Green electricity, data centers, tourism fuel growth in NW China's Ningxia

Green energy, data centers and tourism are emerging as key economic drivers for northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

The Ningxia-Hunan ±800 kV ultra-high voltage (UHV) direct current transmission project goes into operation in Zhongwei city, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Aug. 20, 2025. (People's Daily Online/Liang Hongxin)

A major ultra-high voltage power transmission line linking northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and central China's Hunan province began operations Aug. 20 in Zhongwei city, Ningxia. The direct current transmission project runs from the Zhongning converter station in Zhongwei through Gansu and Shaanxi provinces, Chongqing Municipality and Hubei Province to the Hengyang converter station in Hunan.

The transmission line carries more than 36 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity from Ningxia to Hunan annually — enough to power more than 10 million households, said Ding Ning, head of the Zhongning converter station. More than half comes from renewable energy sources.

Ningxia has accelerated green development in recent years, promoting industrial upgrades and cleaner production while building a modern energy system.

Ningxia has abundant solar and wind resources and hosts China's first comprehensive renewable energy demonstration zone. The region's renewable capacity reached 41.33 million kilowatts by December 2024, accounting for 57.84 percent of total installed capacity.

Aerial photo shows a cloud data center in Zhongwei, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. (People's Daily Online/Ma Tianyi)

In a business park in Xiamen, southeast China's Fujian Province, driverless security vehicles patrol the grounds, performing tasks such as artificial intelligence recognition and risk alerts. They gather audio, video, LiDAR, and millimeter-wave radar data in real time and transmit it via 5G networks to a cloud data center in Ningxia, where AI recognition and risk alerts take just 100 milliseconds.

Workers are building around the clock at China Mobile's second-phase data center in Zhongwei to meet year-end deadlines. The facility will add more than 80,000 server racks and five 10-gigabit clusters by December, providing computing power equivalent to 100,000 GPUs.

Ningxia's central location puts it within 2,000 kilometers of major Chinese cities, making it ideal for fiber-optic connections. The region's stable geology, dry climate and average temperatures below 8 degrees Celsius naturally cool data centers. Industrial electricity costs just 0.36 yuan ($0.05) per kilowatt-hour — less than half the price in eastern China.

In recent years, Ningxia has pursued the goal of building a demonstration zone for high-quality computing power and a hub for the "East Data, West Computing" initiative. A series of policies covering land, taxation and electricity have created a strong support system, drawing a wave of enterprises to the region.

Tourists at the Xixia Imperial Tombs in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. (People's Daily Online/Liang Hongxin)

The Xixia Imperial Tombs in Ningxia drew crowds during the summer travel season after being inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site on July 11. The designation brought China's total World Heritage sites to 60 and made the ancient burial complex a major tourist attraction.

After touring the Xixia Imperial Tombs, many visitors stay to watch stars in Ningxia. The region became China's first to launch the "hometown of stars" tourism brand and ranks among the country's first "all-for-one" tourism demonstration zones, thanks to its geography and natural advantages

"Stargazing at night is such a thrill!" said Ms. Deng, a tourist from Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, who recently revisited Shapotou, a scenic area in Zhongwei, with her family.

"Last time we couldn't book the Desert Star Hotel, so this time I planned a month ahead," she said.

Shapotou scenic area, China's first desert resort, sits between the Tengger Desert to the north and the Yellow River to the south, combining desert, river, mountains and oasis landscapes. Located 8 kilometers into the Tengger Desert, away from light pollution, it offers prime viewing for major meteor showers.