Getting Out of the Bubble

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...

SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM FOR MORE PICTURES Team building, two words that can strike dread into the heart of any employee. When we were told that the school was taking the entire staff on a trip to TaiBai Mountain there were mixed feelings; on one hand free holiday, on the other hand organised fun. The few days that followed were a mix of mayhem, literal uphill struggles and incredible views. "Yesterday was the source, today is the flow" - 宝鸡 Bronze Ware Museum wisdom At 5am on a Tuesday morning we arrived at our destination BaoJi 宝鸡，a city a few kilometres outside of Xi'an in Shaanxi province. Our itinerary for the trip was made up of hiking a mountain, seeing a temple, and visiting a bronze ware museum; but straight off the train we were herded onto a bus to be lectured in Chinese, without translation (something that would become increasingly annoying throughout the trip) and driven straight to the main attraction TaiBai Mountain 太白山. You might imagine that ...