• Ningxia Introduction

  • Ning is short for Ningxia Hui Clan Autonomous region. It lies in the western part of the Yellow River. It is 66,000 square kilometers in area, with a population of 4.8 million. It is the main inhabiting region of the people in Hui Clan. 

    Its topography is mainly plateaus and hilly lands. They occupy 75 percent in area. The plains here occupy more than 25 percent. The Yellow River flows in the northern part. It has a semi-moist continental climate in temperate zone. The resource of the coal is amongst the important place in China. There are also phosphorus, gypsum, iron, petroleum and salt.

    Its major industries are coal mining, electric power, machinery and metallurgical industry. In agriculture, there is wheat and hemp. Tan sheepskin, matrimony-vine, licorice are well known both in China and aboard. Baolan Railway runs through the northern part, and the highway system is convenient too. 

    Ningxia has a long history. There are a lot of historic relics. The places of interest are Yin chuanhai Tower, Tomb of Xixia¡¯s monarch, Zhongwei Temple, 108 towers in Qingtong Gorge, caves in Xumi Mountain, and the mosque in Tongxin. The traditional specialties are Tan sheepskin, Helanshan inkstone, Facai in Tongxin and Haiyuan, matrimony-vine in Zhongwei and Zhongning.

    Recommended Scenic Spots

    The Western Xia Tombs is located at the eastern foot of Helan Mountain, close to Yinchuan city in Ningxia Autonomous Region, and measuring 10 kilometers north to south, 4 kilometers east to west, the Mausoleum contains the tombs of emperors of the Western Xia.

    There are eight tumuli and over 70 annex tombs. The tumulus each has an independent group of buildings. Encircled by a wall with an entrance gate in each direction, it has four corner towers and an array of watchtowers, pavilions housing stone tablets, external city, sacrificial hall and coffin platform from south to north. It encompasses more than 100 thousand square meters.

    The tumulus excavated in 1972 has an underground sloping passage, 49 meters long, leading to a square coffin chamber. Theres a supplementary pit dug into earth 25 meters deep, at each side of the chamber. Despite a previous excavation, unearthed were still a variety of burial objects: gold ornaments, gilded or silver jewelry, bamboo carvings, copper armour-plates, pearls, broken porcelains etc. The three annex tombs already dug all have a stairway or sloping path to coffin pit. The usual funerary objects in the earth square pits were copper ox and stone horses.

    What left about the ground buildings in the tumuli, which were dug or destroyed before the Ming Dynasty is only ruin. However, a great amount of building materials and broken stone tablets and steles with inscriptions in Western Xia or the Han characters still remains. The tumuli imitated the style of tombs in the Tang Dynasty or the Northern Song Dynasty, and are reputed as "Chinese Pyramid". 

    Hai Bao Pagoda

     

    Popularly called "Northern Pagoda", was not known when to have been built. It was recorded to have been rebuilt in the 5th century (407-427).The square-type Pagoda is built of bricks, 54 meters high with 11 floors. The niches in every storey of it are lightly protruding. Consequently, many edges are formed and the facade of the tower looks like a Chinese character. Vigorous in style, such a unique architecture has avoided the stereotyped and monotonous shape of other pagodas, giving a feeling of lightness and spledous.

     

    The Shapotou Tourist Zone

     

    Shapotou is famous all over the world not lnly for its great success in reclaming of the shafting sand but also for its unique natural landscapes.To the south, the rolling Yellow River gallops forward with great momentum while the ruins of the Great Wall lies dimly visible.Tothe north, a stretch of the Baotou-Lanzhou railway winds through the green land won from the desert.What wins even greater admiration from the world is the wonder of the desert--the Shaop Mingzhong, a curious sound caused by the shifting sands.Below the sand hills, gardens and orchards drip green while the scientific research fields bloom with all sorts of flowers and plants in a riot colour. Since the sand dunes and the Yellow River are running hand in hand great achievements in desert reclamation they could, to their hearts content, ride camels in the desert and go leather rafting along the Yellow River.