Silk Road Photo Gallery - Yinchuan City Sights

Yinchuan was once the capital of the Western Xia dynasty, an empire ruled by the Tangut tribe from the 11th-13th century. After being obliterated by the Mongols, the area came under Chinese rule and became part of the Silk Road route.

Today, Yinchuan is the capital of the Ningxia Autonomous Region. It is a well-planned city with grid blocks, wide avenues, surprisingly few traffic jams, and a lot of greenery. Life is quite laid back here, and locals are incredibly friendly.

This part of China has a large Hui (Muslim) community, accounting for about a third of the population.

With a heavy Muslim influence, lamb features heavily on local menus, and it's easy to find lamb skewers at the night market. The more expensive ones on thicker sticks had substantially more meat and tasted far better than the skinny and cheaper skewers.

Eating in a proper restaurant setting is also quite cheap, with local cuisine bearing strong spicy and oily tones, and this applies even to vegetable dishes, although leafy greens are rare. The only major exception was the sliced lamb.

Yinchuan itself doesn't have that many interesting attractions. I came to explore the surrounding mountains, desert, and historic relics from the Western Xia period. Ningxia in general is a more off-the-beaten-track exotic destination.

Within the city, there are malls but they were fairly empty. Even this photogenic bookstore wasn't particularly busy, although this concept has been executed in a number of Asian cities already.

Even along the main pedestrian shopping street, it wasn't too crowded either.