Scenes of China: Yinchuan, Ningxia

A few days ago I asked whether readers could identify my current location based on a several photos. Reader Marc came the closest with the answer of Xi'an in Northwest China's Shaanxi province. Approximately a 10 hour drive to the north and slightly to the west is where you would find me right now in Yinchuan (银川)--the capital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region (autonomous regions are a provincial level division in China). As Ningxia's name suggests, it is a region with a significant population of China's Muslim Hui people. For more about the broadly-defined Hui see the light post I wrote last year about my experiences with the Muslim culture in Zhaotong, Yunnan province.

If you drove from my earlier location in Guangdong province you could expect to spend over 30 hours on the road and would find a place that exhibits some important differences in its culture, economy, and environment. Later (probably after a few more posts regarding Southeast China and other topics), I will post more about Yinchuan to help capture some of what makes it different and not so different from other regions of China. For now, I will share a few selected photos all taken in the central Xingqing district. The photos are not intended to be fully representative of the area, but they all in their own way (except for the intriguing electric vehicle) capture some of the everyday life that can be found in Yinchuan.

Rows of motorized tricycle carts lined up on the sidewalk outside a popular shopping center

Boys playing a game

Some, but not all, signs include Chinese, English, and Arabic versions of street names

Where one can get a soup with lamb meat and various lamb innards at a pedestrian street market

Nanmen Square

Two young men who invited me to join them for some local Xixia beer at Nanmen Square

Two very different three-wheeled vehicles (this is the only time in Yinchuan I have seen the one of the left)

A promotion for marriage photos at a large shopping center

A number of people gave money to this pair while the man sang.

Workers at a hair salon

Not uncommon to see shirts with non-standard English phrases

Time to make the lamb dumplings