Ningxia in the context of Inner Mongolian

The autonomous regions (Chinese: 自治区; pinyin: Zìzhìqū; lit. 'self-governing area') are one of the four types of province-level divisions in the People's Republic of China. Like provinces, an autonomous region has its own local government, but under the law of the People's Republic of China, an autonomous region has more legislative rights, such as the right to "formulate self-government regulations and other separate regulations." An autonomous region is the highest level of minority autonomous entity in China, which has a comparably higher population of a particular minority ethnic group.

There are five autonomous regions in China: Guangxi, Inner Mongolia (Nei Menggu), Ningxia, Tibet (Xizang), and Xinjiang.

The Western Xia or the Xi Xia (Chinese: 西夏; pinyin: Xī Xià; Wade–Giles: Hsi Hsia), officially the Great Xia (大夏; Dà Xià; Ta Hsia), also known as the Tangut Empire, and known as Mi-nyak to the Tanguts and Tibetans, was a Tangut-led imperial dynasty of China that existed from 1038 to 1227. At its peak, the dynasty ruled over modern-day north-central China, including parts of Ningxia, Gansu, eastern Qinghai, Northern Shaanxi, North Eastern Xinjiang, and Southwest Inner Mongolia, and Southernmost Outer Mongolia, measuring about 800,000 square kilometres (310,000 square miles).

The capital of Western Xia was Xingqing (modern Yinchuan); another major Xia city and archaeological site is Khara-Khoto. Western Xia was annihilated by the Mongols in 1227. Most of its written records and architecture were destroyed, so the founders and history of the empire remained obscure until 20th-century research in China and the West. Today the Tangut language and its unique script are extinct, only fragments of Tangut literature remain.

The Mongol heartland or Mongolian heartland is the contiguous geographical area in which the Mongol people have primarily lived, particularly as a historiographic term. It is generally considered to comprise the Mongolian Plateau and some adjacent territories, although its exact extent has been changing over the course of history—particularly since the rise of the Mongol Empire in the 13th century. The area is also described as the heartland of the Mongol Empire during its greatest extent, when it stretched from the Sea of Japan in the east to the Middle East and Eastern Europe in the west, making it the largest contiguous land empire in human history.

The modern area that the Mongols live in approximately includes: the modern state of Mongolia; the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, along with Dzungaria in Xinjiang and parts of Manchuria, Qinghai, and Ningxia in China; as well as the Buryatia Republic and a few smaller territories in Russia. The Mongolic peoples in this area share the common traditional Mongol culture as well as the Mongol language to varying levels. With the exception of the Mongolian state, all areas in the Mongol heartland have non-Mongol majorities.

Northwestern China (Chinese: 中国西北地区, also known as 西北 or 蒙新) is a region in the People's Republic of China. It consists of five provincial administrative regions, namely Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, and Xinjiang.

The region is characterized by a (semi-)arid continental climate. It has a diverse population including significant ethnic minorities such as Hui, Uyghurs and Tibetans. Culturally, the region has historically been influenced by the Silk Road.

The Ordos Plateau, also known as the Ordos Basin, the Ordos, or the Shaan-Gan-Ning Basin, is a highland sedimentary basin in parts of northernmost China with an elevation of 1,000–1,600 m (3,300–5,200 ft), and consisting mostly of land enclosed by the "Ordos Loop", a northerly rectangular bend of the Yellow River. It is China's second largest sedimentary basin (after the Tarim Basin) with a total area of 370,000 km (140,000 sq mi). The Ordos includes territories from five provinces: Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, and a thin fringe of Shanxi (western border counties of Xinzhou, Lüliang and Linfen), but is demographically dominated by the former three, hence the area is sometimes also called the "Shaan-Gan-Ning Basin". The basin is bounded in the east by the Lüliang Mountains, north by the Yin Mountains, west by the Helan Mountains, and south by the Huanglong Mountains, Meridian Ridge and Liupan Mountains.

The name "Ordos" (Mongolian: ) comes from the orda, which originally means "palaces" or "court" in Old Turkic. The seventh largest prefecture of Inner Mongolia, Ordos City, is similarly named due to its location within the Ordos Loop.

Gansu is a province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at 453,700 square kilometres (175,200 sq mi), Gansu lies between the Tibetan and Loess plateaus and borders Mongolia's Govi-Altai Province, Inner Mongolia and Ningxia to the north, Xinjiang and Qinghai to the west, Sichuan to the south and Shaanxi to the east. The Yellow River passes through the southern part of the province. Part of Gansu's territory is located in the Gobi Desert. The Qilian mountains are located in the south of the Province.

Gansu has a population of 26 million, ranking 22nd in China. Its population is mostly Han, along with Hui, Dongxiang and Tibetan minorities. The most common language is Mandarin. Gansu is among the poorest administrative divisions in China, ranking last in GDP per capita as of 2019.

Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of China. Its border includes two-thirds of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia, as well as a small section with Russia (Zabaykalsky Krai). Its capital is Hohhot; other major cities include Baotou, Chifeng, Tongliao and Ordos.

The autonomous region was established in 1947, incorporating the areas of the former Republic of China provinces of Suiyuan, Chahar, Rehe, Liaobei, and Xing'an, along with the northern parts of Gansu and Ningxia.

Shaanxi is a province in north Northwestern China bordering the province-level divisions of Inner Mongolia to the north; Shanxi and Henan to the east; Hubei, Chongqing, and Sichuan to the south; and Gansu and Ningxia to the west. Shaanxi covers an area of over 205,000 km (79,000 sq mi) with about 37 million people, the 16th-largest in China. Xi'an, which includes the sites of the former capitals Fenghao and Chang'an – is the provincial capital and largest city in Northwest China and also one of the oldest cities in China. It is also the oldest of the Four Ancient Capitals, being the capital for the Western Zhou, Western Han, Jin, Sui and Tang dynasties. Xianyang, which served as the capital of the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC), is just north across the Wei River. The other prefecture-level cities into which the province is divided are Ankang, Baoji, Hanzhong, Shangluo, Tongchuan, Weinan, Yan'an and Yulin.

The province is geographically divided into three parts, namely Northern (or "Shaanbei"), Central ("Shaanzhong") and Southern Shaanxi (or "Shaannan"). Northern Shaanxi makes up the southeastern portion of the Ordos Basin and mainly comprises the two prefectural cities of Yulin and Yan'an on the northern Loess Plateau, demarcated from the Ordos Desert and the grasslands of Inner Mongolia's Ordos City by the Ming Great Wall. Central Shaanxi is also known as the Guanzhong region, and comprises the drainage basin of lower Wei River east of Mount Liupan and north of the Qinling Mountains, where the majority of Shaanxi's population reside. Southern Shaanxi comprises the three prefectural cities in the edge of the historical Bashu region south of the Qinling Mountains and includes the three mountainous cities of Hanzhong, Ankang and Shangluo.

Western China (中国西部 or 华西) is the west of China. It consists of Southwestern China and Northwestern China. In the definition of the Chinese government, Western China covers six provinces (Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Shaanxi, Gansu, and Qinghai), three autonomous regions (Tibet, Ningxia, and Xinjiang), and one direct-administered municipality (Chongqing).

Xingqing Prefecture, also known as Irqai, Äriqaya and Egrigaia in Tangut, Secret History of the Mongols and The Travels of Marco Polo respectively, was the capital of Western Xia (Tangut Empire) between the 11th and 13th centuries and its de facto independent precursor Dingnan Jiedushi, in modern Ningxia, China, centering on modern Yinchuan.

After the fall of the Tangut Empire, it was absorbed into imperial China. The Mongol leader and conqueror Genghis Khan, who founded the Mongol Empire, died there on 25 August 1227.

This list of Tangut books comprises a list of manuscript and xylograph texts that are written in the extinct Tangut language and Tangut script. These texts were mostly produced within the Western Xia dynasty (1038–1227) during the 12th and 13th centuries, and include Buddhist sutras and explanatory texts, dictionaries and other philological texts, as well as translations of Chinese books and some original Tangut texts. Some Tangut texts, particularly Buddhist sutras, continued to be produced during the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), after the fall of the Western Xia dynasty, but the Tangut language became extinct sometime during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), and Tangut literature was only rediscovered in the early 20th century.

Most of the books listed here were discovered hidden in a stupa outside the city walls of the abandoned Western Xia fortress city of Khara-Khoto in Inner Mongolia by Pyotr Kuzmich Kozlov during his expedition of 1907–1909. A lesser number of texts (mostly fragments) were recovered from Khara-Khoto by Aurel Stein during his expedition of 1913–1916. A large number of complete and fragmentary Tangut texts have also been discovered at various sites in Inner Mongolia, Ningxia and Gansu in China during the 20th and 21st centuries.

The Helan Mountains, frequently called Alashan Mountains in older sources, are an isolated desert mountain range forming the border of Inner Mongolia's Alxa League and Ningxia. They run north-south parallel to the north-flowing Yellow River in the Ordos Loop section. The river is mostly east of the mountains, but in the north it crosses without making a significant gorge and flows on the west side. To the west lies the extremely arid Tengger Desert, while to the east is an irrigated area beside the Yellow River, in which lie the cities of Yinchuan and Shizuishan - a little further east of which lies the Mu Us portion of the Ordos Desert. To the north lies the Inner Mongolian city of Wuhai.

They are about 200 kilometres (120 mi) from north to south, from 15 to 50 kilometres (9.3 to 31.1 mi) wide and average about 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) in altitude (the Yellow River here is about 1,100 metres (3,600 ft) above sea level). Their highest peak is 3,556 metres (11,667 ft).

The Yan'an Soviet was a soviet governed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) during the 1930s and 1940s, established in North-Central China on the border area between Shaanxi, Gansu, and Ningxia. In October 1936, it became the final destination of the Long March, and served as the CCP's main base until after the Second Sino-Japanese War. After the CCP and Kuomintang (KMT) formed the Second United Front in 1937, the Yan'an Soviet was officially reconstituted as the Shaan–Gan–Ning Border Region (traditional Chinese: 陝甘寧邊區; simplified Chinese: 陕甘宁边区; pinyin: Shǎn gān níng Biānqū; Wade–Giles: Shan-kan-ning Pien-ch'ü). In CCP historiography, Yan'an is celebrated as the most important of revolutionary sites and the birthplace of Mao Zedong Thought.

The Dongxiang (autonym: Sarta or Santa) are a Mongolic people and one of 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. Half of the population live in Dongxiang Autonomous County, Linxia Prefecture, Gansu Province, China. The rest are divided over Hezheng County, Linxia City, Lanzhou, Dingxi and Ningxia. According to the China Statistical Yearbook 2021, their population numbers 774,947, although research has found that the number is inflated due to Hui identifying themselves as Dongxiang for the census, in order to benefit from minority policies.

Yulin (Chinese: 榆林; pinyin: Yúlín) is a prefecture-level city in the Shaanbei region of Shaanxi province, China, bordering Inner Mongolia to the north, Shanxi to the east, and Ningxia to the west. It has an administrative area of 43,578 km (16,826 sq mi) and as of the 2020 Chinese census had a population of 3,634,750.

The Northeastern Army, also known as the Fengtian Army (see terminology), was a Chinese army that existed from 1911 to 1937. General Zhang Zuolin developed it as an independent fighting force during the Warlord Era. He used the army to control Northeastern China (Manchuria) and intervene in national politics. During the mid-1920s the Northeastern Army was the dominant military force in China, but in 1928 it was defeated by the Kuomintang's National Revolutionary Army (NRA) during the Northern Expedition. At the end of that campaign, Zhang Zuolin was assassinated and succeeded by his son Zhang Xueliang. When Xueliang subsequently pledged loyalty to the Kuomintang, the Northeastern Army became part of the NRA and was officially rechristened the "Northeastern Border Defense Force".

Despite being formally part of the NRA, the Northeastern Army remained de facto Zhang Xueliang's personal army. Zhang used the army to exercise considerable political influence during the tumultuous early years of the Nanjing Decade. The Japanese invaded Manchuria in 1931 and forced the Northeastern Army to retreat into northern China. After the army was unable to prevent further Japanese annexations of Chinese territory, Zhang was temporarily removed from command. In 1935, the army was reassigned to the Gansu-Ningxia border area in an attempt to encircle the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s base there. Both Zhang and his soldiers resented fighting fellow Chinese while Manchuria was under occupation. They negotiated a covert ceasefire with the CCP and hoped to convince Chiang Kai-shek to endorse a united front against Japan. After Chiang refused, the Northeastern Army kidnapped him and forced him to negotiate with the Communists. Although Chiang eventually agreed to end the civil war and work with the Communists against Japan, Zhang was placed under house arrest and the Northeastern Army was divided and reassigned to other commands.