The history of Baotou is very long. The ancestors of chinese worked and lived there before 6000 thousand years. In the changing of the history, there was a place where many northern minorities such as the Huzu, the Xiongnu, the Xianpi, the Roran, the Tujue, the Huihu, Mongolia etc. had browsed. It had been an important place for military because of its geography position.
There had been many forts in Baotou. The earliest fort was the Jiuyuan Country which was larger in the Qin Dynasty and Han Dynasty. The most important fort was the Huaisu Town which is the Kulunchun old city in Guyang Town now.

Baotou has become well known since the New year’s Day of 1923,when the Ping-Sui Railway was extended west to Baotou. On July 3, 1927, geologist Ding Daoheng discovered the Baiyunebo Mine and predicted that Baotou would be an iron-and-steel base in China.Before the peaceful liberation on september 19,1949,Baotou was a small trading town,with a population of less than 100,000 people,very few modern industries and crude municipal facilities.
　Baotou enterd a completely new development stage after the founding of the People’ s Republic of China. Early in December 1949, Baotou City was recognised by the central government as one of the newly-built iron and steel centers in North china. During the period of the first and second Five-Year Plans, with the support from the Party Central Committee, the State Council and the people of the whole nation,modern industrial enterprises of iron and steel, rare earth, aluminium, machinery, electrical power and chemicals were established. Baotou thus became a new industrial base. Since the implementation of reform and opening-up policies,especially in the past decade, Baotou has stepped into a second high-speed development stage.