The region of Ningxia (then part of Shaanxi, ruled by the Viceroy of Shan-Shaan) was struck by a major earthquake on the morning of 14 October 1709.

The city of Zhongwei was badly damaged, including a section of the Great Wall.

[1] Zhongwei lies close to the northern edge of the Tibetan Plateau.

There is a clear surface rupture of 53 km and trenching across the fault zone has confirmed that this resulted from the 1709 earthquake.

An average sinistral displacement of 4.8 ±0.8 m has been estimated for this event,[2] with a maximum offset of about 7.4 m.[3] Aftershocks affected the area several times a day for the first 50 days, dying out completely about a year later.