iChina.com

The Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, rich and beautiful, which was founded on May 1,1947, is the first region in our country where the regional autonomy of the minority nationalities was realized. Inhabited by 49 nationalities, Inner Mongolia has a population of 22,840,000, including 3,700,000 Mongolian people and more than 800,000 people of other minorities. It has an area of 1,183,000 square kilometers. The Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has eight leagues and four municipalities under its jurisdiction. Huhhot is the capital of the autonomous region. From east to west Inner Mongolia borders on eight province and autonomous regions, that is , Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Hebei, Shangxi, Shaanxi, Ningxia and Gansu. Mongolia and Russia lie to the north of Inner Mongolia, the boundary with the two countries extending 4221 kilometers.

Inner Mongolia is rich in natural resources. It has long enjoyed the reputation of being endowed with "forest in the east, iron in the west, farming in the south, animal husbandry in the north, and as for coal, everywhere". The Inner Mongolia Prairie, with the total grassland area of 880,000 square kilometers which accounting for 74.4% of the whole area of Inner Mongolia, ranks first among the five great prairies of our country. The land of 176,000 square kilometers is covered with forest. The total storage of timber is 946,000,000 cubic meters, which accounts for about 10% of the national total storage. Inner Mongolia contains nearly 1000 rivers and ten lakes. There are more than 1000 species of plants, 93 species of fish, 362 species of birds and 114 species of animals in Inner Mongolia. Now 49 species of animals are designated as the major animals protested by the state and the autonomous region.