Editing Yining (section)

=== Qing dynasty ===
The fort of Ningyuan ({{lang|zh-hant|寧遠城}}) was built in 1762 to accommodate new settlers from southern [[Xinjiang]]. The forts of Huining ({{lang|zh-hant|惠寧城}}) and Xichun ({{lang|zh-hant|熙春城}}) built later in 1765 and 1780 were also located within the modern Yining City.

The Sino-Russian [[Treaty of Kulja]] 1851 opened the area for trade.

In 1864–66, the city suffered severely from fighting during the [[Dungan Revolt (1862–77)|Dungan Revolt]]. The city and the rest of the Ili River basin were seized by the [[Russia]]ns in 1871 during [[Yakub Beg of Yettishar|Yakub Beg]]'s independent rule of [[Kashgaria]]. It was restored to the Chinese under the terms of the [[Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1881)]]. In 1888, the Ningyuan County was established.

''The Geographical Magazine'' in 1875 by Sir Clements Robert Markham stated:

<blockquote>
What little industry Kulja possesses is all due to the Chinese, who transplanted the taste for art, assiduity and skilfulness of their pigtailed race, even to these western outskirts of "the celestial flowery dominion of the Middle." Had the [[Taranchi|Taranjis]] and [[Oirats|Kalmuks]] been left to themselves, or had they remained in a preponderating majority, Kulja would not be a bit farther advanced than either [[Yarkant County|Yarkand]] or [[Aksu Prefecture|Aksu]]. The principal trades are the following:— founders, manufacturing kettles, plates, and other implements of a very primitive form; paper-makers, whose productions do not seem to be superior to the paper manufactured at the present time after Chinese patterns at [[Khokand]] and [[Samarkand]]. There are, moreover, some confectionaries in which cakes of all shapes are baked of rice and millet, overlaid with sugar; also maccaroni-makers, the Taranjis being notoriously very fond of dried farinaceous food. In Eastern Turkistan there still exist many similar trades, and although their products are not equal to European articles of the same kind—I mean here the fabrics of the formerly western Chinese provinces— they are still said to be profitable. Finally among the tradesmen we may mention millers, vinegar manufacturers and potters. The number of factories amount to-day at Kulja to 38, wherein over 131 hands are occupied. To this of course other tradespeople have to be added, such as 169 boot-makers, 50 blacksmiths, 48 carpenters, 11 brass-founders, 3 silversmiths, 26 stone-cutters, and 2 tailors.<ref name="Markham1875">{{cite book|author=Sir Clements Robert Markham|title=The Geographical Magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lo7pAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA176|year=1875|publisher=Trübner & Company|pages=176–}}</ref>
</blockquote>