7 Days in Zhongwei

Some 20 kilometres west of town, the dunes drop straight to the Yellow River — sand-slide down, sheepskin raft back, zipline across. Straw checkerboards have held the sand off the 1958 Baotou-Lanzhou railway since the 1950s.

1. zhongwei shapotou

Gaomiao stacks its halls up a single platform — Ming-era origins, largely rebuilt in the 1940s — and the drum tower holds the crossroads; the night-market street closes the day.

1. zhongwei gaomiao
2. zhongwei drum tower

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, the grassland and lakes of Tonghu sit across the regional line in Alxa Left Banner, Inner Mongolia — labelled honestly here as an edge-of-province day. A desert-camp sunset and stars close it out.

1. zhongwei tonghu grassland
2. zhongwei tengger desert camp

About an hour southeast, the Sikouzi scenic area cuts a sandstone gorge with narrow defiles and cliff walkways; bring water and take the higher path while the light is still morning-cool.

1. zhongwei sikou canyon

An honest county day about an hour east — the goji museum and berry fields first, then the Shikong grottoes cut into the cliff above the old town of Shikong, their earliest carvings traced to the Tang.

1. zhongwei zhongning goji museum
2. zhongwei shikong grottoes

A slow last day — boardwalks over the Jinsha Island wetlands north of town, then an afternoon among the restored Yellow River farmhouses of the Huanghe Suji cluster near the Shapotou south bank, before the HSR or the airport run.

1. zhongwei jinsha island
2. zhongwei huanghe suji