City banking on lakes to end identity crisis

YINCHUAN: When I arrived here on Monday, I was not expecting much from this capital of the Ningxia Hui autonomous region: After all, Yinchuan is undoubtedly one of the least famous provincial capitals in China.

However, there could be a good reason for that.

About six years ago, a Chinese-language newspaper referred to the city as "the capital of Gansu", which, not surprisingly, upset the governments and people of both Yinchuan and Lanzhou, the actual Gansu capital. Media on both sides debated and contested the misprint, each keen to prove their city was more famous than the other.