Hohhot, formerly known as Guihua or Kweisui (Guisui), is the capital and largest city of the northern Chinese autonomous region of Inner Mongolia, serving as the region's administrative, economic and cultural center.The New Encyclopædia Britannica, 15th Edition (1977), Volume I, p. 275. Its population was 3,446,100 inhabitants as of the 2020 census, of whom 2,944,889 lived in the metropolitan area consisting of 4 urban districts (including Hohhot Economic and Development Zone) plus the Tumed Left Banner.
The name of the city in Mongolian means "Blue City", although it is also wrongly referred to as the "Green City."Perkins (1999), p. 212. The color blue in Mongol culture is associated with the sky, eternity and purity. In Chinese, the name can be translated as Qīng Chéng ()Chinese "qing" has traditionally been a color between "blue" and "green" in English, leading some modern sources to translate Qing Cheng into English as "Green City" instead of "Blue City," including, for example, the official website of Hohhot . The name has also been variously romanized as Kokotan, Kokutan, Kuku-hoton, Huhohaot'e, Huhehot, Huhhot, Huhot, or Köke qota.
The city is a seat of the Inner Mongolia University, the largest regional comprehensive university and was the only 211 Project University in Inner Mongolia.
History Early history Yunzhong Commandery () was a historical commandery of China. Its territories were between the Great Wall and Yin Mountains, and correspond to part of modern-day Hohhot, Baotou and Ulanqab prefectures in Inner Mongolia. The central city of Yunzhong was in the suburbs of today's Hohhot.
The commandery was created during King Wuling of Zhao's reign after a successful campaign against the Linhu (林胡) and Loufan (樓煩) peoples.Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 50. After the establishment of Qin and Han dynasty, the commandery became the frontier between Han and the Xiongnu. In early Han dynasty, the region saw frequent Xiongnu raids. However, from Emperor Wu's reign onwards, it became an important base of military operations in the wars against the Xiongnu.Book of Han, Chapter 64. In 127 BC, it was from Yunzhong that General Wei Qing led a 40,000-men strong cavalry force and conquered the modern Hetao and Ordos regions.
In 2 AD, the commandery administered 11 counties, namely Yunzhong (雲中), Xianyang (咸陽), Taolin (陶林), Zhenling (楨陵), Duhe (犢和), Shaling (沙陵), Yuanyang (原陽), Shanan (沙南), Beiyu (北輿), Wuquan (武泉) and Yangshou (陽壽). The population totaled 38,303 households, or 173,270 people.Book of Han, Chapter 28. During Eastern Han, 3 counties were abolished, while 3 new counties were added from Dingxiang Commandery. In 140 AD, the population was 5,351 households, or a population of 26,430.Book of Later Han, Chapter 113. Toward the late Han dynasty, the area's population decreased sharply as residents fled from invading northern nomadic peoples, and the commandery was dissolved.Book of Jin, Chapter 14.
The Tuoba chieftain Gui (called Tuoba Gui) was able to refound the Dai empire in 386, and later renamed his state to Wei. From his capital at Shengle (near modern Helingeer). His descendants would, step by step, conquer the north of China, divide the Later Yan realm into two parts, and subdue the Xia (407–431), the Later Qin (384–417) and the many Liang and Yan empires.
Ming and Qing era In 1557, the Tümed Mongol leader Altan Khan began building the Da Zhao Temple on 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 North China plain. In 1570, Altan Khan successfully negotiated the end of the blockade by establishing a vassal-tributary relationship with the Ming, who changed Kokegota's name to Guihua (; postal: Kweihua; ) 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. There were occasional attacks on Guihua by Mongol armies, such as the total razing of the city by Ligdan Khan in 1631. Altan Khan and his successors constructed temples and fortresses in 1579, 1602 and 1727. The Tümed Mongols of the area had long since adopted a semiagricultural way of life. Hui merchants gathered north of the gate of the city's fortress, building a mosque in 1693. Their descendants formed the nucleus of the modern Huimin district.
After the Manchus founded the Qing dynasty (1644–1912), the Kangxi Emperor (reigned 1661–1722) sent troops to control the region, which was of interest to the Qing as a center of study of Tibetan Buddhism. Just 2 km northeast of Guihua the Qing built the strong garrison town of Suiyuan (), from which they supervised the defense of southwestern Inner Mongolia against Mongol attacks from the north in 1735–39. Guihua and Suiyuan was merged into Shanxi province and became Guihua County () 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 era In 1913, the government of the new Republic of China united the garrison town of Suiyuan and the old town of Guihua as Guisui (; postal: Kweisui). Guisui town was the center of Guisui County () 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 with eastern China and western China's Xinjiang province. In 1918, the American specialist on Inner Asia Owen Lattimore noted Guisui's ethnic composition as "a town purely Han Chinese except for the Lama monasteries ... the Tümeds are now practically nonexistent and the nearest Mongolians are to be sought at distance on the plateau." 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 "Blue City" Hohhot; (). After the surrender of Japan in 1945, the Republic of China changed the name back to Guisui. The Chinese Communist Party's forces drove out General Fu Zuoyi, the Republic's commander in Suiyuan, during the Chinese Civil War, and after the Chinese Communist Revolution in 1949, Guisui was renamed Hohhot.
People's Republic era During the Civil War, seeking the support of separatist Mongols, the Communists established the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in Mongol-minority areas of 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, after the establishment of the People's Republic of China, the city was renamed from Guisui to Hohhot, though with a different Chinese pronunciation of Huhehaote.
The city has seen significant development since China's reform and opening up began. The city's far east side began development around 2000 and is now home to the municipal government, most of the Autonomous Region's administrative buildings, an artificial lake called Ruyi He, and a large number of condominiums, mostly built by the local real estate company Gold Horse International Inc. The Hohhot City Stadium, built on the city's north side, was 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.
Geography Located in the south central part of Inner Mongolia, Hohhot is encircled by the Daqing Shan () to the north and the Hetao Plateau to the south.
The city's antipodal location is from the village of Los Menucos in Río Negro Provence, Argentina.
Climate 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 , while July, the hottest month, averages . The annual mean temperature is , and the annual precipitation is , 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 but six years before that, as much as , of which over a third () only in July.Huhehaote rainfall
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 54 percent in November to 66 percent in September, sunshine is abundant year-round, the city receives 2,680 hours of bright sunshine annually. Extreme temperatures have ranged from on 6 February 1951 to on 30 July 2010, though unofficially a record low of was recorded in January 1930.
Administrative divisions The city is administratively at the prefecture-level, meaning that it administers both its urban area and the rural regions in its vicinity. The administrative area includes 4 counties, 4 districts, and a county-level banner; they are further divided into 20 urban sub-districts, and 96 townships. The data here represented is in km2 and uses data from the 2010 Census.
Map English name Mongolian Simplified Chinese Pinyin Area Population DensityCity ProperHuimin District(Hodong'arad District)194.4394,5552,030Xincheng District(Xinhot District)660.6567,255859Yuquan District207.2383,3651,850Saihan District1,002.9635,599634RuralTogtoh County1,407.8200,840143Wuchuan County4,682.3108,72623Horinger County3,447.8169,85649Qingshuihe County2,85993,88733Tumed Left Banner(Tumed Jun Banner)2,765312,532113
Demographics
The urban population of Hohhot has increased rapidly since the 1990s. According to the 2010 Census, the population of Hohhot had reached 2,866,615 people, 428,717 more inhabitants than in 2000 (the average annual demographic growth for the period 2000–2010 was of 1.63 percent). Compilation by LianXin website. Data from the Sixth National Population Census of the People's Republic of China Its built-up (or metro) area is home to 1,980,774 inhabitants (4 urban districts).
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 Chinese. A 1993 survey conducted by Inner Mongolia University found that only 8 percent of Tümed Mongols (the majority tribe in Hohhot) could speak the Mongolian language. A significant portion of the population is of mixed ethnic origin. According to the anthropologist William Jankowiak, author of the book Sex, Death, and Hierarchy in a Chinese City (1993), there is "relatively little difference between minority culture and Han culture" in Hohhot, with differences concentrating around relatively minor attributes such as food and art, and similarities abounding over fundamental issues of ethics, status, life goals, and worldview.
Ethnic groups in Hohhot, according to the 2000 census, were: Ethnicity Population Percentage Han Chinese 2,115,888 88.42% Mongol 204,846 8.56% Hui 38,417 1.61% Manchu 26,439 1.10% Daur 2,663 0.11% Korean 1,246 0.05% Miao 443 0.02%
Economy