of minerals, much of which located in grassland area. Ningxia boasts verified coal reserves of over 30 billion tons, with an estimated reserve of more than 202 billion tons. Coal deposits are spread over one-third of the total surface of Ningxia, and mined in four major fields in the Helan and Xiangshan mountains, Ningdong and Yuanzhou (or Guyuan). The region’s reserves of oil and natural gas can be found in Yanchi and Lingwu County, and are ideal for large-scale development of oil, natural gas and chemical industries.

Similar to other areas, Ningxia has seen a gradual decline of its peasant population due to rural–urban migration. Despite this, over 60% are still involved in agriculture.  Animal husbandry, mostly of sheep and goats, is important for the regional economy. In the pastoral regions, herders engage in a mixed sedentary farming operation of dryland agriculture and extensive animal husbandry, while full nomadic pastoralism is no longer practiced. Since a cattle breeding plan was implemented, the province has become one of China’s main dairy production areas. Ningxia is the principal region of China where wolfberries are grown. Other specialties of Ningxia are licorice, products made from Helan stone, fiddlehead and products made from sheepskin.

Ningxia wines are a promising area of development. The Chinese authorities have given approval to the development of the eastern base of the Helan Mountains as an area suitable for wine production. Several large Chinese wine companies have begun development in the western region of the province and 20,000 acres of land is designated for wine plantations.

Kozlov’s Accentor Prunella koslowi – ©Bird-Photo-Tours ASIA

The region is 1,200 kilometres (750 miles) from the sea and has an arid continental climate in the north to humid continental climate to the south, with average summer temperatures rising to 17 to 24 °C in July and average winter temperatures dropping to between −7 and −15 °C in January. Seasonal extreme temperatures can reach 39 °C in summer and −30 °C in winter. Annual rainfall averages from 7 to 28 inches, with more rain falling in the south of the region.

Birding Ningxia

More than 470 vertebrate species have been recorded in Ningxia of which 370 species are birds belonging to around 50 families. Among them, about 120 species are summer visitors, 100 passing migrants, 85 residents and about 20 species over-wintering. The province bird of Ningxia is Blue Eared Pheasant Crossoptilon auritum the endemic species to China.

Lying on Yinchuan and Shizuishan City, Helanshan Nature Reserve covers an area of 206,266 hectares. The reserve aims to protect the forest ecosystem and its rare wildlife. The elevation of the reserve is between 1,400 meters to 3,500 meters. There are 690 species of higher plants that form the reserve of various vegetation types. About 150 bird species have been recorded in the reserve. Among them Chukar, Hill Pigeon, Bearded & Black Vultures, Amur Falcon, Silver-throated Tit, Beijing Babbler, Pere David’s Laughingthrush, Black-throated & Red-throated Thrushes, Ala Shan & White-winged & Daurian Redstarts, Pied Wheatear, Brown Accentor, White-winged Grosbeak & Godlewski’s Bunting.

Henderson’s (Mongolian) Ground Jay Podoces hendersoni – ©Bird-Photo-Tours ASIA

Located in the southwest of Yinpinluo county 56 kilometres from Yinchuan, the Sand Lake Wetland covers an area of 82 km² of which 22 km² is marsh. Its famous bird island has tens of thousands of birds nesting there. Around 130 species have been seen. Top targets are Red-crested Pochard, Pallas’s Gull & Whiskered Tern.

Saxual Sparrow Passer ammodendri – ©Bird-Photo-Tours ASIA

Liupanshan Nature Reserve is located in Jingyuan, Guyuan and Longde Counties and covers 67,800 hectares. With 600 to 800 millimetres of annual precipitation, the reserve has the richest water resources in Ningxia. 788 species of higher plants from the humid vegetation community and semi-arid vegetation community distribute in the reserve. More than150 bird species have been recorded. These include: Golden Pheasant, Eastern Buzzard, Grey-headed Woodpecker, Long-tailed Shrike, Spotted Nutcracker, Azure-winged Magpie, Sooty Bushtit, Elliot’s Laughingthrush, Black Redstart, Long-tailed Rosefinch, Godlewski’s Bunting and Black-faced Bunting, among others