China Unicom Western Cloud Valley Data Center
Desert gateway on the Yellow River linking western clean energy to coastal users
The story
Adjacent to the historic bend of the Yellow River in Ningxia, China Unicom's Western Cloud Valley facility is a prime pillar of the national computing infrastructure. Taking advantage of the region's arid, clean desert climate, the data center operates almost entirely on natural air cooling, keeping its PUE at 1.15. It channels renewable photovoltaic power into high-bandwidth data streams connecting back to Beijing and Shanghai.
Notable
- Strategically positioned in Zhongwei's national data center cluster on the southern edge of the desert.
- Leverages year-round low humidity and desert air to cool servers naturally without mechanical chillers.
- Operates as a key transmission super-node for China Unicom's national IP backbone (169 Network).
- Delivers high-throughput, low-cost storage and AI computing to eastern maritime provinces.
Expansions
- 2019: Phase 1 activated serving cross-provincial big data analytics
- 2023: expanded with high-speed direct 400G optical lines to Beijing and Xi'an
Sources
- 中卫打造全国一流绿色数据中心集群 · Ningxia Autonomous Region Government · 2021-07-29
- 中国联通中卫云数据中心赋能数智新未来 · China Unicom · 2022-06-15
Part of the open famous data centers dataset (CC BY 4.0). Updated 2026-10-15. A correction? da@mustardseedmt.com
What is China Unicom Western Cloud Valley Data Center famous for?
Desert gateway on the Yellow River linking western clean energy to coastal users
Where is China Unicom Western Cloud Valley Data Center?
China Unicom Western Cloud Valley Data Center is in Zhongwei, Ningxia, China (37.541, 105.185). It is operated by China Unicom.
How much power does China Unicom Western Cloud Valley Data Center use?
About 35 MW of IT load and 42 MW in total, according to the sources listed on this page.
What is the PUE of China Unicom Western Cloud Valley Data Center?
1.15, reported.