Xining was a commercial hub along the Northern Silk Road's Hexi Corridor for over 2000 years, and was a stronghold of the Han, Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties' resistance against nomadic attacks from the west.

Xining holds sites of religious significance to Muslims and Buddhists, including the Dongguan Mosque and Kumbum Monastery.

Xining has a history of over 2,100 years[6] and was a chief commercial hub on the Hexi Corridor caravan route to Tibet, handling especially timber, wool and salt in ancient times.

[7] Under the Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD), a county called Linqiang was established to control the local Qiang tribesmen.

It was again a frontier county under the Sui (581–618) and Tang (618–907) dynasties; during the 7th and early 8th centuries it was a center of constant warfare with Tuyuhun and Tibet.

[10][11] The Salar Muslim General Han Youwen directed the defense of the city of Xining during air raids by Japanese planes.

Under the rule of Governor Ma Bufang, Xining, like the rest of Qinghai, underwent industrialization and modernization.

[15] Since the late 1950s, when the Liujiaxia Dam and hydroelectric project came into operation in neighboring Gansu province, Xining has been linked by a high-tension electrical grid to both Liujia and Lanzhou.

Construction of a highway to the mineral-rich Qaidam basin, and completion in 1959 a link to the Chinese rail network via Lanzhou in Gansu province, has spurred industrial development.

This effort was part of a plan of the central government to rapidly exploit oil and pasturage in the Xining area beginning in the 1950s.

During the Western and Eastern Han dynasties, owing to its developing agriculture, Xining was paid notice due to its economic and military significance.

The monthly 24-hour average temperatures ranges from −7.9 °C (17.8 °F) in January to 17.5 °C (63.5 °F) in July; the annual mean is 6.0 °C (42.8 °F), still making it one of the warmest locations in Qinghai due to the low elevation by provincial standards.

However, a treatment on a 40 km (25 mi) river course and 10 flash flood relief channels remain pending due to lack of equipment.

In Sanxian County, a 108.4 m (356 ft) long river course and 80 flash flood relief channels need treatment.

According to a 2011 World Health Organization (based on Chinese statistics), Xining has the second worst air quality (annual mean PM10 ug/m3 of 141) among eleven western China cities, and is worse than Beijing (121).

It focuses on the development of following industries: chemicals based on salt lake resources, nonferrous metals, and petroleum and natural gas processing; special medicine, foods and bio-chemicals using local plateau animals and plants; new products involving ecological and environmental protection, high technology, new materials as well as information technology; and services such as logistics, banking, real estate, tourism, hotel, catering, agency and international trade.

[26] At present, four districts, three counties and a national economic and technological development zone are under the administration of the local government.

The city lies about 200 km (120 mi) west of Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu province, on what was traditionally the main trade route from northern China into Tibet and the Qaidam Basin.

Xining Caojiapu International Airport serves the area with regularly scheduled passenger flights to major Chinese cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Chengdu, Kunming, Xi'an, and Wuhan.

Xining's cuisine is distinct from other Chinese cities and mainly uses food products native to the area.

Local specialties include: Feng'er Liji (a round lamb tenderloin), Danbai Chongcao Ji (a medicine cuisine made of chicken, Chinese caterpillar fungus and eggs), and Jinyu Facai (pork wrapped in flagelliform nostoc and shaped as a goldfish).

5The claimed province of Taiwan no longer have any internal division announced by Ministry of Civil Affairs of PRC, due to lack of actual jurisdiction.