Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture (, Xiao'erjing: ), formerly known as Hezhou (河州) and Baohan (枹罕), is located in Gansu Province, south of the provincial capital Lanzhou, bordering Qinghai to the west. It is an autonomous prefecture for the Muslim Hui people, a large Chinese ethnic group. It also includes two autonomous counties for other Muslim groups, namely Bonan, Dongxiang and Salar. Geography and climate Linxia Prefecture is located in southwestern central Gansu. It is just south of Lanzhou and borders Qinghai Province in the west, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in the south and the Dingxi prefecture-level city in the east. The terrain is highlands, mountains and loess hills. Elevation averages 2000 meters above sea-level. The Yellow River, which gets its muddy yellow color from the loess, runs through the northwestern part of the prefecture. Dammed at Liujiaxia (Yongjing County), it forms the large Liujiaxia Reservoir in the north-central part of the county. There is also a smaller Yanguoxia Dam () further downstream, also within Yongjing County. The Yellow River's main tributaries within the prefecture are the Daxia River and the Tao River. They flow from the neighboring Gannan Prefecture and fall into the Liujiaxia Reservoir from the southeast. The Tao River also serves as the border with the Dingxi prefecture-level city over some of its length. The year's average temperature is 8 °C and the annual frost-free period is only 155 frost-free days. The area is semi-arid with annual precipitation of only . Total area is . History and culture In the past, Linxia City was called Hezhou and the surrounding area was known as He Prefecture. The Hui Minorities War During the Hui Minorities' War in the 1860s He Prefecture was a scene of fierce fighting between the Muslim (Hui, Dongxiang and Salar, in modern terms) rebels on one side and the Han Chinese militias and, later, government troops, on the other side. From 1862 to 1872, Hezhou City (today's Linxia City) was the stronghold of the Muslim (mostly Hui) rebels led by the Khufiyya imam Ma Zhan'ao and his associates Ma Haiyan and Ma Qianling. The Han Chinese's resistance to the rebellion throughout the northern and eastern parts of the then Hezhou Prefecture (today's Yongjing County and Dongxiang County of Linxia Prefecture and Lintao County of Dingxi City) was headed by the Kong family, one of whose main home villages was Dachuan in today's Yongjing County (within from