Study On The Spatial Characteristics Of The Settlement Of The Hui Nationality In Ningxia Najiahu Village

In recent two decades, the researches of traditional settlements are mainly about the Middle East regions of China. Relatively, there are fewer researches of traditional settlements about west minority areas, especially for the Ning Xia Hui Autonomous Region. Ning Xia’s Hui settlement has its own odd natural environment, geographical factors, humanism and regional culture, social institution, custom and belief, living style and production mode etc. All these elements make Hui settlement became a unique settlement and the unique development has also contributed to these elements. However, nowadays, the original settlements are getting transformed or even destroyed due to the fact that to cater the booming travel industry.After investigating Five counties(XIji, Haiyuan, Tongxin, Jingyuan and Pingluo), two village(Najia and Shanjiaji) of Ning Xia Province, The researcher chose Najia village as object of the dissertation because this is a typical Hui settlement. Firstly, Najia village was a pure Hui settlement before the founding of the country. Secondly, Najia village was famous for wealth, and it was also one of the most important commercial clusters in Ning Xia. In addition, Najia village has approximately seven hundred years long history. Apart from that, Najia village has good location: five kilometres to the Yellow river from the east part of Najia and twenty kilometres to the capital city- Yin Chuan from north part of Najia, there is also an artificial river in the village, build in the Western Han Dynasty. Finally, in 2002 the “Chinese Hui culture theme park” project implemented to enhance tourism development. In order to attract more tourists, Najia has been through rapid development to enhance tourism industry.In the dissertation, the researcher stated Najia village’s development history and tried to investigate the specialities of the village and current situation. Then the researcher provided some useful and feasible suggestions which may help Najia village to have a better development in the future.Both, history development and current situation of Najia village are equally important in this research. The researcher used different methods to collect relevant data such as observation, literature review and face to face interview. Then the data was analysed according to Najia village’s nature environment, social environment and built environment. After that the researcher made some suggestions for Najia village’s development in the future.The main research method was face to face interview, due to the fact that there were very less amount of information and materials about Najia settlement from internet, books and newspapers. The researcher did interview 3 times, each time the duration were 5 days and interview around 100 senior citizens. According to the face to face interview, the researcher tried to find out the planning and construction changes about Najia settlement. Then, the researcher drew the map of previous Najia settlement; which is also an innovative point of the research.In the research, Najia village’s transitional history was divided into five period, the early stage of formation of settlement(before 1376), dominated by Hui of Na people(1376 to 1542), treated economic development as first priority(1524 to Qing Tong Zhi Dynasty), War times(Qing Tong Zhi Dynasty to 1941) and developing to a modern society(1941 till now). The researcher analysed these five periods of Najia village, then found out that the village has favourable geographical position which makes Najia village could go against enemy easily in ancient times and stimulates economic development in modern times. In addition, Najia village’s space contraction development was divided into two parts, natural environment and social environment. Firstly, topographical advantages are: residential districts are surrounded by natural beauties such as lake and creeks; the river which goes through Najia village’s commercial block makes good delivery easier; noisy factories are far away from city. Secondly, social environmental advantages are: the majority of Hui people live near to the mosque, “tetragonal” layout village and unique Najia settlement.Finally, after investigating and analysing Najia village’s space construction developing history, the researcher found out the elements which are obstructing and destroying Najia village’s development. Then the researcher stated some feasible suggestions for Najia village’s development in the future.