Yinchuan 银川Yínchuān

About Yinchuan

Yinchuan was capital of the Tangut Western Xia empire from 1038 until the Mongols took it in 1227, and the dynasty's royal tombs, the Western Xia Mausoleums, became a World Heritage Site in 2025. Lakes and wetlands thread the modern city, where the Pagoda of Chengtian Temple rises over the old centre. Short trips lead to the carved faces of the Rock Paintings of Helan Mountains, film sets in the forts of Zhenbeibu, wineries along the range and the Palaeolithic site of Shuidonggou.

What to eat in Yinchuan

• Helan Mountains East Foothill wine (贺兰山东麓葡萄酒)

Featured places in Yinchuan

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  Western Xia Mausoleums 西夏陵

  Earthen mounds of a vanished Tangut empire, beneath the Helan Mountains

  Best time: May–Jun, Sep–Oct · Time needed: Half a day · 4A scenic area · National heritage site · UNESCO World Heritage

Listed sites in Yinchuan

26 sites in Yinchuan are on the official lists. Those with a page of their own link to it; the rest open as cards on the map.

• Shuidonggou 水洞沟 5A scenic area · National heritage site
  One of the first Palaeolithic sites excavated in China: Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Émile Licent dug here in 1923, and later excavations recovered stone tools, hearths and ostrich-eggshell beads left by late Palaeolithic people.
• Zhenbeibu China West Film Studio 镇北堡西部影城 5A scenic area
  A film studio founded by the writer Zhang Xianliang in the ruins of two old frontier forts at Zhenbeibu, on the plain below the Helan Mountains.
• Bairuiyuan Goji Museum 百瑞源枸杞博物馆 4A scenic area · on the map
  A company museum run by the goji (wolfberry) producer Bairuiyuan, tracing what it presents as 4,000 years of goji culture and the modern Ningxia goji industry.
• Changyu Longyu Chateau (Moser XV) 张裕龙谕酒庄 4A scenic area · on the map
  Changyu's Ningxia wine estate, opened in 2013 as Chateau Changyu Moser XV, a joint venture with the Austrian winemaker Lenz Moser, and rebranded Longyu in 2021.
• COFCO Great Wall Tianfu Winery 中粮长城天赋酒庄 4A scenic area · on the map
  A winery of COFCO's Great Wall Wine brand, completed in 2012 on reclaimed desert land at the foot of the Helan Mountains, just across the road from the Western Xia tombs.
• Helan Mountain National Forest Park (Suyukou) 贺兰山国家森林公园 4A scenic area · on the map
  A forest park in the Suyukou valley of the Helan Mountains, inside the Helan Mountains national nature reserve north-west of Yinchuan.
• Hengcheng Yellow River Resort 黄河横城 4A scenic area · on the map
  A Yellow River-themed resort on the east bank opposite Yinchuan, built around Hengcheng, a Ming-dynasty fort on the riverbank where the Great Wall east of the river began, beside an old ferry crossing used by the Kangxi Emperor in 1697.
• Huangsha Ancient Ferry 黄沙古渡 4A scenic area · on the map
  A Yellow River leisure area on the east bank north-east of Yinchuan, named after an old ferry crossing and combining sand dunes, reed wetland and riverside farmland.
• Huaxia Hetu Yinchuan Art Town 华夏河图银川艺术小镇 4A scenic area · on the map
  An arts district on the west bank of the Yellow River south-east of Yinchuan, developed around the Museum of Contemporary Art Yinchuan (MOCA Yinchuan).
• Mingcui Lake National Wetland Park 鸣翠湖国家湿地公园 4A scenic area · on the map
  A national wetland park, approved in 2006 and covering 6.67 km², around a 2.88 km² freshwater lake that survives from an old chain of lakes east of Yinchuan and was restored from farmland from 2000 onwards.
• Ningxia Agri-Tourism Park 宁夏农旅产业园 4A scenic area · on the map
  A 2,170-mu (about 145 ha) agricultural park started in 2009 by the state-owned Ningxia Nongken group just outside Helan county town.
• Rock Paintings of Helan Mountains (Helankou) 贺兰山岩画 4A scenic area · National heritage site
  The Helankou gorge is the best-known site of the Helan Mountains petroglyphs, with some 6,000 images carved on boulders and cliff faces along the valley and generally dated to between about 10,000 and 3,000 years ago.
• Seeing Helan Performance Town (Manpu Town) 看见贺兰演艺小镇 4A scenic area · on the map
  A modern leisure town opened in 2016 across National Road 110 from the Zhenbeibu film studio, first built around a Helan Mountains wine theme and later relaunched as the 'Seeing Helan' immersive performance town.
• Tianshanhai World (Yellow River Pearl) 天山海世界·黄河明珠 4A scenic area · on the map
  An indoor water park in Binhe New Area on the east bank of the Yellow River, with heated pools and water slides kept warm all year.
• Western Xia Culture Park 西夏风情园 4A scenic area · on the map
  A Western Xia (Tangut) themed park at the foot of the Helan Mountains on Yinchuan's western edge, with new buildings in imitation Western Xia palace style set among lakes and gardens.
• Wofu Bairui Ningxia Goji Hall 沃福百瑞宁夏枸杞馆 4A scenic area · on the map
  A goji (wolfberry) exhibition hall opened in 2022 by the Ningxia producer Wofu Bairui in Yinchuan's Xixia District.
• Yellow River Military Culture Park 黄河军事文化博览园 4A scenic area · on the map
  A defence-themed park in Binhe New Area on the east bank of the Yellow River, opened in 2013 around the decommissioned destroyer Yinchuan, one of China's first-generation guided-missile destroyers, which served from 1976 to 2012.
• Yuehai Bay 阅海湾 4A scenic area · on the map
  A large lake and park area in Jinfeng District covering 1,739 ha, 922 ha of it water, made up of Yuehai National Wetland Park, a water park, Lanshan Park and the Flower Expo Garden.
• Yuquan International Winery 玉泉国际酒庄 4A scenic area · on the map
  A winery of the state-owned Ningxia Nongken group in the Yuquan wine village of Yongning County, set among vineyards, with buildings in Song-dynasty style decorated with classical wine poetry; it bills itself as China's first poetry-themed winery.
• Zhihui Yuanshi Winery 志辉源石酒庄 4A scenic area · on the map
  A winery in the Helan Mountains foothills built on an abandoned gravel quarry, restored with vineyards, shelter woods and underground cellars dug into the old pits.
• Haibao Pagoda 海宝塔 National heritage site
  Yinchuan's 'North Pagoda', a square brick tower on a high platform, about 54 m tall in total, whose stepped projections give it a twelve-cornered plan; it stands in Haibao Temple, the seat of the Ningxia Buddhist Association.
• Hongfo Pagoda 宏佛塔 National heritage site · on the map
  A late Western Xia brick pagoda (about 1190–1227) standing alone in the countryside of Helan County, with an unusual two-part form: a three-storey octagonal tower topped by a Tibetan-style stupa.
• Pagoda of Chengtian Temple 承天寺塔 National heritage site · on the map
  Yinchuan's 'West Pagoda', an eleven-storey octagonal brick pagoda 64.5 m high, the tallest in Ningxia.
• Twin Pagodas of Baisikou 拜寺口双塔 National heritage site
  Two Western Xia-period brick pagodas standing 100 m apart on a terrace at the mouth of the Baisikou gorge in the Helan Mountains, where more than a hundred temples once stood.
• Yongning Najiahu Mosque 纳家户清真寺 National heritage site · on the map
  A Hui mosque in Najiahu village, Yongning County, founded in 1524 by members of the Na clan, who trace their descent from the Yuan-dynasty statesman Sayyid Ajall Shams al-Din.
• Yuhuang Pavilion, Yinchuan 银川玉皇阁 National heritage site
  A Taoist pavilion complex on an 8 m brick-faced platform in the old centre of Yinchuan, rebuilt as a Jade Emperor temple after the earthquake of 1739 on the site of a drum tower first built in the Yongle era of the Ming.

On the map

Open Yinchuan on the illustrated map to see its outline, its places and listed sites together, and to add them to a trip.

Learn more

• Wikipedia
• Official website
• Wikipedia (Chinese)