Jining

Jining (simplified Chinese: 济宁; traditional Chinese: 濟寧; pinyin: Jǐníng) is a prefecture-level city in southwestern Shandong province. It borders Heze to the southwest, Zaozhuang to the southeast, Tai'an to the northeast, and the provinces of Henan and Jiangsu to the northwest and south respectively. Jining, which is located right to the north of the Lake Nanyang (Chinese: 南阳湖; pinyin: Nányáng Hú), is today the northernmost city reachable by navigation on the Grand Canal of China.

Its population was 8,081,905 at the 2010 census, of whom 1,241,012 lived in the built-up (or metro) area made up of Rencheng urban district on 884 km² (341 sq mi), Yanzhou district not being totally conurbated yet.

History

The name Jining was first given to the region in the year 1271 during the Song dynasty, although the exact area and type of administrative district it refers to have varied over the centuries. Jining has several distinctive associations in Chinese history and culture, as in antiquity it was the birthplace and home of Confucius, along with many of his more famous disciples, including Mencius. Temples to a number of these philosophers still exist in various parts of the prefecture. Liangshan, a county of Jining, is also famous as the principal setting of the Chinese literary classic, Water Margin.

Inner Mongolia

Inner Mongolia (Mongolian: ᠦᠪᠦᠷ
ᠮᠤᠩᠭᠤᠯ [Öbür Monggol] in Mongolian script, and Өвөр Монгол [Övör Mongol] in Mongolian Cyrillic; Chinese: 内蒙古; pinyin: Nèi Měnggǔ), officially Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region or Nei Mongol Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in the north of the country, containing most of China's border with Mongolia (the rest of the China-Mongolia border is taken up by the Xinjiang autonomous region and Gansu province) and a small section of the border with Russia. Its capital is Hohhot, and other major cities include Baotou, Chifeng, and Ordos.

The Autonomous Region was established in 1947, incorporating the areas of the former Republic of China provinces of Suiyuan, Chahar, Rehe, Liaobei and Xing'an, along with the northern parts of Gansu and Ningxia. It is the third largest subdivision of China, spanning approximately 1,200,000 km² (463,000 sq mi) or 12% of China's total land area. It recorded a population of 24,706,321 in the 2010 census, accounting for 1.84% of Mainland China's total population. Inner Mongolia is the country's 23rd most populous province-level division. The majority of the population in the region is Han Chinese, with a sizeable titular Mongol minority. The official languages are Chinese and Mongolian, the latter of which is written in the traditional Mongolian script, as opposed to the Mongolian Cyrillic alphabet, which is used in the state of Mongolia.