Синин: История и современность города на Шелковом пути и Тибетском плато.

Xi'ning is the capital of Qinghai province in western China and the largest city on the Tibetan Plateau. The city 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. Although long a part of Gansu province, Xi'ning was added to Qinghai in 1928. Xi'ning holds sites of religious significance to Muslims and Buddhists, including the Dongguan Mosque and Ta'er Monastery. The city lies in the Huangshui River valley, and owing to its high altitude, has a cool climate on the borderline between cool semi arid and dry winter humid continental. It is connected by the Qinghai–Tibet railway to Lhasa, Tibet and connected by a high speed railway to Lanzhou, Gansu and Ürümqi, Xinjiang. The city is home to Qinghai University, a comprehensive university and the only Double First Class University in Xi'ning.

Xi'ning has a history of over 2,100 years 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. 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. In 763, it was overrun by the Tibetans and while under Tibetan control was known to the Chinese as Qingtang cheng (青唐城). Recovered by the Song dynasty in 1104, it received the name Xi'ning (meaning "peace in the west") and has been the seat of a prefecture or superior prefecture under that name since that time. In the late 16th century, the Kumbum Monastery was founded some to the southeast, establishing Xi'ning as an important religious center for the Gelug School of Buddhists. A major earthquake occurred May 22, 1927, measuring at a 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. Xi'ning 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. Xi'ning was subjected to aerial bombardment by 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. The Salar Muslim General Han Youwen directed the defense of the city of Xi'ning during air raids by Japanese planes. Xi'ning was given municipal status in 1945. Under the rule of Governor Ma Bufang, Xi'ning, 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 Xi'ning. Ma Bufang also promoted education. He made businessmen methodically clean up Xi'ning by serving as insect exterminators. Since the late 1950s, when the Liujiaxia Dam and hydroelectric project came into operation in neighboring Gansu province, Xi'ning has been linked by a high tension electrical grid to both Liujia and Lanzhou. It also uses local coal from mines at Datongxian to the north. A modern woollen mill was installed at Xi'ning 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 Xi'ning area beginning in the 1950s.

Xi'ning is located in the eastern part of Qinghai Province and lies on the Huangshui River. The four urban districts have a total area of
Xi'ning is located on the eastern edge of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau and the upper reaches of the Huangshui River. It is the political, economic, and cultural center of Qinghai Province with an average altitude of about Human activity in the region can be traced to 2,100 years ago. During the Western and Eastern Han dynasties, owing to its developing agriculture, Xi'ning was paid notice due to its economic and military significance. As well as being an important hinge between the Central Plains and the western part of China in ancient times, Xi'ning was an important link in the Silk Road. It continues to be an important rail and road link to the hinterlands of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau. Xi'ning has also been dubbed the Summer Resort Capital of China owing to its cool summer, with a borderline cold semi arid climate (Köppen BSk)/dry winter humid continental climate (Dwb). Conditions are influenced by the aridity and high altitude. Nights are cold or cool throughout the year, and the diurnal temperature variation often reaches or exceeds The monthly 24 hour average temperatures ranges from in January to in July; the annual mean is , still making it one of the warmest locations in Qinghai due to the low elevation by provincial standards. Rainfall falls mainly from May to September, and the area is often dry and sunny: with monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 49 percent in September to 67 percent in November, the city receives 2,540 hours of bright sunshine per year. Extreme temperatures have ranged from to Snow cover is very sparse due to the dry winters.

In 2007, the World Bank lent US$1 billion to aid river treatment in Xi'ning, including Sanxian County's anti flooding project, with an added US$1 billion to support infrastructure. Qinghai has invested large amounts in the treatment of Huangshui Main River and Nanchuan River, totalling However, a treatment on a river course and 10 flash flood relief channels remain pending due to lack of equipment. In Sanxian County, a long river course and 80 flash flood relief channels need treatment.

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

The GDP per capita was 49,200 RMB (US$7,897) in 2015. Its main industries are wool spinning and textiles, fur, meat, milk, salt, and light processing industries.

According to the 2020 Chinese census, the prefecture level city of Xi'ning has a population of 2,467,965 inhabitants (2,208,708 as of the 2010 Chinese census), of whom 1,954,795 lived in the built up (or metro) area made of 5 urban districts. At present, four districts, three counties and a national economic and technological development zone are under the administration of the local government. With a population of more than two million, Xi'ning is the first city on the upper reaches of the Yellow River to achieve a population in the millions.

There are about 37 nationalities living here, though only the Han, Hui, Monguor/Tu and Tibetans are numerically significant. Local traditions and customs are influenced by the Tibetans, Monguor, Muslims and Han. On 2010 Census numbers, Han Chinese represent 74.04 percent of the total population of Xi'ning, while Hui (16.26 percent), Tibetan (5.51 percent) and Tu (2.6 percent) are the main minority groups in the city.

Located in the southwest part of Xi'ning City, the Kumbum Monastery or Ta'er Monastery is one of six famous monasteries in the Gelug (also called Yellow Hat Sect) of Tibetan Buddhism and has hundreds of monks. Having a history of over 600 years, the Dongguan Mosque, located in the Xi'ning City Zone, is one of the most famous mosques in the northwest region of China. It has splendid and diversiform towers, walls and halls in the mosque. Another unique religious structure is the Beishan Si (North Mountain Temple), a Taoist facility. There are more than 300 Christian meeting points in Xi'ning. The Catholic minority is pastorally served by the (pre diocesan) Apostolic Prefecture of Xi'ning.

Xi'ning International Academy is an English language international school.

Xi'ning is situated in a fertile mountain basin in the valley of the Huangshui (river), a tributary of the Yellow River, that acts as a river port. The city lies about 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. These routes are now followed by modern highways.

Since 1959 Xi'ning station has been connected by the Lanzhou–Qinghai Railway to China's railway network. Later, this railway was extended into the Qaidam area via Haiyan near Qinghai Lake to Golmud, and, since 2006, to Lhasa, Tibet. (See the Qinghai–Tibet Railway). The second major railway serving Xi'ning is the Lanzhou–Xinjiang High Speed Railway, opened in December 2014. When first opened, it just provided high speed train service to Lanzhou and Urumqi (and points in between). With the opening of the Baoji–Lanzhou high speed railway on July 9, 2017, it has been connected to the rest of the nation's high speed rail network. Unlike many other Chinese cities, where the conventional and high speed trains stop at different train stations, Xi'ning railway station is served by both types of trains. Thus it can be used as a transfer point for e. g. a passenger traveling from Xinjiang to Tibet.

Xi'ning 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.