Into the desert

Living in Ningxia province evidence of the desert is ever present in the frequent sand storms, the distinct lack of rain, and the dust that settles everywhere. And yet, living in the capital city we never actually see the desert. After almost a year of living in Yinchuan we decided to change this and made a day trip out to the Shapotou (SHA-POO-TOE) scenic area. Shapotou 沙坡头 is an area of desert about two and a half hours outside of Yinchuan that has been transformed into a tourist hot spot. It's sold as one of the 5 most beautiful deserts in China and it has the added draw of camels, zip lines across the Yellow River, sand surfing and much much more.

The day we set off started out looking a bit grey and overcast, but as we approached the true desert this didn't really matter because it turns out that the desert has it's own roasting hot climate outside of the rest of the world. The first thing we attempted was scaling a giant dune, so that we could start the days adventures, but climbing - or rather scrambling- up a near vertical dune is harder than it looks and by the time we reached the top we were all sweaty and had shoes full of sand.
Shoes full of sand would become a reoccurring theme throughout the day.

In the end I was the only one to do the zip line due to almost laughably strict guidelines. Waiting in line while a worker explained safety instructions in rapid Chinese was slightly daunting but I think I made the right choice when they asked the inevitable "ni ting de dong zhong wen ma?" and I confidently replied that yes, I could understand some Chinese. Next thing I knew I was harnessed up, arms strapped to a bar above my head, and being pushed into nothingness to sail across the Yellow River. The first time across I think I was too surprised to take much note of my surroundings, but on the journey back across the river I managed to peer at my surroundings and pose for a photo as I sailed back onto solid land!

Much wandering across dunes and posing for photos later we found our way to the second section of desert where the real fun began. We took a camel ride across miles and miles of dunes stretching as far as the eye could see until we got to what is best described as the desert vehicle area. Here you could rent a variety of different vehicles, from dune buggies to banana boat-esque trucks, to zoom across the open desert in. But despite all the choice there was only one thing that we were ever going to choose.

The tank.

It's not everyday that you get the opportunity to cruise across sand dunes in a legit tank, and my god I would say it was worth it!
I don't think that many people take the tank out because when we got in the tank we were accompanied by 5 other men in army gear who were just as excited as we were. Before we got going we were told to strap in, hold on to our bags, and wear a hat because the sand flies everywhere and would get in our hair and eyes. Alas! I had no hat! I jokingly said to the tank-driver "well, you can give me your hat!" and he just laughed but almost on cue another of the men gave me his hat, a decision I think he sorely regretted later.

Driving in the tank was crazy, because of its size getting over dunes was like being on a roller coaster, steep inclines and sudden sharp drops that made as all squeal and whoop. And let's not ignore that driving around in a tank makes you feel like a complete boss. That time in the tank was definitely money well spent!

Overall Shapotou is such a fun place to go for a day trip, and being in the open desert with nothing around except tanks and camels was an amazing experience. Would I go back to Shapotou any time soon? Probably not. But would I go into the desert and ride around on a camel like Lawrence of Arabia? Hell yes.




Getting to Shapotou 沙坡头 from Yinchuan 银川

• We took a direct bus from the new Yinchuan bus station (Xin Qi Che Zhan 新汽车站) to ShaPoTou 沙坡头. Tickets cost 53元 (approx £5.30)
• The journey takes about 3 hours with a 20 minute stop in ZhongWei 中卫
• Entry into Shapotou costs 100元 and each activity costs extra