Ningxia (宁夏) · 4 places · 4 cities
4 places in Ningxia, grouped by city. Under each one are two figures from the survey: how much daily life still goes on there, out of 100, and how far it has been turned over to visitors, out of 6.
Most common here: Old quarter of a city (2), Historic street (1), Walled city (1). See all provinces, or the background on old towns.
1 place
Guyuan (固原)
| Place | Kind | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| Guyuan Old Town (固原老城)A 2,000-year-old Silk Road fortress at the gateway to the Loess Plateau, home to the 1,500-year-old Sumeru Grottoes (one of China’s top ten Buddhist grottoes), a 1,000-year-old Confucian academy, and Hui Muslim locals eating hand-pulled noodles in the old bazaar.Lived-in 72/100 · Commercialised 1/6 · rarely visited from abroad · some effort to reach | Walled city | Lived-in, quiet |
1 place
Wuzhong (吴忠)
| Place | Kind | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| Wuzhong Morning Tea Hui District (吴忠早茶回族街区)A little-visited food city, a Hui Muslim town where 793 morning tea shops generate 1.5 billion RMB annually. Every morning, Hui men sit for 2+ hours drinking eight-treasure tea, eating hand-pulled noodles and steamed buns, and discussing business. There is no tourist infrastructure here at all, and almost no foreign visitors know it exists.Lived-in 82/100 · Commercialised 2/6 · rarely visited from abroad · easy to reach | Old quarter of a city | Lived-in, quiet |
1 place
Yinchuan (银川)
| Place | Kind | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| Najiahu Village (银川纳家户)The ancestral home of the Hui Muslim Na family, a 700-year-old village with the Najiahu mosque of 1524, where 3,000 Hui residents still live in traditional courtyard homes and practice the ancient Na family tradition of Qur’an recitation.Lived-in 76/100 · Commercialised 2/6 · rarely visited from abroad · easy to reach | Old quarter of a city | Lived-in, quiet |
1 place
Zhongwei (中卫)
| Place | Kind | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| Zhongwei Drum Tower & Gaomiao South Street (中卫鼓楼·高庙南街)A 600-year-old Yellow River oasis city with a dramatic “Confucian-Buddhist-Taoist” temple complex (Gaomiao, 1423) built on a 10m-high platform, a Qing dynasty drum tower at the city center, and locals eating Zhongwei hand-pulled noodles at dawn.Lived-in 72/100 · Commercialised 2/6 · rarely visited from abroad · easy to reach | Historic street | Lived-in, quiet |
Which of These Is Still a Town
The two scores narrow the list, and the last step is local: which lanes are worth the walk, which day of the week the place is itself, and where to stay inside the walls. Tell our local team the provinces you will be in and they will say which of these hold up.