Linxia City
Administratively, Linxia City is an incorporated county-level city. Unlike many Chinese county-level cities, which include a county-size expanse of the countryside, the boundaries of Linxia City include only a fairly small area (88.6 km2), stretched along the Daxia River, which in this region flows towards the northeast. The wide fertile valley of the river is flanked by loess plateau escarpments on both sides, and the countryside beyond these limits, to the northwest and southeast of the valley, belongs to a separate administrative unit, called Linxia County. Linxia City borders on Linxia County in the southwest as well, but in the northeast it has a short border with Dongxiang Autonomous County.