"A salubrious cycling saunter through Ningxia’s wineries, food and history; featuring desert and mountain backdrops and green agricultural oases"
Welcome to Ningxia!
On arrival at Yinchuan Airport (INC) we’ll have a transfer ready to take you to our downtown Yinchuan hotel (35mins). You’ll meet your guide who will help you check in, answer any questions you may have and set a time to meet for our afternoon winery visit. After freshening up, we’ll make our way over to Yuanshi to explore the winery, sample some wines and touring inside the winery. After the tour we'll head back downtonw for a dinner of local specialities and some locally produced wine, of course! After dinner you may wish to visit the nearby Huaiyuan Night Markets,which make a great stroll among the colourful staffs selling local favourite snakes and produce.
Yuanshi Winery is Ningxia's largest producer and is famed for having been visited by Xi Jingping, it's organic fertilisers and growing techniques, as well as numerous international awards
We’ll spend some time setting up our bikes and meeting our cycling guides and drivers before heading off for the hills! The Helan Shan Mountains can be seen from the city and we’ll be making our way on a leafy cycling path that will take us up on a gentle incline to the base of the mountains. From the top, you’ll see views of the mountains, ancient temples and pagodas, and views below to vineyards and the city beyond. We’ll break out the coffee and a picnic lunch at Baisikou Pagodas to sit back and take it all in. Continuing along the mountains on undulating country roads, the views of the mountains expand before we turn downwards and make our way speedily to our first winery visit at the boutique Silver Heights Winery. A favourite among our customers, Silver Heights has a great selection of wines, which we sample from their outdoor tasting deck overlooking the vineyards, before heading off for a tour of the cellars and bottling facilities. After exploring the winery, we head downhill for a short ride to our hot springs hotel for the evening.
Silver Heights is a family business whose story began on a hunch by Gao Lin, who planted French sourced vines in the 1990’s and sent his daughter Gao Yuan (Emma) off to France to study Oenology. She eventually returned, after receiving her Masters, with a French winemaking husband in tow, to establish Silver Heights and quickly became the poster child Ningxia wines with her successful early vintages that gained recognition abroad. If we’re lucky, we may have the opportunity to meet Emma to continue the story of Silver Heights and its wine in person
An action packed day awaits as we continue through Ningxia’s wine region on tree-lined and flat cycle paths that take us past yet more wineries and agricultural lands that have been reclaimed from the dry rock-strewn plain. Our first destination is the UESCO listed Xi Xia Mausoleums, where we’ll check out the extensive museum and take in the views of these ancient tombs against the back drop of the Helan Shan. A short ride brings us to Legacy Peak Winery,located within the park, for a lunch and a wine tasting of some of the best wines in the region. Legacy Peak is one of the oldest wineries in Ningxia and boasts the first exports of locally produced wine from the region. An option to continue cycling through villages, or take a short bus ride, will bring us to Xi Xia Wang Winery, where we will be glamping for the evening in outdoor tents on the winery grounds. Dinner will be the evenings activity and we’ll feature a few local wines to sample from wineries we won't visit on the tour.
After breakfast, we’ll cycle out through the winery and make our way along quiet backroads, farmland and small villages. We’ll turn into forest and ride up a gentle climb until we reach our final winery and accomodation for the night: Xige Estate. Designed by an Australian architectural firm, Xige Estate is one of the most modern and ambitious wineries in Ningxia. It’s buildings blend into the surrounding arid landscape beautifully, with natural materials throughout the complex and stunningly designed spaces, making this a stand out winery anywhere in the world. There’ll be time to explore the winery grounds before we take a winery tour and a wine tasting in sumptuous surrounds. Dinner will be in the winery and we stay in comfortable rooms with views overlooking the surrounding estate.
We start out today with a two hour drive toward Yanche, stopping for a local lunch near our Great Wall ride start point. We turn onto mostly dirt tracks and wind along and around the Great Wall as it, and the ancient towns along it, crumble back into the earth. The prominent wall that can be seen is from the Qing dynasty but you’ll also be able to spot sections of more eroded wall dating back to the Sui dynasty. Our ride brings us into Yanchi town for the evening. Yanche retains its (renovated) old city walls, city gates and drum tower, which make for abrilliantly lit evening stroll or an equally recommended morning walk. We’ll eat a local feast tonight in the centre of the old town.
After a leisurely mornings breakfast, we begin our back road ride to Haba Lake Nature Reserve. The first section has us cycling through the relatively recently developed agricultural areas. Huge government spending has gone into these poorest of Ningxia’s communities; irrigation, water conservation and green energy projects designed to re-green and revitalise the arid landscape to become productive growing land are evident. Dozens of re-located Hui communities make up the majority of these farming communities.
Our last section takes us through scrub-covered sand dunes, wetlands and groves of trees: an oasis of relatively more fertile land. Our destination is nearby the lake where we stay in quant detached rooms with picture windows to take in the surrounds and the incredible night skies. There’s a great off road loop that takes in some desert scenery, old crumbling forts and natural foliage that is a recommended afternoon activity. With little ambient light and the clear desert air, the stars unfold dramatically after sunset and we’ll take advantage with an outdoor barbecue of local roasted lamb and, perhaps, a glass of wine or two, to celebrate our last evening together!
Zai Jian! Today is departure day and we will arrange a transfer to Yinchuan airport. Arrival and departure flights will be advised closer to the tour date so you can book appropriate flights to match the transfer times.
