Tiny Ningxia is not on many China itineraries, lost as it is between popular Shaanxi to the east, rugged Gansu to the south and west, and sprawling Inner Mongolia to the north. That's a pity, because Ningxia has a lot to offer.

Officially know as the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Ningxia is the designated homeland for China's Hui Muslim minority. The Hui, descended in part from Arab traders who came east via the Silk Road, seem to have inherited much of their ancestors' wanderlust—far more live elsewhere in the People's Republic than live in Ningxia. In fact, they presently only constitute 1/3 of Ningxia's population, with many having left what is one of China's poorer regions to seek economic opportunity in eastern boomtowns. The rest of Ningxia's residents are primarily Han Chinese, largely identical in appearance to their Hui compatriots aside from manner of dress. 

The northern city of Yinchuan, located in a finger of land jutting into Inner Mongolia, contains a number of attractions, including the vast Nanguan Grand Mosque, the Ningxia Regional Museumand the nearly 1,000-year-old pagoda of Chengtiansi Ta. Once the capital of the Western Xia Dynasty, Yinchuan also makes a great base for forays into the surrounding countryside and daytrips to sites like the Xixia Wangling (Western Xia Tombs), Helan Shan (Helan Mountains), sandy Sha Hu (Sha Lake), the intriguing Qingtongxia 108 Dagobas and isolated stretches of the Great Wall of China.

Further to the south and west, following the meandering course of the Yellow River as it cuts through dusty loess plains, swaths of irrigated vibrant green, and stretches of outright desert, the towns of Zhongwei and Shapotou are well worth visiting for the unique patchwork intersection of the Tenger Desert, the broad Yellow River, and strips of lush farmland.

Zhongwei is also home to a rare interdenominational temple, Gao Miao, where adherents of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism rub elbows. Not surprisingly, the 15th century temple comprises a fascinating jumble of styles, symbols and images. Just to the west in Shapotou, the desert and river are the main attractions, with camel rides and sheepskin river rafting offering truly unique ways to experience of this remarkable and strange landscape.

Even further south, Guyuanis the place to base yourself for a visit to the Xumi Shan Grottoes, where 138 caves cut into red sandstone cliffs house hundreds of Buddhist statues, with two major temples, Yuanguang Si and Xiangguo Si, accompanying the immense Dafo Lou giant stone Buddha. Finally, a lonely stretch of the Great Wall makes for a nice stop en route from Guyuan to Xumi Shan.

Sitting on the western edge of China's ancient loess-plateau Yellow River heartlands, the lands comprising present-day Ningxia were incorporated into the first pan-China dynasty, the Qin (221-206 BC), at which time the first of many large-scale irrigation projects brought water to the arid lands through with the Yellow River flows, making agriculture viable.

Even so, the area has always maintained a distinct borderland identity, both because of its location near ancient trade routes and its position between very different geographic and cultural regions—Mongolian grasslands to the north, vast deserts and mountain ranges to the west and south, and China's fertile but fragile Loess Plateau to the east.

As China expanded westward to solidify its control over the lucrative Silk Road trade and to establish a buffer zone between nomadic peoples and the Han heartlands, especially during the Tang Dynasty (618 – 907 AD), Ningxia played its part, a role to which existing remnants of the Great Wall and Buddhist holy sites attest.

In the 11th century AD, the Tangut people established the Western Xia Dynasty (1038-1227) to the west of the southern Han Chinese Song Dynasty and the northern Jurchen Jin Dynasty. With their capital of Xingqing at modern-day Yinchuan, the Buddhist Xia thrived until the Mongols swept all before them, virtually erasing the Western Xia from the historical record until recent archeological finds revived their memory. Today, the imposing Xixia Wangling (Western Xia Tombs) and mysterious Qingtongxia 108 Dagobas stand as cryptic monuments to this once-powerful people.

During the subsequent Mongol Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), Islam made inroads into China, and a number of Arab traders settled in regions along the Silk Road. Prior to the relatively peaceful integration of their Hui Muslim descendents into greater China, a period of bloody conflict ensued, with millions of Hui and Han perishing during a series of 19th-century rebellions against the Manchu Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

It wouldn't be until 1959 that Ningxia became an autonomous region for the Hui, ten years after the establishment of the PRC under Mao Zedong. Under the communists, a limited program of industrialization was initiated, with coal mining taking center stage alongside irrigation-fed agriculture as a major component of the economy. Presently, a number of desert reclamation efforts are underway to combat one of the major factors in the region's historical poverty—and one that has led the outmigration of so many Hui that today, they constitute only about 30% of the population in their own autonomous region.

Without irrigation from the Yellow River, semi-arid Ningxia would largely be desert in the northern reaches and dry plains hemmed in by mountains in the south. Temperatures can vary considerably from north to south, as well as in one area between noon and midnight, so even visitors prepared for hot summer weather should pack a few long-sleeve layers against the nighttime chill.

Winters are fairly long, seeing average January lows of -10 to -7°C. After a brief spring, summer sets in with significant heat, with July averages ranging from 17 to 24°C. Most of the province's annual rainfall hits the south, with a mere 189mm accumulating in the vicinity of Yinchuan and 600mm falling around Guyuan.