Linxia City

For other uses, see Linxia (disambiguation).
Linxia
临夏市
لٍِ‌ثِيَا شِ‎
County-level city
A view of the city from the northern loess plateau escarpment depicting a Taoist Wanshou Guan temple
A view of the city from the northern loess plateau escarpment depicting a Taoist Wanshou Guan temple
Linxia is located in Gansu
Linxia
Linxia
Location in Gansu
Linxia is located in China
Linxia
Linxia
Location in China
Coordinates (Linxia City government): 35°36′17″N 103°14′32″E / 35.6047°N 103.2422°E / 35.6047; 103.2422
CountryChina
ProvinceGansu
Autonomous prefectureLinxia
Municipal seatChengnan Subdistrict
Area
 • Total
88.6 km2 (34.2 sq mi)
Highest elevation
1,960 m (6,430 ft)
Lowest elevation
1,823 m (5,981 ft)
Population
 (2020)[1]
 • Total
355,968
 • Density4,000/km2 (10,000/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+8 (China Standard)
Postal code
731100
Websitewww.lxs.gov.cn

Linxia City (simplified Chinese: 临夏市; traditional Chinese: 臨夏市; pinyin: Línxià Shì, Xiao'erjing: لٍِ‌ثِيَا شِ), once known as Hezhou (Chinese: 河州; pinyin: Hézhōu; Wade–Giles: Ho-chou, Xiao'erjing: حَ‌جِوْ), is a county-level city in the province of Gansu, China and the capital of the multi-ethnic Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture. It is located in the valley of the Daxia River (a right tributary of the Yellow River), 150 km (93 mi) (by road) southwest of the provincial capital Lanzhou.[2]

The population of the entire county-level city of Linxia (which includes both the central city and some rural area) is estimated at 250,000; of which, 58.4% is classified as urban population. According to the prefectural government, 51.4% of Linxia City's population belongs to the "Hui nationality", i.e. the Chinese-speaking Muslims. Some members of Linxia Prefecture other minority ethnic groups, such as Bonan, Dongxiang and Salar, live in the city.[2]

For centuries, Hezhou/Linxia has been one of the main religious, cultural and commercial centers of China's Muslim community, earning itself the nickname of "the little Mecca of China".[3] [4][5] [6][7] [8] In the words of the ethnologist Dru Gladney, "Almost every major Islamic movement in China finds its origin among Muslims who came to Linxia disseminating new doctrines after pilgrimage to Middle Eastern Islamic centers".[4] It remains the main center of China's Qadiriyyah[9] and Khufiyya Sufi orders;[10] it was also the home of Ma Mingxin, the founder of the Jahriyya order, although that order's "center of gravity" has shifted elsewhere since.

  1. ^ "临夏州第七次全国人口普查公报" (in Chinese). Government of Linxia Prefecture. 2021-06-08.
  2. ^ a b c Linxia City brief info, on the web site of the prefectural government Archived 2010-08-20 at the Wayback Machine (in Chinese) (The page itself is dated April 2008, but does not state the dates for which population estimates have been made)
  3. ^ Lipman 1997, pp. 20–21
  4. ^ a b Gladney 1987, p. 53 (page number as in the PDF file)
  5. ^ Dru C. Gladney, "The Salafiyya Movement in Northwest China: Islamic Fundamentalism among the Muslim Chinese?" Archived 2006-07-20 at the Wayback Machine Originally published in "Muslim Diversity: Local Islam in Global Contexts". Leif Manger, Ed. Surrey: Curzon Press. Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, No 26. Pp. 102-149.
  6. ^ Jim Yardley, "Little Mecca" Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine Photo essay originally published in the New York Times.
  7. ^ Jim Yardley, "A Spectator's Role for China's Muslims" Archived 2016-02-04 at the Wayback Machine Article originally published in the New York Times.
  8. ^ "...Hui, the largest of China’s Muslim minority groups, call Linxia, a trading city on the historic Silk Road, “China’s Little Mecca,” as it has served as the center for all the revivalist strains of Islam that have entered China since the seventeenth century." China and Islam - The Prophet, the Party, and Law, Cambridge University Press.
  9. ^ Gladney 1987, pp. 48–49 (page no. as in the PDF file)
  10. ^ Gladney 1996, pp. 47–48