Yining County, belonging to the Ili Kazak Autonomous Prefecture of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, is located in the west of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the western section of Tianshan Mountains, and the middle of the Ili River Valley. The geographical coordinates are between 81 ° 13 ′ 40 ″ - 82 ° 42 ′ 20 ″ east longitude and 43 ° 35 ′ 10 ″ - 44 ° 29 ′ 30 ″ north latitude. The longest east-west distance of the county is 116 kilometers, and the widest south-north distance is 95 kilometers. The administrative area is 6153 square kilometers. By the end of 2017, Yining County has jurisdiction over 8 towns, 10 townships, and 3 farm-level units. In 2019, the registered residence population of Yining County was 421375.

Yining County, formerly known as "Ningyuan County", was founded in the 14th year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty (1888), and was named after the "Ningyuan County". In the second year of the Republic of China (1913), it was changed to Yining County, named after Ili and Ningyuan. Uyghur, Kazakh, Mongolian and other ethnic minorities still use "Guleza" (the name of the ethnic minority language in Ningyuan City), which is Turkic and means "Pan sheep".

In 2019, Yining County's GDP was 8616.04 million yuan, the added value of the primary industry was 298.831 million yuan, the added value of the secondary industry was 216.477 million yuan, the general public budget revenue was 485.65 million yuan, and the general public budget expenditure was 3029.78 million yuan.