Xinxiang is a prefecture-level city in northern Henanprovince, China. It borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to its southwest, Kaifeng to its southeast, Hebi and Anyang to its north, Jiaozuo to its west, and the provinces of Shanxi and Shandong to its northwest and east respectively. Its population was 5,707,801 as of 2010 census of whom 2,596,759 are in the built-up area made of 4 urban districts. and, as the city is expanding very quickly, Fengquan district, Xinxiang county and Huixian City are now being urbanized.
History
Xinxiang was site of the Battle of Muye where the Shang Dynasty was overthrown by the Zhou. Xinxiang dates from the Sui dynasty and was a small market center before being developed as an industrial center in the 1950s. It also served as the capital of the short-lived Pingyuan Province, which covered neighbouring cities Anyang, Hebi, Puyang, Jiaozhuo and Heze, between 1949 and 1952, for the purpose of exterminating Nationalist guerillas.
Religion
The Roman Catholic minority is served by its own Apostolic Prefecture of Xinxiang / Sinsiang / Sinsiangen, which was established on July 7, 1936 on missionary territory split off from the then Apostolic Vicariate of Weihuifu . It is a pre-diocesan jurisdiction, which is exempt, not part of any ecclesiastical province. It has had the following incumbent ''Apostolic Prefects of Xinxiang :
There are several important enterprises located in Xinxiang, such as Frestech Refrigerator, Golden Dragon Copper Group, Bailu Chemical Fibre, Henan Kelong Group, AVIC XINHANG Industry Corporation.
Agriculture and industry
Textiles and processed food are major manufactures. It has a large number of heavy industry in machine making. As an old textiles basement, the cotton industry is very developed in Xinxiang.
Air & soil pollution
According to a report by Greenpeace in 2015, Henan has the most severe air pollution of all the provinces in China, with an average PM2.5 concentration of 103.3 μg/m3. Ranking second and third respectively are the provinces of Hubei and Hebei, with PM2.5 concentrations of 99.2 μg/m3 and 98.4 μg/m3. Xinxiang is the 13th most polluted city air-wise in China, with a PM2.5 concentration of 114.6 μg/m3 during the first quarter of 2015. Other cities in Henan that ranked within the top 30 most polluted cities in China during the first quarter of 2015 include Zhengzhou, Jiaozuo, Anyang, Pingdingshan, Zhoukou, Xuchang, Puyang, and Luoyang; all of these have PM2.5 concentrations above 100 μg/m3. Farmland governed by the municipality was also noted for by leading China news site Caixin, as the epicenter of Chinese battery producers. See also Toxic heavy metal.
Transport
The city is a rail junction and industrial centre at the head of navigation on the Wei River. The river, made navigable for small vessels by river improvements in the 1950s, links the city with Tianjin, the main port for Beijing. Later, due to heavy industrial chemical pollution, the river course had been totally cut off and got filled up. After recent dredges, it is still no more than a man-made lake.
