Current Time in Chengzhong, China

Chengzhong, whose name simply means the centre of the city, is the central district of Xining, the capital of Qinghai province in western China. It lies in a narrow valley on the Huangshui River, enclosed by bare brown mountains on the north-eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau, at an altitude of more than two thousand two hundred metres. The thin clear air keeps summers cool and pleasant while winters are cold and dry, and the surrounding highlands rise quickly towards the grasslands and salt lakes of the interior.

Several hundred thousand people live within the district, which forms the administrative, commercial and financial heart of a city of well over two million. Government offices, banks, department stores, hotels and the main shopping streets are concentrated here, and the district serves as the meeting point for the trade of a vast and thinly populated province rich in minerals, salt, wool and hydroelectric power.

Xining has stood on this site for more than two thousand years, first as a Han dynasty garrison guarding the western approaches to the empire. It grew as a market where Chinese merchants exchanged tea, silk and grain for the horses, wool and hides of Tibetan and Mongol herders, and it became a key point on the southern branch of the Silk Road. Successive dynasties fortified the valley, and by the Ming and Qing periods the walled town, whose outline the central district still follows, was the largest settlement on the plateau's edge. The railway arrived in the twentieth century, and since the opening of the line to Lhasa the city has become the gateway to Tibet.

The district's outstanding landmark is the Dongguan Mosque, one of the largest and oldest in north-western China, founded in the fourteenth century, its green domes and tall minarets filling with thousands of worshippers each Friday. Nearby, the pedestrian streets and covered bazaars sell dried fruit, spices, silverwork and Tibetan carpets, while the Water Wheel Plaza and the riverside parks provide space to walk in the evening. Just outside the district lie the Beishan Temple carved into a cliff face and, further out, the great monastery of Kumbum, one of the most important in Tibetan Buddhism.

The population is strikingly mixed, with Han Chinese living alongside Hui Muslims, Tibetans, Tu and Salar people, and this diversity shapes the food, dress and street life. Hand-pulled noodles, mutton kebabs, yoghurt, yak butter tea and the famous stewed lamb of the region are sold everywhere, and mosques, temples and monasteries stand within walking distance of one another.

Buses and a new metro line serve the district, the railway station connects Xining to Lanzhou, Beijing and Lhasa, and the airport lies east of the city. Qinghai University and several colleges bring students from across the province.

Chengzhong is worth knowing as the lively multicultural core of Xining, the last big city before the roads climb onto the roof of the world.