Yinchuan is now the permanent site for the China-Arab Expo, a platform for cultural and economic exchanges between China and Arab countries.

It dates from over 30,000 years ago,[5] Later in Chinese prehistory, rock art was created in the Helan mountains adjacent to modern-day Yinchuan.

Ground fissures up to an meter wide, and 100 m (330 ft) long, and great subsidence were accounted in historical records.

The immediate plains area, intensively irrigated by a system developed as long ago as the Han (206 BC–AD 220) and Tang (618–907) dynasties, is extremely productive.

Yinchuan is the chief agricultural market and distribution center for this area and also deals in animal products from the herds tended by nomads in the surrounding grasslands.

During the nationwide 1989 Protests that followed the death of Hu Yaobang, Yinchuan was the site of student demonstrations responding to the April 26 Editorial.

[18] A similar number of people would march again, this time with wreaths and banners, when they heard the news about the June 4 crackdown in Beijing.

[20] On 21 June 2023, a gas explosion inside of a barbecue restaurant in Yinchuan killed at least 31 people and injured 7 others.

The urban center of Yinchuan lies about halfway between the Yellow River and the edge of Helan Mountains.

Yinchuan has distinct seasons, with dry, cold winters, late springs and short hot summers.

[27] Yinchuan classifies itself as a 'smart city', where modern technology is employed such as facial recognition for public transport payments, connected trash bins and digital citizen service centres.

[28][29][30][31] Until the 1950s the Yellow river, which is navigable downstream as far as Baotou in the Inner Mongolian autonomous region and upstream to Zhongwei and Zhongning, was the chief communication link.

It is 25 km (16 mi) from Yinchuan and has flights to Beijing, Chengdu, Dunhuang, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Xian, and Zhengzhou.

Although most residents are Han Chinese, Yinchuan is a center for the Muslim Hui people, who constitute slightly over a quarter of the population.

Consequently, the national government has started constructing a $3.7 billion Islamic theme park called "World Muslim City" in Yinchuan.

Unlike Uyghurs, who faces far more restrictions in religious freedoms, Hui Muslims generally do not seek independence from China and have a cultural affinity to the Han, and are far more assimilated into mainstream Chinese life.

[38][39][40] Until 2000, Yinchuan was also the traditional host of an August festival celebrating the harvesting of Goji berries (a major product of Ningxia).

The Western Xia Imperial Tombs are 15.5 miles west of Yinchuan on east side of Mt.

It produced The Herdsman, Red Sorghum, Lover's Grief over the Yellow River, New Dragon Gate Inn, Ashes of Time, A Chinese Odyssey, Qiao's Grand Courtyard (TV series) and nearly one hundred other films.

In 2018, John Cena lived for five months in Yinchuan while working on a film, Project X-Traction, with Jackie Chan (the movie was never ultimately released).

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.