Desert, Yellow River, Locomotive (A Journey to Ningxia) - Old Bear and I #1004866

Book Summary

Eleven days, from Yinchuan to Zhongwei to Wuzhong.

Western Xia, a kingdom that vanished nearly a thousand years ago, lies sleeping at the foot of the Helan Mountains. Genghis Khan once flattened this realm, ordering the tombs to be dug up, books burned, and cities slaughtered, wiping the entire kingdom from history. Edge of the Tengger Desert sits a retired train turned into a hotel—a place where you can check in to watch the sand, stars, and sunsets.

Old Bear and I, two Hongkongers, stepped right into this land with zero prior knowledge.

We walked into the Western Xia Imperial Tombs, standing before the yellow-earth tomb towers to feel the wind and sand from a millennium ago. We climbed the Helan Mountains, finding the Sun God carved into stone ten thousand years past. We stayed at the desert train hotel, taking in sunsets, fireworks, and starlight. We feasted on shouzhua mutton, Wuzhong morning tea, Chinese burgers, alongside nameless noodles and cold dishes—every bit of it fresh and novel.

This book is not a travel guide, a history textbook, or a photo album. It is simply what a middle-aged woman and her husband saw, felt, and remembered during eleven days in Ningxia.

Searching for nothing in particular, just recording things as they were.

If you too know nothing about a place yet are willing to step inside, this book might just make you feel that some places are truly worth seeing with your own eyes.

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