Ningxia Zhongwei Travel Guide｜Best One-Day Tour Route

📍The attractions in Zhongwei are relatively far from the city center, so the best transportation options are self-driving or chartering a car, which is cost-effective and not expensive.

💰Chartering a car costs 300/day. We found a taxi 🚕 driver online in advance. The yellow car is very bright and photogenic, and you can customize the route.

🚖 One-day tour route:
Zhongwei City - Yellow River Hostel - Ming Great Wall - Route 66 - Beichangtan - Tengger Desert

Depart from the city hotel at 8:30 and end the trip at 17:30. If you want to watch the sunset in the desert, you can wait for another hour.

📸 For travel photography purposes, the highlights of the entire route are Route 66 and the desert. The Yellow River Hostel and the Ming Great Wall are connected, so you can go and take pictures in the morning when there are fewer people.

1️⃣ Yellow River Hostel
Homestays + small shops, mainly in brick and earth yellow tones. If you go early in the morning, they are not yet open and deserted. It might be more popular in the afternoon 🧋.

2️⃣ Ming Great Wall
It's not difficult to climb up, taking about ten minutes. The bricks of the wall are colored, which is a bit unique. Actually, the Yellow River scenery next to the Ming Great Wall is more worth seeing.

3️⃣ Route 66
No entrance fee for the attraction. During the peak season, the roadside is crowded with parked vehicles and people. In March, it is the off-season. Arriving at 11:30 in the morning, it is not hot or sunny, and the wind is not too strong. There are fewer than 5 parked cars, and the traffic is very light, making it feel like you own the entire Route 66, which is great for taking photos.
‼️ Discovered a hidden photo spot near the Yellow River by the reeds, connecting to Beichangtan. If you charter a car, the driver will definitely know. If you have enough time, you can check it out.

4️⃣ Tengger Desert
No entrance fee for the desert, but you need to buy a package for the activities. We chose a package: desert motorbike + camel riding + dune buggy + sand sliding. Sand sliding was the favorite, going up and down several times. For safety reasons, the activities are not very thrilling.

Started taking photos in the desert at 4 pm. The entire desert was empty, giving a wonderful off-season exclusive feel. You can easily find photo spots without any footprints 😯.

🍜 Zhongwei Cuisine
✅ Osmanthus Handmade Noodles
Flat bean noodles/Artemisia noodles. The portions are large and well-seasoned. The braised tofu is a local classic snack and is indeed good. The meatballs are similar to lion's head meatballs.
✅ Zhongwei Mall Food Street
🔶Chen Daqiang Stir-Fried Tripe. The pickled cabbage and beef tripe are really YYDS (forever the best). It looks very appetizing and the portions are huge.
🔶Spicy Hotpot. The pot base is very red but not spicy at all. Surprisingly, the rice crust tastes good after being dipped in the soup.
🔶Eight Treasures Tea. Highly recommended, it was amazingly delicious. Bought a lot of tea bags to take home before leaving.