Ordos

The area was known as the Ih Ju League, also spelled Ikh Juu, from 1649 to 2001. It was redesignated as a prefecture-level city and renamed to Ordos on 26 February 2001. "Ordos" means "many palaces" in Mongolian. "Ordos" originally referred to a tribe belonging to the Yeke Juu (Ike Chao 'great monastery', i.e. Ih Ju or Guanghui Monastery) league and later included the tribe's area, hence the Ordos, or Ordus, the area within the big bend of the Yellow River. Mongolian ordu(n), ord 'court, residence of a ruler; palace; camp', also for 'camp bodyguards'. According to Ramstedt -s is a plural suffix; further: ordu, orda; Turkic orta 'a center'; Mongolian > Turkish orda 'camp' > Hindustani urdū > English "horde." The name is sometimes claimed to be related to the eight white yurts of Genghis Khan. …

The Sarawusu River lies at the southern end of the Ordos grassland. It originates from Dingbian County in northwestern Shaanxi, flowing through the Otog Banner, Uxin Banner, Batuwan Village, and northern Shanxi. It also converges with Xianshui River and finally Wuding River, a tributary of the Yellow River. The Sarawusu river also washed out a U-shaped river valley in the Mu Us Desert. Sarawusu in Mongolian means "thick yellow stream," after the eponymous perennially yellow-colored local river; both sides of the river are covered with swaying red willows, so the river is also called the "Hongliu River" (Red Willow River). In 1923, French Jesuit Émile Licent first discovered fossils of the Hetao people here. Since then, Chinese archaeologists have visited the site many times. The site is known today as part of the Shuidonggou site complex. …

Ordos's prefectural administrative region occupies 86,752 square kilometers (33,495 sq mi) and covers the bigger part of the Ordos Desert, although the urban area itself is relatively small. It borders the prefecture-level divisions of Hohhot to the east, Baotou to the northeast, Bayan Nur to the north, Alxa League to the northwest, Wuhai to the west, the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region to its southwest, and the provinces of Shaanxi and Shanxi to the south. The maximal north–south extent is 340 km (210 mi), while from east to west it stretches for 400 km (250 mi). The most populous municipality is Dongsheng which had a population of 582,544 inhabitants as of the 2010 census. Another urban area is the conglomeration of Kangbashi District and the adjacent township of Altan Xire. …