The area that is now Yinchuan was home to
Shuidonggou, China's earliest
paleolithic site. It dates from over 30,000 years ago. Later in
Chinese prehistory,
rock art was created in the Helan mountains adjacent to modern-day Yinchuan. Yinchuan was originally a county under the name of
Fuping in the 1st century BCE; its name was changed to
Huaiyuan in the 6th century CE.
Western Xia and Mongol Conquest After the fall of the
Tang dynasty in 907, Yinchuan came under the control of the
Tanguts. In 1038, the Tangut leader
Yuanhao declared himself emperor of the
Great Xia and made Yinchuan his capital, at that time known as "Xingqing" (). This provoked much of the native
Han population to emigrate. Several of Yinchuan's important cultural sites were built under the Western Xia, such as the
Pagoda of Chengtian and the
Western Xia mausoleums. In the autumn of 1209,
the Mongols invaded Western Xia. They laid siege to Yinchuan, which by this point was known as "Zhongxing". The garrison of 150,000 managed to hold out against the Mongols, although Western Xia submitted to Mongol suzerainty regardless. After Xia attempted to reassert its independence, in 1227 the Mongols returned and slaughtered the city's entire population.
Genghis Khan died during the siege under debated circumstances. The Mongols knew the city as "Iryai".
Ming and Qing dynasties Under the
Ming (1368–1644) and
Qing (1644–1911) dynasties, it was a
prefecture of
Ningxia. During the
Dungan revolt, Dungan forces massacred 100,000 people in Yinchuan. In 1739, the city was heavily affected by the
Yinchuan–Pingluo earthquake. A maximum intensity of XII was determined on the
Chinese seismic intensity scale, and XI on the Mercalli intensity scale. The earthquake collapsed most houses, temples, offices, and a city wall tall and wide. Ground fissures up to a meter wide, and long, and great subsidence were accounted in historical records. Over 15,300 people killed and the city was completely leveled. Blazing fires burned all the way through the night as many canals were destroyed, shutting off the flow of water. The ground opened for more than , where sand and black water erupted. Aftershocks persisted for more than two years with the largest being a 5.5 on 13 February that same year. On 28 May, numbers dropped drastically when only 3,000 students took to the streets. A similar number of people would march again, this time with wreaths and banners, when they heard the news about the June 4 crackdown in
Beijing. On 23 July 1993,
China Northwest Airlines Flight 2119, in route from
Yinchuan Xihuayuan Airport to
Beijing Capital International Airport, crashed into a lake after it was unable to get airborne while attempting to take off at Yinchuan Airport, killing 54 passengers and 1 crew member on board.
21st century On 21 June 2023, a
gas explosion inside a barbecue restaurant in Yinchuan killed at least 31 people and injured 7 others. ==Geography==