Weizhou’s grand mosque has had four lives; a 600-year-old Chinese-style original, a replacement for it, a white domed mosque finished in 2017 and, since 2019, a version with pagodas where the domes were.
韦州大寺经历了四次变身:有六百年历史的中式老寺、取而代之的新寺、二零一七年落成的白色穹顶大寺,以及二零一九年将穹顶改为宝塔式屋顶后的现貌。
It stands in Tongxin County, one of the five divisions of Wuzhong.
它位于同心县,同心是吴忠五个县区之一。
Weizhou’s Mosque
韦州大寺
The original was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, along with thousands of other temples, churches and monasteries, according to the South China Morning Post. It was replaced by a mosque that was itself replaced by the all-white one with nine onion-shaped domes, completed in 2017, according to the same source.
据《南华早报》介绍,最早那座六百年的中式清真寺在文化大革命期间被毁,与之一同被毁的还有成千上万的寺庙、教堂和修道院。同一来源介绍,后来建起的一座寺又被拆换成有九个洋葱形穹顶的全白色大寺,于二零一七年落成。
In August 2018 the town government ordered it demolished for lacking planning and construction permits, according to the South China Morning Post, and thousands of Hui Muslims protested. Officials called off the demolition and switched to a “rectification plan”, the second version of which would have kept just one of the nine domes, according to the same source. In September 2019 an NPR reporter found the town guarded by checkpoints, the mosque closed, and its dome and minarets replaced with tiled pagodas, according to NPR.
据《南华早报》介绍,二零一八年八月镇政府以缺少规划和施工手续为由下令拆除,数千名回族穆斯林抗议。据同一来源介绍,官方后来叫停拆除,改为”整改方案”,其第二版方案只保留九个穹顶中的一个。据美国国家公共电台介绍,二零一九年九月记者到访时,镇子的唯一道路有检查站把守,大寺关闭,穹顶和带圆顶的宣礼塔已换成了瓦顶宝塔。
Morning Tea City
早茶之城
Down in the city, the morning is a meal of its own. Wuzhong morning tea is a table of eight-treasure tea, hand-pulled noodles, beef, snacks and pastries, according to Xinhua. Really? The number of morning-tea shops grew from a few dozen in 2000 to 793 in 2024, directly employing more than 20,000 people, according to the same source. The city added ten demonstration breakfast restaurants in 2025, according to the 2025 communiqué.
到了城里,早晨自成一顿饭。据新华社介绍,吴忠早茶是一桌八宝茶、拉面、牛肉、小吃和点心。真的吗?据同一来源介绍,早茶店从二零零零年的几十家增加到二零二四年的七百九十三家,直接吸纳两万多人就业。据二零二五年统计公报,二零二五年全市新增十家早餐示范店。
The rest of the economy is changing quickly. In 2025 GDP was ¥96.167 billion, up 5.0 percent in real terms, and the year-end resident population was 1.4185 million, according to the 2025 communiqué. New-energy capacity reached 22.74 million kilowatts, up 27.6 percent, with solar at 12.4435 million and wind at 10.2973 million, according to the same source. The city held 3.163 million sheep, and 4.6354 million were slaughtered during the year, according to the same source.
经济的其余部分变化很快。据二零二五年统计公报,二零二五年地区生产总值九百六十一点六七亿元,按不变价计算增长百分之五点零,年末常住人口一百四十一万八千五百人。据同一来源介绍,新能源装机二千二百七十四万千瓦,增长百分之二十七点六,其中光伏一千二百四十四点三五万千瓦,风电一千零二十九点七三万千瓦。据同一来源介绍,年末羊存栏三百一十六万三千只,全年出栏四百六十三万五千四百只。
Yellow River Country
黄河之畔
The river is the reason the place exists. For more than 2,000 years Ningxia Plain farmers drew the Yellow River into their fields without a dam, until the Qingtongxia Water Control Project, begun on 26 August 1958 as a key project of the first Five-Year Plan, became the first river-bed pier-type hydropower station on the upper Yellow River, according to Xinhua. The Ningxia Yellow River Ancient Irrigation District was named a World Irrigation Heritage site on 10 October 2017, according to the same source.
这里存在的理由就是这条河。据新华社介绍,两千多年来宁夏平原的农人无坝引黄灌溉,直到青铜峡水利枢纽一九五八年八月二十六日开工,这个”一五”时期的重点工程成为黄河上游第一座河床式水电站。据同一来源介绍,宁夏引黄古灌区二零一七年十月十日被列入世界灌溉工程遗产。
Wuzhong counts its visitors too. Domestic visits reached 18.3146 million in 2025, up 14.4 percent, with spending of ¥10.973 billion, according to the 2025 communiqué. The road network totals 10,148 kilometres, including 752 kilometres of expressway, according to the same source, and as one example of rail frequency, Ctrip’s timetable showed 37 services between Yinchuan and Wuzhong on a single day in July 2026.
吴忠也在统计游客。据二零二五年统计公报,二零二五年国内游客一千八百三十一万四千六百人次,增长百分之十四点四,旅游消费一百零九点七三亿元。据同一来源介绍,公路总里程一万零一百四十八公里,其中高速公路七百五十二公里;以铁路班次为例,携程时刻表显示,二零二六年七月某一天银川至吴忠有三十七个车次。
One of Wuzhong’s most remarkable historical monuments stands on the hillside at Qingtongxia. According to Andrew West’s BabelStone, the 108 Stupas are the remains of a Tangut Buddhist temple complex of the Western Xia (1038–1227), a dating inferred from Tangut texts found nearby, among them fragments of a sutra, the Thousand Names of the Buddha of the Present Aeon, found in 1987–88 in an octagonal brick platform just north of the stupas and now in the Ningxia Museum.
吴忠最了不起的历史遗迹之一,立在青铜峡的山坡上。据安德鲁·韦斯特(Andrew West)的BabelStone网站介绍,一百零八塔是西夏(一零三八至一二二七年)一处党项佛教寺院建筑群的遗存,年代是根据附近出土的西夏文文献推断的,其中有一九八七至一九八八年在塔群正北一座砖砌八角台中发现的《现在贤劫千佛名经》残片,现藏宁夏博物馆。
According to the same source, the stupas rise in 12 rows of 1, 3, 3, 5, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17 and 19, their visible brickwork early Qing, built over a sun-dried mud-brick core.
同一来源介绍,塔群分十二排,依次为一、三、三、五、五、七、九、十一、十三、十五、十七、十九座,可见的砖砌外观为清初重修,内里是晒干的土坯塔心。
