Walking in the Lost Border Desert—Ningxia Ancient Great Wall Hiking Notes

Ningxia is China’s Great Wall Museum. Relics of the Great Wall from various dynasties and generations with different technical styles can be found in its territory. However, due to lack of attention and protection, it is suffering from both natural and man-made damage. Because of this, this hike was created.

The first stage lasts 4 days: starting from Shikong Town, Zhongning City, passing through the starting point of the Ming Great Wall (Lanzhou Military Region No. 122 boundary monument), Lugou Lake, four-eye wells, artillery posts, sand quarries, The total length of the wind farm from Yinchuan Sanguan Pass is about 120 kilometers.

The second stage is 5 days: After crossing the Yellow River from Yinchuan, passing through Hongshan Fort, Qingshuiying, Maobu City, Xingwuying, Andingbutai, and Hongcheng, a total of 7 buildings Barracks and finally arrived at Salt Pond. The total length is about 140 kilometers. Qingshui Camp and Xingwu Camp are the two most famous camps on this section of the Great Wall (also known as the "Hedong Wall").

I was completely ignorant when I went to Zhongning to hike the Great Wall, but I discovered an unknown section of the Great Wall.

The train arrived at Zhongning at 12:30 the night before, and I unexpectedly learned that Zhongning Railway Station was the original planned hiking starting point - Shikong Town. Early the next morning, I left the small hotel at the train station and inquired about the location of the Great Wall. 5 of the 10 people I asked did not know, and the remaining 5 said they had "heard of it". Only 2 of them could give more details, but they didn't know. Been there.

Go north, cross the river and railway, climb up the large slope and look to the northeast, basically walking along a high-voltage power line. After passing the substation, there will be no one. At this time, just rely on your eyes. As you walk, you will find a beacon tower!

I approached slowly, and when I was sure it was a beacon tower, I shouted "Oh, yes" excitedly. It feels great to be alone in the Gobi! Climbing up the stone beacon tower, it took about 2.5 hours from departure to finding the first beacon tower, which is not too bad.

After walking for 2 hours, the Great Wall of China gradually disappeared. There are many holes along the way, perhaps the homes of hares. . .

In the afternoon, the second and third beacon towers appeared one after another on the distant mountains. I thought that they should not be from the same dynasty, otherwise they would not be so far apart, so I decided to follow the principle of "try to get as close as possible to what you see." The principle of beacon towers and flat ground. After walking hard for more than 4 hours, I finally saw the high loess wall! ! ! Lanzhou Military Region Site Boundary Monument No. 122: The Great Wall should have walked out of the previous mountain range from here, and stretched out to the vast plain ahead! (A few days later, I saw a very clear mark on the map of Ningxia I bought: the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty started about 25 kilometers northeast of Shikong Town and extended north to Sanguankou.)

Finally found it The Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty went more smoothly than expected. I was overjoyed when I thought that the route along the Great Wall should be clear next time. Regardless of the fact that there are more than 100 kilometers of Gobi desert ahead of me, there is a flat land at the foot of the Great Wall in front of me, and the grass seems to be a little green. Decided to set up camp!

The Great Wall flows through the mountains and rivers! (The Great Wall - Spirit across Mountains and Rivers)

Nine days of hiking on the Great Wall is not too long, but on the vast Gobi desert, along an incomplete earth wall, the endless Walking, this feeling will stay in my heart for a long time.

The length of the Great Wall should not be recorded by cameras, but by satellites.

There are times when you are tired from walking on the road, but think about it, the ancients built the Great Wall brick by brick, and now they just want you to walk, so what is there to be tired about?

If there is anything that small humans can compete with nature, it is the Great Wall. An earthquake can destroy a city, but it cannot knock down a city wall that is thousands of miles long.

The Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty was mostly made of loess in Ningxia, extending in the semi-desert and semi-Gobi land, accompanied by cockleburs, geckos, and graves along the way.

The endless charm of the Great Wall of Loess cannot be fully described in words. Although walking for a long time makes seeing the Great Wall a little numb, every time I stop and stare at the loess city wall, the weight of history arises spontaneously.

This section of the Great Wall has been built very sharply. Along the steep mountains, it seems that the principle is "build wherever it is difficult to walk". It is not ambiguous at all. Walking on the Great Wall seems to feel the "temperament of a tyrant" ". . . But I don’t know if the Great Wall was really built by Qin Shihuang.

This is the place where I first saw people on the second day of hiking. There is a lonely white house in the desolate Gobi. As I approached, a ferocious dog barked wildly, and I yelled several times on the slope: "Is there anyone there?". . . A head popped out from the ladder and motioned for me to get down.

When I entered the room, my first words were: "I'm here to walk the Great Wall." . . The young man just said "hmm" softly, and I thought to myself: "He is a man who has seen the world!". . .

After a brief conversation, I was shocked: this young man is 31 years old and has been waiting here 24/7 for six years. Six years? ! I can't imagine what it must be like to be alone in a room with no one around for more than ten kilometers!

Nearby is an artillery unit of the Lanzhou Military Region, which regularly delivers water and food. There is a mobile phone signal in the room, wind power is used to generate electricity, a TV, a radio, in addition to a stove and a kang head.

Everyone who walks the Great Wall must pass by his door, about 5-6 of them every year, and I am the first one this year.

Asking "Are you lonely?" This question no longer made any sense, so I stopped and chatted with him for 3 hours. I also borrowed a pair of giant shearing scissors and cut off the fingernails on my right hand.

Before leaving, I filled all the water bottles and ate a bowl of fried rice with shredded potatoes that were a little burnt. grateful!

The Lugou Lake ruins are located in Guangwu Township, Qingtongxia City. When you pass by while hiking the Great Wall, you will see a cultural relic monument.

Internet research: In the autumn of 1991, the Qingtongxia Municipal Cultural Administration Office discovered a Neolithic cultural site in Lugou Lake, with a total area of ??30,000 square meters, and most of the cultural layer was exposed on the ground. A large number of Neolithic cultural accumulations were discovered, and many pottery shards and stone tools were collected, including stone axes, stone mortars, scrapers, pointed hammers, etc. These stone tools have obvious signs of use. The pottery shards are Jiansha pottery with solid and fine texture and geometric patterns. They belong to pots, bowls and other utensils. According to research, these pottery pieces and stone tools belong to the Neolithic Age, also known as "microlithic culture."

Dizzy! If I had known this, I should have looked carefully at the ground and picked up a piece of pottery, but I just walked by in a daze. It seems that I still need to do more strategies before traveling in the future.

I also learned later that there were rock paintings in the four wells behind Lugou Lake, but I didn’t notice it at the time. . .

The vicissitudes of the beacon tower, like an old man, recounting a century of history.

We walked to the sand quarry at around 4 o'clock in the afternoon. This is the largest gap along the Great Wall. The entire mountain was dug out. A small road leads to a small town in Alxa to the west, and to the east is said to be Qingtong Gorge. TRAIN STATION.

When I walked to the road, the driver of a truck saw me and took the initiative to stop and ask me for a lift. I politely declined and thanked him for his kindness!

We walked to the private house where the sand mining workers lived, had a brief communication, and then went inside to charge the camera. It took me more than 2 hours to charge. It was almost dark when I finished charging, so the simple sand digger stayed with me.

The first time I saw a sand digger, I was deeply impressed: his face was covered with dust, so black that his eyeballs looked white and bright - just like those who just came out of the coal mine in those photos. Coal miners!

At night, the workers chatted inside the house. I couldn’t quite understand their conversation. I could only tell that they were talking and laughing. Their lives seemed to be worry-free, simple and happy. . .

It was freezing cold outside, and firewood was burning inside to keep warm. When the heat hit me, I stretched my shirtless and took off my clothes. I felt a sense of heroism and felt that I was much closer to everyone. . . Four or five people slept peacefully in the warm room.

In the early morning, I got up together with the sand diggers. I continued on my way while they started their day's work. These workers come from surrounding villages and call themselves "come here to work." They work at sunrise and rest at sunset. They are truly lovely people.

After walking away, I looked back at the red brick house where I stayed for the night, and felt silently grateful.

On the third day of travel, I finally encountered good weather, loess, blue sky, white clouds, the Great Wall and me hiking.

Between heaven and earth, all living things seem to be like a drop in the ocean, and only the Great Wall is by my side.

At noon, the sun became brighter and brighter, and white clouds floated under the blue sky, illuminating the earth with light and shadow intertwining. The magnificent scenery made people excited.

Passing by the Helan Mountain Wind Farm in the afternoon, the wind was so strong that it was crazy! ! ! In just a few kilometers, I stopped three times. I couldn't stand it anymore. I yelled in the strong wind while walking. The wind directly damaged my knees during this period. It also made people understand that besides heavy rain and extreme cold, the wind is getting stronger. It is also very unbearable.

The ancient Great Wall and modern civilization seem to exist in harmony. However, the wind power that serves mankind has been eroding the Great Wall for thousands of years, fearing that the soul of ancient civilization and history will one day turn into sand and disappear in a gust of wind.

Since I was still a little impatient, I passed the wind farm and walked for several kilometers until sunset.

We set up camp and chose a relatively wind-proof place to avoid being blown away by the strong wind in the middle of the night. There were only rocks and soil on the ground. . . The wind started to blow as soon as it got dark, and the whistling sound never stopped for a moment. . . The wind suddenly turned violent late at night. Considering the harsh natural environment, it was a good idea to test the equipment. . .

The strong wind blew yellow sand all over the sky. There was no inner tent in my tent, and the dust flew sideways in the tent! I couldn't care about that much, so I just hid under the quilt and fell asleep.

I got up to check it out the next day. After testing, the short ridge tunnel tent I DIYed this time should have little problem with winds of level 6 or 7 after pulling up the wind rope.

When I woke up in the morning, I found that the quilt was covered with a thick layer of loess. Embarrassing! The 4 bottles of water we carried were also freezing: the temperature last night was estimated to be minus 6 or 7 degrees Celsius. . .

Windy sand, severe cold + dry climate, should be considered a relatively extreme environment. After this night, I have a better understanding of the need for equipment.

A night of strong winds gave way to clear skies.

The sky is blue, and the blue sky will kill people without paying for their lives. . .

A real frontier fortress family. On the desolate land, people are surviving tenaciously, or they are guarding the Great Wall from generation to generation. Suddenly I remembered: The desert is solitary and the smoke is straight, the sun is setting over the long river.

We arrived at Sanguankou at around 2pm, a place we had been to 2 years ago. Two years ago, I secretly made up my mind to walk the Great Wall here in the future. This time, I have fulfilled my long-cherished wish and I feel satisfied. Looking back at the winding Great Wall that I walked through in 4 days, the moment I arrived at the third pass, all the hard work disappeared and I was filled with contentment.

I took a bus to the "Central Area" at Yinchuan Tourist Bus Station. After crossing the Yellow River, I got off the bus and saw a "Yinchuan-Taole" minibus on the roadside. This bus passed by Hengchuan Bus Station. city. Walking into the Great Wall again, my whole body quickly changed back to my "native" appearance.

We set off at noon and arrived at Shuidonggou at around 5 pm. The weather was very cloudy and I didn’t want to leave. I had the idea to set up a tent in the tourist public toilet in Shuidonggou for the night. The environment was not bad, so I could pee and pee. You don’t even have to leave the house to get water~~ Hehe. . . It's a pity that I don't have any photos.

Visited Hongshan Fort. Since it belongs to the Shuidonggou Scenic Area, a new temple was built in the fort. The Cangbing Cave asked for money and I didn’t go. The picture shows the Wengcheng gate of Hongshan Fort. It looks like it has been renovated.

When walking at a high place, you can see the Mu Us Sandy Land in the northeast, an endless expanse of terrifying sand!

Starting from Hongshan Fort, we continued walking. It rained a little in the Gobi Desert in the morning. Although there were no photos to take, it was conducive to hiking. On the way, I took a ride to Manghatu and bought 10 steamed buns, then crossed to the Great Wall and continued towards Qingshuiying. We arrived at Qingshui Camp just after 4 p.m. There were only a few stone pillars around the camp with "Cultural Relics" written on them, and there was no protection. The entire Qingshui Camp ruins were well preserved, but I don't know how long this situation can last.

The city gate is lower than the ground. This is due to the collapse of the soil on the city wall, forming a slope.

Walking into the empty camp, imagine soldiers practicing martial arts on this land hundreds of years ago. The era of fighting and iron horses has long passed. What remains unchanged is the desolate wind blowing the grass on the ground. , broken pottery pieces and a few bones were scattered all over the ground, and there was silence all around. . . In the evening, I pitched my tent in the Wengcheng of Qingshui Camp and spent the night with the ancient soldiers underground.

A few hours after Qingshui Camp, the Great Wall split into 2 sections and moved forward together! These are the "first edge" and the "second edge".

When we got up on the third day, there were two small camps ahead of the Qingshui Camp. The scenes left over from the filming of "The Tomb" were set up in them (cultural relics were destroyed just to make a movie). In fact, the tents were set up yesterday. It’s not bad here either, with the cover of the studio and water at the door. But this water source looks a bit scary: the ground on both sides of the stream is covered with white flowers, and the water is salty.

The Great Wall is like a giant dragon.

Passing by a small temple, there were many bottles of Erguotou placed in the temple. I was short of water but not fuel, so I just took pictures as a souvenir. The Guanyin in the temple was moved to the open air, and in the distance is the corner of the camp wall of Maobu City.

You can’t cross Maobu City (far in the picture). . .

The name of the place here is Gaoshawo. As the name suggests, the further you walk, the more sand there is on the ground. When I was walking downcast, I looked up and suddenly saw a vague red brick bungalow in the distance in the yellow sand. I remembered that such a scene could only be seen in "New Longmen Inn". Are there people living in such a place? I can't believe my eyes! Maybe. . . They are probably the descendants of the soldiers who guarded the Great Wall. They have never left their own land for generations. . .

At 6:30 pm, I walked to a house and asked for water. The owner invited me into the room. The tiled floor inside was clean and completely different from the harsh sand and dust outside. This is a family of three generations. The grandparents are the heads of the family, the son works in other places, and the daughter-in-law takes care of the grandson.

Despite repeated pushback, a large bowl of individually cooked noodles was handed to me. At night, I slept on a double king-sized kang bed and covered myself with a thick home-made wool quilt. I found that wool regulates temperature better than down, which is so luxurious. . . Grandpa, who is the head of the family, sleeps in a separate room, but I sleep with him as a guest, which shows how good hospitality is!

"The Great Wall Beacon Tower and Trees". . . Grandpa looked at the photo and said, "This is the tree in our house." . .

The next morning, there was a large pot of fried shredded potatoes, some fluffy white rice mixed with some yellow rice, and it was freshly made. Two large bowls of rice were eaten, and the throat was full. . .

For all of this, besides being grateful, I am grateful! ! !

On the morning of the fourth day, I waved goodbye to the enthusiastic border people and soon arrived at Xingwu Camp, where farmers were cultivating land. Xingwuying is the main camp, with two gates in the west and south, both of which have collapsed. The picture shows the collapsed west gate of Xingwuying.

The next camp is Andingbutai.

It is a pity that the Great Wall is almost buried by yellow sand in some sections. . .

What’s more, some large piers were hollowed out, with rooms and storage rooms inside. According to my inference, it should be that in the poor years, people had no place to live, so they hollowed out the Great Wall to make homes. .

On the fourth night, we camped near a village, which caused some alarm among the villagers.

On the fifth day, the weather was fine and we were on our way. After passing Andingbutai, the Great Wall turns south here.

Continue walking south along the Great Wall. We saw the highway at noon. After that, the Great Wall walked along the highway, passing the Red City on the way. There were slogans protecting the Great Wall on the city wall.

Get on the road, take a ride, and pay attention to the last section of the Great Wall - 10 kilometers in the car! We drove to Yanchi and ended our walking tour of the Ningxia section of the Ming Great Wall.

-End-

psnake@ Cool Action Number: psnake

Hiking enthusiasts especially like solo hiking. A DIY maniac with ultra-light equipment, he sews backpacks, tents, and clothes by himself. I like to write travel notes, and my writing style is simple, concise and unpretentious.