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Economy
Hohhot is a major industrial center within Inner Mongolia. Hohhot, together with Baotou and Ordos, account for more than 60 percent of the total industrial output of Inner Mongolia. After Baotou and Ordos, Hohhot is the third-largest economy of the province, with GDP of RMB 247.56 billion in 2012, up 11.0 percent year on year. Hohhot accounted for approximately 15.5 percent of the province's total GDP in 2012. Hohhot is also the largest consumer center in the region, recording ¥102.2 billion retail sales of consumer goods in 2012, an increase of 14.9 percent from 2011. Huhhot has been a central developmental target for the China Western Development project that the Central Government is pursuing. There are many famous enterprises located in Hohhot, including China's biggest dairy producer by sales revenue Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group and China Mengniu Dairy Co.As the economic center in Inner Mongolia, Huhhot has expanded its urban area since the 1990s. The CBDs in the city increased rapidly all around the major districts. The completion of the new office tower for Huhhot Municipal Government in Eastern Huhhot region marked a shift of the city center to the east. Hailiang Plaza (海亮广场), a 41-floor tower constructed in the city center, became one of the few notable department stores for luxury merchandise in the city.Major Development ZonesHohhot Economic and Technological Development ZoneHohhot Export Processing Zone
Transport
Airport[edit]Hohhot's Baita International Airport (IATA:HET) is about 14.3 km (8.9 mi) eastwards from the city centre by car. It has direct flights to larger domestic cities including Beijing, Tianjin,[34] Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chengdu, etc. It also has international flights to Taichung,[35] Hong Kong, and to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.Railway[edit]Hohhot lies on the Jingbao Railway from Beijing to Baotou, and is served by two railway stations: Hohhot Railway Station and Hohhot East Railway Station.[36] The line began operation since 1921.[37] Trains to Beijing link to destinations to the south and the northeast. The most prominent rail link with Beijing is the overnight K90 train, which has served the Hohhot-Beijing line since the 1980s and is referred to colloquially as the "9-0". Westbound trains go through Baotou and Lanzhou. There are also rail links to most major Inner Mongolian cities and to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.Because the quickest trip to Beijing takes around six and a half hours despite the close distance of the cities, plans for high-speed rail has been discussed for years, and construction of a high-speed railway station began in 2008. The station was completed in 2011 and initially serviced only ordinary lines. In January 2015, CRH opened its first D-series (dongchezu) route in Inner Mongolia in the Baotou-Hohhot-Jining corridor, shortening travel time between Inner Mongolia's two largest cities a mere 50 minutes.[38] This line reached a maximum speed of 200 km/h between Hohhot and Baotou. Another high-speed rail linking Hohhot to Zhangjiakou and the planned Beijing-Zhangjiakou 200 km/h railway is due for completion in 2017, and designed to operate at 250 km/h.[39]Expressways[edit]An expressway built in 1997 links Hohhot with Baotou, then known as the Hubao Expressway. In recent years this expressway has been expanded eastwards to Jining and Zhangjiakou, and onto Beijing as part of the G6 Beijing–Lhasa Expressway (Jingzang Expressway). The city is en route of China National Highway 110, which runs from Yinchuan to Beijing. China National Highway 209 begins in Hohhot and is southbound towards southern China, with its southern terminus in Guangxi. Hohhot is connected to its northern counties through the Huwu Highway, which was completed in 2006. Previously travel to the northern counties consisted of lengthy navigation through mountainous terrain.Long distance buses connect Hohhot to outlying counties, the cities of Baotou, Wuhai, Ordos, and other areas in Inner Mongolia.Public transport[edit]Hohhot's major north–south thoroughfares are called road(Lu) and its east–west thoroughfares are called street(Jie). This is roughly equivalent to dividing roads into "street" and "avenue" designation according to direction, a practice used in some North American cities. The largest elevated interchange is near the site of the city's Drum Tower(Gulou), after which it is named. Several major streets are named after Inner Mongolian leagues and cities; among these, Hulun Buir, Jurim(now Tongliao), Juud(Now Chifeng), Xilin Gol, and Xing'an run north–south, while Bayannaoer, Hailar, Ulanqab and Erdos runs east–west.The city's public transit system is composed of nearly one hundred bus routes and a large fleet of taxicabs, which are normally green or blue. The bus fare is 1 yuan. The taxi fare begins at 8 yuan.
Geography
Located in the south central part of Inner Mongolia, Hohhot is encircled by the Daqing Shan (大青山, lit. Great blue Mountains) to the north and the Hetao Plateau to the south.[21]Climate[edit]Hohhot features a cold semi-arid climate (Köppen BSk), marked by long, cold and very dry winters, hot, somewhat humid summers, strong winds (especially in spring) and monsoonal influence. The coldest month is January, with a daily mean of −11.6 °C (11.1 °F), while the July, the hottest month, averages 22.6 °C (72.7 °F). The annual mean temperature is 6.73 °C (44.1 °F), and the annual precipitation is 398 millimetres (15.7 in), with more than half of it falling in July and August alone. Variability can be very high, however: in 1965 Hohhot recorded as little as 155.1 mm (6.11 in) but six years before than, as much as 929.2 mm (36.58 in), including 338.6 mm (13.33 in) in July of that year.[22] Hohhot is a popular destination for tourists during the summer months because of the nearby Zhaohe grasslands. More recently, due to desertification, the city sees sandstorms on almost an annual basis. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 58 percent in July to 71 percent in October, sunshine is abundant year-round, the city receives 2,862 hours of bright sunshine annually. Extreme temperatures have ranged from −32.8 °C (−27 °F) to 38.9 °C (102 °F).[23]
Demographics
According to the 2010 Census, the population of Hohhot reached 2,866,615, counting 428,717 inhabitants more than in 2000 (the average annual demographic growth for the period 2000–2010 was of 1.63 percent). Its built-up (or metro) area is home to 1,980,774 inhabitants (4 urban districts). The urban population of Huhhot is increasing rapidly in recent 20 years.The majority of the population of Hohhot are Han Chinese, representing 87.16 percent of the total population in 2010. Most Han in Hohhot, if their ancestry is traced several decades back, have ancestors from Shanxi, northeast China, or Hebei. Most Mongols in the city speak Standard Chinese. A survey from 1993 of the Inner Mongolia University found that only 8 percent of Tümed Mongols (the majority tribe in Hohhot) could speak the Mongolian language.:15 A significant portion of the population is of mixed ethnic origin. According to the anthropologist William Jankowiak, who wrote the book Sex, Death, and Hierarchy in a Chinese City (1993) about Huhehot, there is "relatively little different between minority culture and Han culture" in the city. with differences concentrating around minor attributes like food and art choices, and similarities abounding over fundamental issues in ethics, status, life goals, and worldview.:5Ethnic groups in Hohhot, according to the 2000 census, were:
History
Mongol eraMarco Polo reports traveling to the Province of Tenduc, which has been identified as the region around the modern-day Hohhot. His itinerary took him from Tangut nation he called the "Kingdom of Egrigaia" (in modern-day Ningxia), and he took a route eastward into Tenduc.Ming and Qing eraIn 1557, the Tümed Mongol leader Altan Khan began building the Da Zhao Temple in the Tümed plain in order to convince the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) government of his leadership of the southern Mongol tribes. The town that grew up around this temple was called the "Blue Town" (Kokegota in Mongolian). The Ming had been blockading the Mongols' access to Chinese iron, cotton, and crop seeds, in order to dissuade them from attacking the northern China plain. But in 1570, Altan Khan successfully negotiated the end of the blockade by the establishment of a vassal-tributary relationship with the Ming, for which the Ming renamed Kokegota to Guihua (Chinese: 歸化; pinyin: Guīhuà; Wade–Giles: Kweihua; literally: "Return to Civilization") in 1575. The population of Guihua grew to over 150,000 in the early 1630s as local Mongol princes encouraged the settlement of Han Chinese merchants. Sometimes Mongol armies attacked Guihua, such as the total razing of the city by Ligdan Khan in 1631. Altan Khan and his successors constructed temples and fortress in 1579, 1602 and 1727. The Tümed Mongols had long been semiagricultural there. Hui merchants gathered north of the gate of the city's fortress, building a mosque in 1693. Their descendants forms the nucleus of the modern Huimin district.After the Manchus founded the Qing dynasty (1644–1911), the Kangxi Emperor (reigned 1661–1722) sent troops to control the region, which was interesting to the Qing as a center of study of Tibetan Buddhism. The Qing dynasty built a strong garrison town near Guihua's northeast called Suiyuan (綏遠), supervising southwestern Inner Mongolia in 1735–39 against Mongol attacks from the north.:13 Guihua and Suiyuan became Guihua County (歸化縣) of Qing China. French missionaries established a Catholic church in Guihua in 1874, but the Christians were forced to flee to Beijing during the antiforeign Boxer Rebellion of 1899–1901.Republican eraWanbu Huayanjing Pagoda (Baita Pagoda) in Hohhot, 1942In 1913, the government of the new Republic of China united the garrison town of Suiyuan and the old town of Guihua as Guisui (Kweisui) (歸綏; Guīsuī; Kweisui). Guisui town was the center of Guisui County (歸綏縣) and the capital of Suiyuan Province in northern China. A bubonic plague outbreak in 1917 and the connection of Guisui to railway links in Shanxi, Shaanxi, Hebei and Beijing helped renew the economy of Guisui town, by forming links between eastern China and western China's Xinjiang province.:15 In 1918, the American specialist of Inner Asia Owen Lattimore noted Guisui's ethnic composition as "A town purely Chinese except for the Lama monasteries ... the Tümeds are now practically nonexistent and the nearest Mongolians are to be sought at 50 or 60 miles distance on the plateau.":15 During the progressive Japanese invasion of China in the 1930s, the Japanese created the puppet state of Mengjiang headed by Prince De, who renamed Guisui to "Blue City" ("Hohhot" or Huheshi). After the surrender of Japan in 1945, the Republic of China renamed the city back to its original name, Guisui.:16 The Communist Party of China's forces drove out the Republic's General Fu Zuoyi in Suiyuan during the Chinese Civil War. After the Chinese Revolution in 1949, Guisui was renamed Hohhot.:16People's Republic eraPeople's Republic 10th Anniversary Parade in HohhotDuring the Civil War, in order to gain the support of separatist Mongols, the Communists established the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in Mongol-minority areas from the Republic's provinces of Suiyuan, Xing'an, Chahar, and Rehe. Guisui was chosen as the region's administrative centre in 1952, replacing Zhangjiakou. In 1954, the new China renamed Guisui to Hohhot, though with a different Chinese pronunciation of Huhehaote.:16The city has seen significant development since China's reform and opening began. The city's far east side began development around 2000 and is now home to an artificial lake called Ruyi He, a large number of condominiums mostly built by the biggest local real estate company Gold Horse International Inc., the municipal government, and most of the Autonomous Region's government buildings. The Hohhot City Stadium was built on the city's north side, finished in 2007.A city with a rich cultural background, Hohhot is known for its historical sites and temples and is one of the major tourist destinations of Inner Mongolia. It is also nationally known as the home of China's dairy giants Mengniu and Yili, and was declared "Dairy Capital of China" by the China Dairy Industry Association and the Dairy Association of China in 2005.
