As the capital city of Qinghai Province , Xining is the provincial center of politics, economy, culture, education, technology, transportation and commerce. Xining lies in the eastern part of Qinghai-Tibet plateau, and the upper reaches of Shuang Shui River . The average altitude of the urban area is 2275 meters. It is not very cold in winter and not very hot in summer, belonging to the typical mainland plateau climate. The average annual temperature is 7.7 centigrade, and the annual rainfall is 425 millimeter. Xining has a history of over 2100 years. It is composed of four districts (East, West, South & North), three counties (Da Tong, Huang Zhong, Huang Yuan), one Economic &Tech Development Zone which is under construction, and one Cheng Nan New District. With a total area of 7,665 square kilometers, it has a total population of 2.1 million and an urban coverage of 350 square kilometers and 1.03 million urban populations. Xining is a multinational and multi-religion city, consisting of 36 nationalities such as Han, Hui, Tu, Tibetan, Mongolian, Manchu and Salar etc, which constitute 25% of the total population. Xining is the only city whose population exceeds one million.

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