The next morning I met up with a taxi driver who I'd previously arranged to drive me around some of the more remote sights near Yinchuan. She was very friendly and even brought her young son along who had some homemade baozi for me. First up were the ruins of the Western Xia tombs, the mausoleums of the rulers of this kingdom which controlled quite a large area here about 1000-800 years ago. One of these tombs has been turned into a tourist attraction with a decent museum, and this is where we went.
What's left these days are the earthen remains of the main pagoda-like structure and the surrounding enclosure walls, gates and guard towers. I was really looking forward to seeing these tombs, but the actual tomb on show was a bit disappointing I found. There were no information boards to tell you what was what and the whole site looked a bit dug up and neglected. I knew though that this was just one of many such tombs dotted about the plain here and what I really wanted to do was explore these too. So, I told my driver that I wanted to go for a walk, gave her my number just in case and set off along a little path towards a gap in the bushes surrounding the sight. I followed a little road for a while and soon saw in the distance two more of these conical tombs right next to each other.
Great, I thought, and set off towards them. It was a whole hour before I eventually reached them. With the land being so flat and not personally having much in the way of depth perception, they really hadn't looked so far when I set out. I really wanted to see them though so had pressed on long after I should have turned back. Besides, I was the one paying for the taxi, so I'll go where I like! Even with this in mind though, I knew I had to catch a train later
and make it to a few more sights that day so spent as little time at the tombs as I could spare. The emptiness of the area around these sites made it all seem quite bleak and desolate. I couldn't quite work out whether I thought they were impressive monuments to me or just lonely ruins, which was a bit strange. In common with the wall at Yulin there were pieces of brick and glazed roof tile scattered everywhere in the dirt between the scrubby bushes, so of course I took a small piece back with me.
While I was looking around my driver phoned to see where I was, and although I was able to tell her roughly where I was and that I'd be another hour yet, I never managed to get the message across that I'd really like her to drive along that little road and pick me up! I was knackered when I finally got back to that car park after pounding back along the road as fast as I could and was glad to be able to sit down while we drove to the next sight.
The next sight was Gunzhongkou village, in the Helan Shan mountain range. I didn't see where the village was to be honest, but there were a couple of small temples on the mountainside and a small nipple-shaped pagoda, or dagoba, or whatever, on one peak which the taxi drivers son and I climbed up to.
Good views from the top but worth paying for? I don't think so. We then drove on to the twin pagodas at Baisikou. These were previously part of a whole temple complex that has been completely destroyed leaving just these two towers stood on their own in the middle of nowhere at the base of the mountains. Again there was nothing else to really see here so I took a few photos and we moved on. We were then due to visit a valley full of ancient rock carvings, but time was running short. The long walks at the Western Xia tombs had cost me and I had to get back for my train. So reluctantly I told my driver to take me back to Yinchuan and the station, where I caught my train out to Gansu and Jiayuguan.
What's left these days are the earthen remains of the main pagoda-like structure and the surrounding enclosure walls, gates and guard towers. I was really looking forward to seeing these tombs, but the actual tomb on show was a bit disappointing I found. There were no information boards to tell you what was what and the whole site looked a bit dug up and neglected. I knew though that this was just one of many such tombs dotted about the plain here and what I really wanted to do was explore these too. So, I told my driver that I wanted to go for a walk, gave her my number just in case and set off along a little path towards a gap in the bushes surrounding the sight. I followed a little road for a while and soon saw in the distance two more of these conical tombs right next to each other. 
Great, I thought, and set off towards them. It was a whole hour before I eventually reached them. With the land being so flat and not personally having much in the way of depth perception, they really hadn't looked so far when I set out. I really wanted to see them though so had pressed on long after I should have turned back. Besides, I was the one paying for the taxi, so I'll go where I like! Even with this in mind though, I knew I had to catch a train later and make it to a few more sights that day so spent as little time at the tombs as I could spare. The emptiness of the area around these sites made it all seem quite bleak and desolate. I couldn't quite work out whether I thought they were impressive monuments to me or just lonely ruins, which was a bit strange. In common with the wall at Yulin there were pieces of brick and glazed roof tile scattered everywhere in the dirt between the scrubby bushes, so of course I took a small piece back with me. 
While I was looking around my driver phoned to see where I was, and although I was able to tell her roughly where I was and that I'd be another hour yet, I never managed to get the message across that I'd really like her to drive along that little road and pick me up! I was knackered when I finally got back to that car park after pounding back along the road as fast as I could and was glad to be able to sit down while we drove to the next sight.
The next sight was Gunzhongkou village, in the Helan Shan mountain range. I didn't see where the village was to be honest, but there were a couple of small temples on the mountainside and a small nipple-shaped pagoda, or dagoba, or whatever, on one peak which the taxi drivers son and I climbed up to.
Good views from the top but worth paying for? I don't think so. We then drove on to the twin pagodas at Baisikou. These were previously part of a whole temple complex that has been completely destroyed leaving just these two towers stood on their own in the middle of nowhere at the base of the mountains. Again there was nothing else to really see here so I took a few photos and we moved on. We were then due to visit a valley full of ancient rock carvings, but time was running short. The long walks at the Western Xia tombs had cost me and I had to get back for my train. So reluctantly I told my driver to take me back to Yinchuan and the station, where I caught my train out to Gansu and Jiayuguan.
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