Xining, city and capital of Qinghai sheng (province), western interior of China. Located in the eastern part of the province, it is situated in a fertile mountain basin in the valley of the Huang River (Huang Shui), a tributary of the Huang He (Yellow River). The city lies about 60 miles (95 km) east of Koko Nor (Qinghai Hu; “Blue Lake”) and some 125 miles (200 km) west of Lanzhou (Gansu province), on what was traditionally the main trade route from northern China into the Tibet Autonomous Region and the Qaidam Basin of western Qinghai. These routes are now followed by modern highways. Since 1959 Xining has been connected by rail to the main Chinese system at Lanzhou; this railway extends westward into the Qaidam area via the northern shore of Koko Nor to Golmud and (since 2006) southward to Lhasa, Tibet.
Xining has always been a strategic point on the Chinese western frontier. Under the Han dynasty (206 bce–220 ce) a county there called Linqiang controlled 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 centre of constant warfare with the Tuyuhun and later the Tibetan peoples. In 763 it was overrun by the Tibetans, and while under Tibetan control it was known to the Chinese as Qingtangcheng. Recovered by the Song dynasty in 1104, it received the name Xining (meaning “Peace in the West”), and it has been the seat of a prefecture or superior prefecture under that name since that time. With the rise of Tibetan Buddhism (Lamaism), which began in the 7th century ce, Xining became an important religious centre; Qinghai’s largest lamasery, the Taer Monastery, a holy place to the Yellow Hat sect of Buddhists, was located at Huangzhong (Lushar), some 15 miles (25 km) to the southwest.
Xining became the provincial capital when Qinghai was established as an independent province in 1928, and it was given municipal status in 1944. Industrial development has been steady since the late 1950s. Hydroelectric stations at Longyangxia and Lijiaxia south of the city on the Huang He supply power to the region. Coal from local mines at Datongxian to the north helped establish metallurgical and machine-making industries. Salt from the Qaidam Basin supplies the chemical industry in Xining, and the vast grazing land in the province is used in wool-spinning, fur, and tanning operations. The city is the centre of the province’s highway network and an important road junction between Lanzhou and Lhasa. There is regular air service to the major Chinese cities from Caojiabao airport, located some 17 miles (28 km) east of the city. Pop. (2002 est.) city, 654,574; (2007 est.) urban agglom., 1,048,000.