14 Days in Zhongwei

In by HSR to Zhongwei South or into Shapotou airport; Gaomiao stacks its halls up a single platform — Ming-era origins, rebuilt in the 1940s — and the night-market street closes the first day.

1. zhongwei gaomiao
2. zhongwei drum tower

Sand-slide down the tall dune, drift back downriver on a sheepskin raft, zipline over the water. Since the 1950s the straw checkerboards have held the dunes off the 1958 Baotou-Lanzhou railway.

1. zhongwei shapotou

A full inner-desert day — walk or ride into the dune sea, then overnight at a desert camp or the dune-top star hotel for the Milky Way; the Tengger counts among China's four largest deserts.

1. zhongwei shapotou
2. zhongwei tengger desert camp

The dead-straight stretch that photographers call China's Route 66, then the river village and its old pear orchards — April blossom is the payoff. About 60 kilometres round trip.

1. zhongwei route 66 road
2. zhongwei beichangtan village

Half an hour beyond Shapotou, Tonghu's grassland and lakes sit across the regional line in Alxa Left Banner, Inner Mongolia — labelled honestly as an edge-of-province day.

1. zhongwei tonghu grassland
2. zhongwei tengger desert camp

About an hour southeast, a sandstone gorge with narrow defiles and cliff walkways; bring water and climb the higher path while the morning is cool.

1. zhongwei sikou canyon

An honest county day about an hour east — the museum tells the wolfberry trade, and June brings the first picking; walk the berry fields while the boxes load.

1. zhongwei zhongning goji museum

Return to Zhongning for the cliff grottoes above the old town — earliest carvings traced to the Tang — then take the slow Yellow River road back towards the city.

1. zhongwei shikong grottoes

An unhurried day of boardwalks over the Jinsha Island wetlands north of town, where reed beds and bird hides sit right against the desert's edge.

1. zhongwei jinsha island

A slow day among the restored Yellow River farmhouses near the Shapotou south bank — long lunches on the leypress, evening light on the water, no schedule at all.

1. zhongwei huanghe suji

A neighbouring-province day, labelled as such — about two hours' drive into Jingtai County, Gansu, where sandstone pillars line a bend of the river; rafts and donkey carts work the gorge floor.

1. zhongwei jingtai stone forest

A neighbouring-capital day, labelled as such — about 90 minutes each way on the HSR. The Western Xia tombs, the Zhenbeipu film sets and the Helan Mountain rock art crowd one long day; an overnight is kinder.

1. yinchuan

A remote but honest prefecture day — Nanchangtan, upstream past Beichangtan, is reached by a rough river road and keeps stone courtyards and old orchards; go with a local driver and start early.

1. zhongwei nanchangtan village

One last market breakfast, a riverside walk, then the HSR from Zhongwei South towards Yinchuan or Lanzhou, or the short hop from Shapotou airport.

1. zhongwei city markets