Yinchuan City, Ningxia's capital renowned as a lake city in the loess highlands, recently won the award of National Civilized City, a high-valued city brand reflecting quality of city-building and culture of a Chinese city.

It emerged out of 118 candidates that took on a rigorous review earlier this year. The review evaluated the cities' planning, building, cultures, as well as their leaderships and citizens, by the Central Civilization Office and the national Bureau of Statistics.

Yinchuan City launched its program of creating a modern city in 1996 and began its bid for the award in 2005.