--FILE--veicoli viaggiano su una strada nella città di Yinchuan, a nord-ovest della Cina di Ningxia Hui Regione autonoma, 12 maggio 2015. Nel maggio 2016, la compagnia aerea Emirates
--FILE--Vehicles travel on a road in Yinchuan city, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, 12 May 2015. In May 2016, the Emirates airline inaugurated its new direct service to the Chinese city of Yinchuan. Yinchuan joins Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou as destinations served by Emirates, meaning that a passenger who boards a plane in Dubai is now able to fly nonstop to China's first, second, third, or 71st most-populous urban area. Yinchuan, situated on the loess-covered floodplain of the Yellow River in the autonomous region of Ningxia, nearly 600 miles west of Beijing and far from China's booming coastal cities, is a peculiar destination for international tourists. But that remoteness has not deterred Chinese officials from pouring resources into a quixotic plan to turn the city into a "cultural tourism destination" for wealthy Arabs. To look the part, Yinchuan is undergoing an ambitious makeover. All of its street signs have been repainted to add Arabic translations and transliterations to the existing Chinese and English. Across from People's Square in the city center stands an imposing convention center that has hosted the China-Arab States Expo, a biennial event that brings together businessmen and women from China and the Middle East. South of downtown, a $3.5 billion project to build a "World Muslim City" is slated to be completed in 2020.
