Editing Xining (section)

== History ==
Xining has a history of over 2,100 years<ref>[http://www.xining.gov.cn/English/English_1.html] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929105845/http://www.xining.gov.cn/English/English_1.html|date=September 29, 2007}}</ref> and was a chief commercial hub on the [[Hexi Corridor]] caravan route to [[Tibet]], handling especially timber, wool and salt in ancient times. The trade along the Hexi Corridor was part of a larger trade corridor along the [[Northern Silk Road]], whose use was intensified in the 1st century BC after efforts by the [[Han dynasty]] to control this route.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=18006 |title=Silk Road, North China [Northern Silk Road, North Silk Road&#93; Ancient Trackway : The Megalithic Portal and Megalith Map |publisher=Megalithic.co.uk |access-date=2014-02-07}}</ref>

Under the Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD), a county called Linqiang was established to control the local [[Qiang (historical people)|Qiang tribesmen]]. It was again a frontier county under the [[Sui dynasty|Sui]] (581–618) and [[Tang dynasty|Tang]] (618–907) dynasties; during the 7th and early 8th centuries it was a center of constant warfare with [[Tuyuhun]] and [[Tibetan Empire|Tibet]]. In 763, it was overrun by the Tibetans and while under Tibetan control was known to the Chinese as ''Qingtang cheng'' ({{lang|zh|青唐城}}). Recovered by the [[Song dynasty]] in 1104, it received the name Xining (meaning "peace in the west") and has been the seat of a prefecture or superior prefecture under that name since that time. The founder of [[Gelug]] '''Tsongkhapa''' ([[Tibetan script|Tibetan]]: ཙོང་ཁ་པ་, meaning: "the man from Tsongkha". c. 1357–1419) was born in the 14th century, and on the site of his birthplace the [[Kumbum Monastery]] was founded in the late 16th century, establishing Xining as an important religious center for the [[Gelug]] School of Buddhists.

A major [[1927 Gulang earthquake|earthquake occurred May 22, 1927]], measuring at a [[Moment magnitude scale|magnitude]] of 7.6. It was one of the deadliest earthquakes in China with a total count of over 40,000 deaths. It also caused large land fractures.

Xining was the extraterritorial capital of the [[Koko Nor]] territory and remained in [[Gansu]] until 1928, when it became the provincial capital of the newly established independent province of Qinghai.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WltwAAAAMAAJ&q=sichuan+reassert|title=China's inner Asian frontier: photographs of the Wulsin expedition to northwest China in 1923 : from the archives of the Peabody Museum, Harvard University, and the National Geographic Society|author=Frederick Roelker Wulsin, Joseph Fletcher, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, National Geographic Society (U.S.), Peabody Museum of Salem|editor=Mary Ellen Alonso|year=1979|publisher=The Museum : distributed by Harvard University Press|edition=illustrated|page=49|isbn=0-674-11968-1|access-date=2010-06-28}}(Original from the University of Michigan)</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qhe6vP66jN0C&q=They+did+not%2C+however%2C+control+political+life+in+the+province.+This+was+in+the+hands+of+the+Ma+clan+of+Hui+Muslims%2C+the+third+most+numerous+ethnic+group+after+the+Han+and+the+Tibetans.+Governor+Ma+Bufang+%2819o2-75%29+dominated+Qinghai&pg=PA351|title=Modern China: a guide to a century of change|author=Graham Hutchings|year=2003|publisher=Harvard University Press|edition=illustrated, reprint|page=351|isbn=0-674-01240-2|access-date=2010-06-28}}</ref>

Xining was subjected to aerial bombardment by [[Empire of Japan|Japanese]] warplanes in 1941 during the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]]. The bombing spurred all ethnicities in Qinghai, including the local Qinghai Mongols and Qinghai Tibetans, against the Japanese.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.krzzjn.com/html/28977.html | script-title=zh:回顾1941年日机轰炸西宁：改变青海历史轨迹 - 抗战故事 - 抗日战争纪念网 | access-date=9 April 2016 | archive-date=27 September 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180927155003/http://www.krzzjn.com/html/28977.html | url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://dangshi.people.com.cn/n/2013/0816/c85037-22593706.html|title = 1941：日军飞机轰炸西宁--党史频道-人民网}}</ref> The Salar Muslim General [[Han Youwen]] directed the defense of the city of Xining during air raids by Japanese planes.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.xjmg.org/show.aspx?id%3D1081%26cid%3D10 |title=怀念我的父亲──韩有文 |access-date=April 3, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120322070922/http://www.xjmg.org/show.aspx?id=1081&cid=10 |archive-date=March 22, 2012 }}</ref><ref>http://www.kunlunpai.cn/thread-1211-1-1.html{{dead link|date=July 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

Xining was given municipal status in 1945.

Under the rule of Governor [[Ma Bufang]],  Xining, like the rest of Qinghai, underwent [[industrialization]] and modernization. In 1947 the USA sold Ma Bufang a piped water (sewage) system which was installed in Xining.<ref>{{cite news |title=CITY IN WEST CHINA TO GET PIPED WATER; American 'Sells' Warlord at Sining on System to Aid Health --People Suspect Clear Fluid|newspaper=THE NEW YORK TIMES|date=3 February 1947|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1947/02/03/archives/city-in-west-china-to-get-piped-water-american-sells-warlord-at.html|access-date=2010-11-28}}</ref> Ma Bufang also promoted education. He made businessmen methodically clean up Xining by serving as insect exterminators.<ref>{{cite news |title=ENLIGHTENED RULE BOLSTERS TSINGHAI; General Ma, War Lord, Enjoys Passion for Education -- He Taxes as Need Arises|author=HENRY R. LIEBERMAN|newspaper=The New York Times|date=15 September 1948|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1948/09/15/archives/enlightened-rule-bolsters-tsinghai-general-ma-war-lord-enjoys.html|access-date=2010-11-28}}</ref>
[[File:Nanliang Hutai Relics Park, Xining (20230927094732).jpg|thumb|Nanliang Hutai Relics Park]]
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. It also uses local [[coal]] from mines at [[Datong Hui and Tu Autonomous County|Datong County]] to the north. A modern woollen mill was installed at Xining before 1957. The city also has a leather industry and is a market for salt from the [[Qaidam]] region. During the late 1950s medium-sized iron and steelworks were built there, supplying metal to 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.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Greg Rohlf |title=Dreams of Oil and Fertile Fields |journal=Modern China |volume=29 |issue=4 |pages=455–489 |publisher=Mcx.sagepub.com |date=2003-10-01 |doi=10.1177/0097700403257134 |s2cid=143975998 }}</ref>