Sand once crept south-east here at four to five metres a year, according to Xinhua, and Zhongwei answered with straw checkerboards, then solar panels, then a barrier 153 kilometres long.
这里的沙漠曾以每年四到五米的速度向东南推进,据新华社介绍,中卫先用草方格应对,后来加上光伏板,最后筑起一道一百五十三公里长的屏障。
Everything else the city is known for grows inside that line.
这座城市出名的东西,几乎都长在这条线以内。
Earthquake and Temple
地震与高庙
Zhongwei administers three areas, Shapotou District, Zhongning County and Haiyuan County, across 17,448 square kilometres, according to Hongheiku. The 2020 census counted 1,067,336 residents, 13.67 percent of them aged 60 or over, according to the same source.
据红黑人口库介绍,中卫辖沙坡头区、中宁县和海原县三个县区,面积一万七千四百四十八平方公里。同一来源介绍,二零二零年人口普查中卫常住人口一百零六万七千三百三十六人,六十岁及以上占百分之十三点六七。
Haiyuan is the reason the city sits in every history of the 1920 earthquake. The quake struck on 16 December 1920 and killed about 270,000 people, according to China News Service, and Haiyuan County alone lost 73,000, 59 percent of its population, according to The Paper. Really? Nearly three in five people in what is now a Zhongwei county were gone in one evening. The traditional magnitude is 8.5, though a paper in Acta Seismologica Sinica argues for a moment magnitude of about 7.9.
海原就是中卫出现在每一部一九二零年大地震史里的原因。据中国新闻网介绍,地震发生在一九二零年十二月十六日,约二十七万人遇难;据澎湃新闻介绍,仅海原县就死了七点三万人,占当地人口的百分之五十九。真的吗?如今中卫辖下一个县的人口,一个晚上就没了将近六成。传统上的震级是八点五,不过《地震学报》上有论文认为矩震级只有约七点九。
The city’s best-known building is older than any of this. Gao Miao, the High Temple, traces its origins to the Yongle reign of the Ming dynasty (1403–1424) and was rebuilt in 1719, according to China Highlights. It houses Confucian, Taoist and Buddhist shrines in one complex, and Lonely Planet describes the halls stacked up a slope, giving the roofline an odd stepped look. Below it, a maze-like shelter has been converted into a Buddhist hell, where dim, low tunnels show the damned being tortured, according to Lonely Planet.
这座城市最有名的建筑,比这一切都古老。据China Highlights介绍,高庙始建于明永乐年间(一四零三至一四二四年),一七一九年重建。三教殿宇共处一园,据孤独星球介绍,殿阁顺着山坡层层叠起,屋顶线条参差奇特。据孤独星球介绍,庙下是一处迷宫般的防空设施,后来改成佛教地狱,低矮昏暗的通道里陈列着受刑的罪人。
Wolfberries and Melons
枸杞与瓜
Zhongning County is the wolfberry heartland. This year 231,900 mu are planted, producing 200,000 tonnes of fresh fruit, and the national wolfberry market at Zhongning traded 93,000 tonnes worth ¥5.69 billion, according to Xinhua on 25 October 2026.
中宁县是枸杞的核心产区。据新华社二零二六年十月二十五日报道,今年全县种植二十三点一九万亩,鲜果产量二十万吨,中宁国家级枸杞市场交易量九点三万吨,成交额五十六点九亿元。
In Shapotou District, around Xiangshan, selenium-rich sandy soils supported 469,500 mu of selenium-sand melons in 2025, with output expected to reach 1.15 million tonnes, according to Xinhua, which calls them the “green gem” of the Gobi. Zhongwei received 18.5 million visitors in 2024, spending ¥11 billion, both up more than 20 percent, according to Xinhua.
据新华社介绍,在沙坡头区香山一带,富硒砂壤地上二零二五年种了四十六点九五万亩硒砂瓜,产量预计达一百一十五万吨,新华社称之为戈壁上的”绿宝石”。据新华社介绍,二零二四年中卫接待游客一千八百五十万人次,旅游收入一百一十亿元,均增长二成以上。
Rail has made all this easier to reach. The Zhongwei–Lanzhou section of the Yinchuan–Lanzhou high-speed line opened on 29 December 2022, 219 kilometres with seven stations including Zhongwei South, and the fastest Yinchuan–Lanzhou trip fell from about eight hours to under three, according to China Daily. The Baotou–Yinchuan line, which opened on 23 December 2025, links the region to Baotou in 2 hours 38 minutes at the fastest, according to China Daily.
铁路让这一切更容易到达。据中国日报介绍,银兰高铁中卫至兰州段二零二二年十二月二十九日开通,全长二百一十九公里,设七站,含中卫南站,银川至兰州最快用时由约八小时缩短到三小时以内。据中国日报介绍,二零二五年十二月二十三日开通的包银高铁,让包头至银川最快只需两小时三十八分。
Holding the Sand
把沙子拦住
The fight is older than the solar panels. A sand research station opened at Shapotou in 1955, and the Zhongwei Fixed Sand Forest Farm in 1956, alongside the Baotou–Lanzhou railway, according to Xinhua. Ningxia has now completed 145,000 mu of solar sand control in the Tengger Desert, with panels above and vegetation below, according to the same source. In Zhongwei, the Tengger Desert Solar Park, rated at 1.55 gigawatts and nicknamed the “Great Wall of Solar”, is also part of the picture, according to NS Energy.
这场斗争比光伏板还早。据新华社介绍,沙坡头治沙站一九五五年成立,中卫固沙林场一九五六年建立,与包兰铁路同时起步。同一来源介绍,宁夏已在腾格里沙漠完成十四点五万亩光伏治沙,板上发电,板下种植被。据NS Energy介绍,中卫的腾格里沙漠太阳能公园装机一点五五吉瓦,有”太阳能长城”之称,也是这幅图景的一部分。
According to Xinhua, the sand-control barrier finished on 30 June 2025 is 153 kilometres long and 10 to 38 kilometres wide, closing the last gap in a continuous belt along Ningxia’s side of the Tengger Desert, and the desert’s edge has been pushed back about 25 kilometres.
据新华社介绍,二零二五年六月三十日完工的固沙屏障长约一百五十三公里、宽十至三十八公里,补上了宁夏境内腾格里沙漠边缘连续锁边带的最后缺口,沙漠边缘已被推回约二十五公里。
