8.22 Summer vacation in Ningxia was tough but we're back, totally different from what I told on xhs

🌈Some practical tips
✅Friends planning to check out Highway 66, please note that due to heavy rain, this section is currently closed for emergency repairs, no traffic allowed in both directions, reopening time is uncertain, don’t go there for now! (We went and got stuck😭😭)
✅At Star Hotel, a teacher 👩‍🏫 takes us outside at night for stargazing, surrounded by sand dunes, the stars are very clear
✅The desert is dry and sunny, prepared a big water bottle with a straw cup for the kids to avoid sand getting into the cup
✅Be sure to bring sunglasses, not only to block UV rays but also to keep sand out of your eyes, the desert wind easily irritates eyes~
✅Regarding clothing, it’s recommended to bring both short sleeves and warm clothes. The daytime temperature is comfortable for short sleeves, but nights are cooler than the city and windy. If it rains, it will be even colder, so definitely prepare warm clothes, preferably a windbreaker
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Here’s my 6 days 5 nights no-fail guide summary
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D1: Check-in hotel - Huaiyuan Night Market
✨The hotel environment and service are great, and there’s a hand-drawn welcome card on check-in 🥳
✅Food recommendations: Ningxia Tan sheep kebabs, Fan Fang Su Xiao Meng beef patties (this place has huge queues), Yang Dana mashed potatoes with noodles
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D2: Shuidonggou - Inner Mongolia Mongolian Family Farm - Tibetan Soldier Cave
✨At Shuidonggou you can try several transport modes: dune buggy, camel riding 🐫, horse-drawn carriage, boat 🛶, and a tractor-converted mini train 🚂
✨Lunch is a special meal at a Mongolian family farm
✨Tibetan Soldier Cave is a secret passage built in the Ming Dynasty, with a guide explaining the whole way, very immersive experience~
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D3: Western Xia Imperial Tombs - Manpu Town
✨In the morning, we visited the Western Xia Museum, the kids listened attentively to the lecturer.
✨Manpu Town offers immersive performances, featuring Western region dancers, traveling monks, sword-bearing guards, and acrobats doing fire breathing 🔥 and sword swallowing...
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D4: Hui Family Visit - Star Hotel
✨In the morning, we visited a local family, kids learned to make Northwestern Chinese fried dough twists with an old craftsman.
✨We stayed in a standalone wooden cabin at Star Hotel, just open the door to play in the sand, the hotel provides lots of sand toys and an outdoor swimming pool. The self-service hot pot is also delicious 🥰~
✨Star Hotel offers full-day activities with many options, you can choose two or three to join: desert adventure, sand therapy, yoga, tree ring wood painting, astronaut suit experience, and more~
✨At night there’s stargazing 👀, with a guide helping find Jupiter, Venus, Orion, and the Big Dipper, a fun learning experience for kids 👍
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D5: Shapotou - Yellow River Hostel
✨At Shapotou, we played with sheepskin rafts, rode camels, dune buggies, and sand sledding... the kids had a blast!
✨Took a Yellow River speedboat to check in at Yellow River Hostel, a quiet guesthouse not open to the public, feels like vacationing in Morocco ⛱️
✨You can take kids to the farm to milk sheep 🐑, pet lambs, do pottery on ceramic plates, collect eggs, all very fun 😁
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D6: Yellow River Ancient Great Wall - Return trip
✨On the last day, we visited the ancient Great Wall with a panoramic view of the magnificent Yellow River
✨Then it was time to head back home!