Ordos (Chinese: 鄂尔多斯市; Pinyin: È'ěrduōsī shì; Mongolian: Ordos khot) is a prefecture-level city in southwestern Inner Mongolia. Ordos city was founded on February 26th 2001 in what before was Ikh Juu league (伊克昭盟 Yikezhao Meng). Ordos has an area of 86,752 km² and covers the bigger part of the Ordos plateau. The city borders Hohhot to the east, Baotou to the northeast, Bayan Nur to the north, Alxa to the northwest, Wuhai to the west, Ningxia to the southwest, and Shaanxi and Shanxi to the south. At the end of 2004, Ordos had a population of about 1.36 million inhabitants. The area of Ordos city can roughly be divided into a hilly area in the east, high plateaus in the west and center, sandy deserts in the north and south and the plains at the southern bank of the Yellow river. The highest elevation (2,149 m) is located in the west, the lowest point (850 m) in the east. The annual rainfall is 300-400 mm in he eastern part and 190-350 mm in the western part. Most of the rain falls between July and September.