Stunning Architectures In Ning Xia (寧夏)
Posted On Thursday, April 10, 2014 at at 9:12 PM by Alvin
Leaving behind the mostly rural environments down southern Ning Xia (寧夏), we travelled further north and reached the provincial capital Yin Chuan (銀川). At first glance, Yin Chuan had all the hallmarks of a present-day China provincial capital - mega, mega-crowded, mega-traffic, mega-busy, mega-long shopping streets; yeh, no other way to sum it up really. But on settling here after a few days, we began to notice and enjoy the mega-space, mega-parks, mega-cultural centres, mega-mosques and we even briefly visited the mega film studio of 银川鎮北堡西部影視城 ! This studio was the location where many mega-movies based on ancient times were shot - think Universal Studio in Hollywood and you would get the idea. We also spent a mega-relaxing afternoon in the Hai Bao Tower Park located at the northern edge of town (海寶塔公園) - Spring was in the air and the budding willow trees and cherry blossoms gave us a mega-all-round pleasant and well-being good feeling.
We were off to a flying start as we visited the Huixiang Cultural Centre (寧夏银川中華回鄉園) about an hour's bus ride out of town. On this blue blue day, one could be mistakened to think they had arrived at The Taj Mahal in Agra, India (http://www.whatsupal.blogspot.hk/2004/11/taj-mahal-truly-stunning.html) as the museum in the Cultural Centre was similarly designed and almost equally majestic and elegant. The museum was very informative and we took our time (2 hours) to fully appreciate the Hui (回族) culture and heritage on display inside. The short film (20 minutes) was particularly enjoyable as it gave us a chance to cool off from the dry heat outside. The Golden Mosque beside the museum was beautifully designed and constructed and the guide to the Golden Mosque demonstrated the stunning echo features of the Mosque when he called out a demonstrative prayer for 5 minutes - serenity came to body and mind as he called out the prayers. We missed out on the infamous ancient cave and rock art paintings at the foot of the Helan Mountains (賀蘭山岩畫) as it was low season. Great - now we have a good reason to travel to this part of China in the future again !
Entering Ning Xia 寧夏 Province Through The Ancient Battle Strong Holds Of Gu Yuan 固原 And Wu Zhong 吳忠
Posted On Saturday, April 5, 2014 at at 2:24 AM by Alvin
Leaving the Kong Dong Mountains (甘肅平涼崆峒山) behind and we entered the Hui Province of Ning Xia (寧夏回族自治區) from the south. We passed the cities of Gu Yuan (固原) and Wu Zhong (吳忠) which were strategic military outposts set up in the days of Genghis Khan when Da Man called the shots around most of Asia and Europe. Gu Yuan had the natural barriers of the Liu Pan Mountains (六盘山) to guard against the Tibetan Highlanders and Wu Zhong sat right at the critical point where the Yellow River presented the ancient Turkish tribes with a formidable river crossing before they could march on towards the ancient capital of Xian. Both cities impressed us with an in-land, frontier wilderness feel and at the same time a certain modern, fast-paced sync-up with the rest of the Chinese developed coastal cities. Watch out - Ning Xia was catching up big time and making up for lost years ! We also took maximum advantage of journeying across this mainly-Muslim populated province as we repeatedly ordered one of our favourite dishes - freshly boiled mutton prepared to order (手抓羊肉) - Yummy !
Gu Yuan was slightly more than a one-horse town as we walked the length of the main road that cut through the city and it took us about an hour and a half. But the city had every modern amenity you could think of. On the eastern end of the city, we climbed the low-key, laid-back mountain range of 東嶽山 which was dotted with interesting Tao and Buddhist temples. After about an hour's climb, we reached its summit and we had a perfect sunset waiting for us and the city beneath us looked to be thriving and well-planned. Wu Zhong on the other hand was gearing up to be an up-and-coming tourist mega-hit as newly built tourist sites mushroomed all over the city - Islamic Cultural Centre (伊斯蘭文化中心), Huang He Tower (黃河樓) to name but a few. Both of these sites were visually stunning and they looked and felt newly un-wrapped, perhaps a few weeks before we arrived !
The Gansu Kong Tong Mountains (甘肅崆峒山) Amongst The Dazzling Spring Cherry Blossoms
Posted On Thursday, April 3, 2014 at at 12:59 AM by Alvin
We flew out of Shenzhen to Xian bright and early and our eventual aim was to enter the Hui Province (回族自治區) of Ning Xia (寧夏) via the quiet back roads; but first we had to sneak pass the formidable Kong Tong Mountains (崆峒山) in the province of Gansu (甘肅). Interestingly, we passed through the city of Bao Ji (寶雞) where 2,000 years ago, a well known military strategy was formulated and executed way back before the Han (漢) Dynasty - 暗渡陳倉. Anyway, the Kong Tong Mountains turned out to be a walk in the park - provided we walked "downwards" through the thousands of concrete steps. We took a cable car up the mountains via the lake of 彈箏湖 and walked passed the many Taoist (道教) and Buddhist Temples such as the majestic 老君殿 and 法輪寺. Spring was definitely in the air as thousands of peach and cherry blossoms exploded into eye-catching pink and white dazzles, blooming over the whole of the Kong Tong Mountains. We found our way back to the city of Ping Liang (平涼) and strolled around the Willow Lake (柳湖) Park which was populated with locals relaxing in the Spring mild afternoon sunshine (one could almost hear the purring) - Sheer bliss !
