My Trip to Ningxia - The Yellow River's Friendly Land Last summer, my family and I went on a really cool trip to Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in northwest China. Ningxia is famous for being home to a large population of Hui people, who are Chinese Muslims. My dad says Ningxia has been developing really fast in recent years, so he wanted us to go see all the exciting new things happening there.
Our first stop was the capital city of Yinchuan. I was amazed at how modern and clean Yinchuan looked. The skyscrapers glittered in the sun and there were wide boulevards lined with trees and gardens. We visited the Western Xia Imperial Tombs Museum which had underground tombs of former rulers that you could explore. It was like stepping back in time!
Then we went to the Nanguan Mosque which is one of the largest mosques in China. The architecture blended Arabic and Chinese styles so beautifully. I loved the colorful domed roofs and intricate carvings. We even got to try on traditional Hui clothing and hats at the mosque's cultural exhibition center. The next day, we drove out to Shuidonggou, which means \"Water Valleys Village.\" This little village in the desert is famous
for its underground water channels and homes built right into the yellow rock cliffs. Our guide told us the system of underground water canals allowed people to live in the dry desert for hundreds of years. We hiked along the canals and I got to crawl through some tiny tunnels - it was like being an explorer!
We also visited workshops where they made crafts like pottery, embroidery, and woven carpets using methods passed down for generations. I bought a little ceramic horse statue to remember the trip.
After Shuidonggou, we went to Zhongwei which is known as the \"Grape City\" because of its huge vineyards. We took a tour of one of the wineries and I even got to try a little sip of non-alcoholic grape juice made from their grapes. It was so sweet and delicious! We bought bottles of juice and raisins to take home.
My favorite part was probably the Tengger Desert. We went on a thrilling off-road dune buggy ride over the huge golden sand dunes. The dunes looked like frozen waves in an ocean of sand. At one point, we all got to go sandboarding down the slopes of a massive dune. Sliding down that mountain of sand at top speed was a total adrenaline rush!
After playing in the desert, we visited some factories that made solar panels and windmills. Ningxia gets a ton of sunshine and wind, so it has become a major production base for renewable energy equipment. We even got to tour a huge wind farm with rows and rows of enormous windmills gently spinning in the breeze. It was awesome to see how Ningxia was going green.
On our last day, we stopped at a cultural village where people from different ethnic minorities showed off their traditional arts, dances, cuisine, and more. We watched dancers in bright costumes perform with swords and ribbons. I tried on heavy silver Hui jewelry and learned about their culture. For lunch, we had delicious hand-pulled noodle dishes and lamb skewers.
Ningxia blew me away with its amazing mix of ancient heritage sites, beautiful desert scenery, cutting-edge renewable energy, and rich ethnic cultures all living side-by-side. I had such an awesome time learning about this fascinating region. I came home with so many great memories and a deeper appreciation for the diversity of my home country China. I'm already bugging my parents to take me back to Ningxia's friendly yellow lands soon!
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