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Shapotou is situated 20 kilometers from Zhongwei County and on the southern rim of the Tenger Desert, with the Baotou-Lanzhou Railway running right through the place which is bordered on the north by the desert and the railway and on the south by the Yellow River and the Xianshan Mountain. The scenic spot with the fancy name “Golden Sand and Humming Bell”, and a number of oases, lie right in the heart of Shapotou. The railway is hemmed in between belts of luxuriant vegetation. All this has earned Shapotou the nickname, “Capital of the World of Deserts”.
One of China’s four humming sand dunes is situated at the top of Shapotou, where the slope rises to a height of 100 meters. When someone slides down the sand dune, he has the feeling as if he were descending from the sky. The peculiar geological structure of the place causes the sand to emit, when sliding down the slope, a resonant noise that reverberates like the tolling of a huge bell or the beating of a big drum. Limpid water flows gently in a knee-deep stream at he foot of the sand dune.
South of the stream is a 30-mu orchid, which supplies tourists with such fruit as jujubes, grapes, peaches, apples and pears.
Further south lies the turbulent Yellow River. The local peasants offer such tourist programs as cruising the river aboard goat-skin dinghies, and camel-back riding in the deserts. Restaurants, photo studios and camera repair shops are opened in the zone to generate a profit from the booming tourist industry. Lodging, foot and entertainment are provided in the Shapotou Holiday Resort. Bonfire parties, picnics, barbecue, and fruit-picking in the orchard are also sponsored to bring visitors into the embrace of mother nature.
(china.org.cn)
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