Into Inner Mongolia the Long Way — Wuzhong to Alxa Left Banner

Alxa Left Banner sits on the boundary between Inner Mongolia and Ningxia, and its relationship with Yinchuan is a good illustration of how geography beats maps. The two are about 30 kilometres apart in a straight line — and there’s no road through the Helan mountains between them, so you go southwest, cross the provincial line, and come at it from below.

The detour is the good part. Here’s what’s on it.

Wuzhong: morning tea

Start with breakfast. Wuzhong in Ningxia is locally famous for its zaocha — morning tea, the same institution as Guangdong’s dim sum culture but Hui Muslim and northwestern: lamb, wheat, dairy, dried fruit, eight-treasure tea.

It runs from early morning to early afternoon, and the format is a long table of small dishes arriving continuously. Reckon on 10–20 US dollars a head at one of the well-known places, which is a lot of food for the money. It’s the best single meal in Ningxia.

A note on hotels here: some smaller properties still believe they can’t accept foreign guests. They can — see foreigner-only hotels for how to avoid the argument.

Helan Shan: the wine

The eastern foot of the Helan mountains is China’s most serious wine region — high altitude, huge diurnal temperature swing, dry air, gravel soil. Cabernet and its blends dominate, and the better bottles now win international medals rather than being novelties.

The cluster around Zhenbeibu has several cellars next to each other, all of which run walk-in tours ending with a tasting. Many of them are also guesthouses, and staying at one is a pleasant way to break the drive. Yinchuan is a short taxi ride away.

Go in September, during harvest, when you can watch the whole sequence from picking to bottling.

The Western Xia tombs

Continuing north you reach the Xi Xia tombs — the royal mausolea of the Western Xia dynasty, which ruled this part of northwest China for roughly two centuries until the Mongols destroyed it in 1227.

Nine imperial tombs and over two hundred subsidiary ones, spread across a gravel plain at the foot of the range. The surviving structures are eroded conical earth mounds, and the comparison everybody reaches for is Egyptian — “the pyramids of China” — which for once is a reasonable description.

What makes them affecting is the erasure. The Western Xia had their own script, their own Buddhist canon and their own state, and the Mongol conquest was thorough enough that the language wasn’t deciphered until the 20th century. The “Xia” in Ningxia is the residue.

The site is about 35 kilometres west of Yinchuan, roughly 40 minutes by car, with a museum at the entrance that’s worth the time before you walk out to the mounds.

The Western Xia tombs, at the foot of the Helan range

The Great Wall

Further along, at the provincial boundary itself, are the last remains of the Great Wall on this stretch — the actual line that once separated the Chinese states from the Mongol steppe.

It isn’t a scenic area, there’s no ticket, and there’s nobody there. Pull over, walk up the hill, and look at a rammed-earth wall eroding into the landscape it was built to divide. Better than any restored section.

The Tengger desert

Cross into Inner Mongolia and you’re immediately in Tengger country. The desert is actively encroaching on Alxa Left Banner, and the anti-desertification works around the town are extensive and visibly working — noticeably greener than a decade of satellite imagery would suggest.

Day activities run from the town: dune driving, the Alxa desert park, and a lake out in the sand. Stay in Alxa Left Banner rather than in the desert — it’s substantially cheaper and everything is a day trip anyway.

The route

Practical notes

Driving: this is a self-drive or hired-car route. You’ll need a Chinese licence to do it yourself.

When: May to October. September for the grape harvest; summer is hot and the desert is punishing.

Onward: Badain Jaran is 400 km west, and Zhongwei is south back in Ningxia.