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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 !
