The carvings on the cliffs, bold and vivid, are hailed as an ancient wonder. Done by the northern nomads more than 5,000 years ago, they run the gamut from portraits, totems and astronomy signs to scenes of ancient hunting, grazing, war and dance, genuinely uninhibited and unaffected.

 Shapotou Scenic Zone

The Shapotou Scenic Zone lies 20 kilometers from Zhongwei County in southwestern Ningxia and on the southern rim of the Tenger Desert. The boundless desert comes to an abrupt stop here where the onrushing Yellow River takes a sudden turn and runs calmly through. The formidable desert bends over to the river, forming a waterfall-like sand dune some 200 meters in height and 2,000 meters in width with a gradient of 60 degrees, which is fancied as "bell tolls at the sandy slope" -- when you slide down the slope, a resonant noise reverberates like the tolling of a huge bell. In front of the sand dune, the restless Yellow River runs by with gentle waves, a rarely majestic sight that no photographers would miss. A number of oases lie right in the heart of Shapotou like "bright pearls in the sand sea."

Rough deserts, limpid lakes, verdant oases, vast grasslands, fruitful orchards, mysterious rock paintings, and the primitive simple life of desert nomads are all best source for shooting the western charm.

A convoy of camels marches on with high raised heads and the camel-riders leisurely tread on the sand like sailing on the waves of the golden sea in the sound of camels' bells -- a remote and poetic Western Region landscape of the Silk Road. On the Yellow River, boat-trackers bared to the waist stand aboard the age-old sheepskin rafts, their songs echoing through the high sky. Good actors are never inadequate for stories of the western regions.

  Sand Lake 

The Sand Lake area is a popular getaway 56 kilometers northwest of Yinchuan, embracing 895 hectares of water surface, 1,837 hectares of marshes, and 2,000 hectares of golden deserts and semi-drifting sand dunes, set off by the lofty Mt. Helan in the distance. It is a rare natural ecological phenomenon in desert-infested North China.

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