7 Days in Bayannur

The Hetao culture museum frames the irrigation district inscribed on the 2019 heritage list; the riverside park walks the Yellow River's northern bank. Market dinner in Linhe.

1. bayannur hetao culture museum
2. bayannur yellow river wetland park

About 300 sq km of reed banks with 260-plus recorded bird species; boats from the piers, fish meals in the lakeside villages. Overnight near the lake or back in Linhe.

1. bayannur ulansuhai lake

Xiaoshetai's stone Qin wall sections around 2,200 years old, then petroglyph panels in the Yinshan gullies — tens of thousands recorded since the 1970s.

1. bayannur xiaoshetai great wall
2. bayannur yinshan petroglyphs

The 1959-1961 sluice still waters over ten million mu of fields; the Han-dynasty stone fort of Jilu, protected since 2001, guards the old pass route. Overnight in Dengkou town.

1. bayannur sanshenggong headworks
2. bayannur jilu fort

A slow lake morning at the desert's edge, dune walks after lunch and Dengkou melons in season from July to August. Back to Linhe for the night.

1. bayannur nalin lake

North into Urad Middle Banner's steppe — herder camps, stone cairns on the ridgelines and long horizons; a taste of the Mongolian grassland that frames the Hetao plain.

1. bayannur ulate grassland

A market breakfast of Hetao wheat noodles and milk snacks, a last walk by the river park, then the train or flight from Linhe.

1. bayannur city markets