Chinese home appliances giant Midea and petrochemical bigwig Sinopec took a share of Ningxia's thriving wine industry by planting more than 1,000 mu (66.7 hectares) wine grapes in the region respectively this year, Yinchuan wine industry development council said.

The local government has mulled building the region into the "Wine Capital" of west China in recent years as the regional east stretch of Helan Mountain enjoys the reputation as "China's Bordeaux."

The area is the third Chinese wine protection area approved by the General Administration of Quality Supervision in addition to Yantai in east China's Shandong Province and Changli in north China's Hebei Province.

With shrinking arable vineyards in eastern China, wine manufacturers began to eye on the west and made Ningxia their first choice of planting wine grapes, said Li Qiang from Yinchuan wine industry development council.

Earlier in 2006, Sino-French joint venture Dynasty invested 100 million yuan (US$16 million) in the local wine manufacturer Imperial Horse to establish a chateau in the region. In the same year, China's largest wine manufacturer Changyu developed an 8,000-mu vineyard in the region with Ningxia Nongken Group.