1,206-CITY ATLASSOURCE-BACKED CITY REFERENCE
China
Compare this sourced profile of Xining, China before planning. Stable fields identify the place; confirm current transport, access and opening details with official sources.
01What the data says — and does not say
This page separates the checked GeoNames row for Xining—1,677,177, Asia/Shanghai, and source coordinates—from live travel claims. Those fields identify and compare the record; they do not prove current transport, accessibility, census totals, or a City Atlas Club visit.
Wikidata's localized description: capital city of Qinghai province, China.
02This city's dataset fingerprint
The source row behind Xining is GeoNames ID 1788852. Its recorded administrative path is Xining Shi → Qinghai → China, and GeoNames classifies the place as a first-order administrative seat. Xining occurs once as a primary city label in this atlas sample; the numeric ID remains the durable source key if names change. The city row itself was updated 2026-04-13; that date belongs to the source record, not to every transport or visitor detail in the real destination.
Within the fixed 1,206-record atlas, Xining ranks 268 by recorded population. Inside the 296 selected China entries it ranks 85; inside the 632 entries in its broad region it ranks 156. Its 1,677,177 population value is 1.44 times the 1,165,375 median for the country cohort and 1.66 times the 1,008,426 regional median. Xining sits in the second quarter of this atlas's China population cohort. Xining's recorded value is above the country-cohort median but remains below twice that benchmark. These comparisons describe this selected dataset only; they are not current census rankings or official urban-area boundaries.
Xining's three nearest other atlas coordinates are Wuwei at 164.079 km with 1,010,295 recorded people; Lanzhou at 196.94 km with 3,000,000 recorded people; Zhangye at 281.18 km with 507,433 recorded people. The closest-to-farthest distance spread is 117.101 km. Compared with Wuwei, Xining's recorded population is 1.66 times as large. Against Xining, Wuwei follows Wuwei Shi → Gansu → China in the source. Its point has higher latitude and higher longitude; it belongs to the same selected China cohort, uses the shared Asia/Shanghai identifier, and carries second-order administrative seat rather than first-order administrative seat. Its recorded population is below Xining's. Against Xining, Lanzhou follows Lanzhou Shi → Gansu → China in the source. Its point has lower latitude and higher longitude; it belongs to the same selected China cohort, uses the shared Asia/Shanghai identifier, and carries the same first-order administrative seat class. Its recorded population is above Xining's. Against Xining, Zhangye follows Zhangye Shi → Gansu → China in the source. Its point has higher latitude and lower longitude; it belongs to the same selected China cohort, uses the shared Asia/Shanghai identifier, and carries second-order administrative seat rather than first-order administrative seat. Its recorded population is below Xining's. Its nearest-neighbor distance ranks 908 of 1,206 from shortest to longest in the same snapshot. Xining's nearest-coordinate gap belongs to the wider half of atlas distances. This pattern can reveal whether other catalog references are geographically close, but it cannot establish whether a border crossing is possible or practical, or whether rail, road, fare, or journey-time connections exist. Read as one record signature, GeoNames 1788852, the coordinate pair 36.6255 / 101.7574, country rank 85 of 296, and neighbor GeoNames 1803936 at 164.079 km bind Xining to a reproducible comparison. That combined key distinguishes the row; it is not a recommendation or evidence of a physical connection.
Xining's reference point is 36.6255° north and 101.7574° east. The IANA identifier Asia/Shanghai is shared by 291 city rows in this catalog, while the GeoNames class PPLA is shared by 429 rows. Xining's row carries both second- and first-order administrative labels. Xining's point falls in the middle-latitude coordinate band used by this atlas's row checks. Xining's time-zone field defines the narrower catalog cohort; its place class is shared more broadly. GeoNames supplies no elevation for Xining, so the profile preserves that missing value instead of guessing terrain. Together these fields form a reproducible identity check for this page, not a claim about walkability, climate or accessibility.
03Nearby atlas references
Xining's closest other entries in this atlas are Wuwei (164.079 km), Lanzhou (196.94 km), Zhangye (281.18 km).
04Verify before you book
Before visiting Xining, confirm changing decisions with current first-party sources:
Read how City Atlas Club verifies changing travel facts →05Sources and freshness
GeoNames updated the row 2026-04-13; the atlas checked the dataset 2026-08-04. Available Wikidata fields were verified in the same run.
GeoNames data: CC BY 4.0. Wikidata labels and descriptions: CC0 1.0.