Overview

Baiyin is a treasure place with a beautiful name (Baiyin means white silver in English). It was as early as in the Han Dynasty that mining began here. The records of mining in Baiyin made in the reign of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty read: “there are twenty smelting furnaces in the south of Songshan Mountain”. At that time, there were 3,000 to 4,000 miners at its best, more than 30 mines. According to the records, “the output of metal is much, it piles up everywhere in the city”, and the Ming government set up a special institution in Phoenix Mountain, Huoyan Mountain and Tongchanggou which is 10 kilometers away from Baiyin city to administrate mining affairs. That is the reason why Baiyin gets its name.

Baiyin is an important base of nonferrous metal in China and the important base of energy recourses and chemical industries in Gansu province as a developing industrial city.

The total area of Baiyin is about 21,200 square kilometers, with a population of one million. Now Baiyin has jurisdiction over Baiyin District, Pingchuan District and three Counties (Jingyuan County, Jingtai County and Huining County).