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By taking advantage of the May Day holiday and requesting two extra days off, I put together a seven-day mini-vacation. I went on a self-driving trip to the west to “see desert landscapes, explore fantasy canyons, and admire Yardang wonders.” Over seven days and more than 2,700 kilometers, our wheels carried us from Beijing through Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Shaanxi, and other provinces and regions, traveling through deserts, wastelands, seas of sand, canyons, plateaus, and mountains. In addition to the planned sights, we also experienced many unexpected delights. The following are some scenes recorded during the trip, shared with friends who followed this journey, as well as a token of thanks to those who supported it...
Vast Western Regions
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Yin Mountains and Agui Temple
Yin Mountains Rock Paintings
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Scenery of the Yin Mountains
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Tamarisk (what you see now are tamarisk flowers; tamarisks flower before they sprout leaves)
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Agui Temple
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Black-winged Stilt
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RenGen Peak Wonder
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Sand Advances, Humans Retreat
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A lonely existence on the desert and barren slope, surrounded by no one. Unable to understand what it is, I could only imagine on my own—was it a graveyard or something else?
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Fantasy Canyon – Aolunbulage
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Mother Gate Cave
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Divine Water Cave
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Sea of Sand – Badain Jaran Desert
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When I took the photo, it happily lifted its tail
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Exploring the Salt Lake
Wurdiyin Nur
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Salt Pans Green as Jade
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Jilantai Lake
(According to the salt field manager, the salt produced here supplies Beijing. The salt we eat is the Jilantai Lake salt after washing and packaging. The photo below shows the boat transporting salt)
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Salt grows out of the ground
(After nearly a year of settling in the channels, salt crystals precipitate under the water surface. Salt miners wear long boots and scoop up the salt with strainers. The white, glistening salt piled by the water’s edge is as coarse as the pickling salt we use)
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Black-winged Stilt
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Mu Us Desert
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Oasis in the Desert (after driving all day, we finally saw some shade)
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Pearl of the Sea of Sand
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Saline-Alkaline Land in Northern Shaanxi
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The Charm of the Loess Plateau
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The gullies and ravines on the plateau bear witness to the hard life of the people in northern Shaanxi, reflecting their resilient character.
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Jian'an Ancient Fortress
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A natural barrier of the Loess Plateau
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Yulin Ancient City
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Zhenbeitai (the Northern Town Platform)
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Hongshixia (Red Stone Gorge)
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Shaanbei Paper-cutting
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The Shimao Archaeological Excavation Site (a 4,600-year-old ancient city ruins) — Two sets of human skulls, each consisting of 24, were unearthed beneath the city wall. All were from young females, and experts preliminarily determined they were buried for sacrificial purposes. More mysteries await further excavation and research.
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The Land of Shanxi and the Yellow River
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The Loess Plateau as a Stage (As big as your heart, so big is the stage)
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Yingxian Wooden Pagoda
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Sanggan River Canyon — Xiangguang Cave
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