"A salubrious cycling saunter through Ningxia’s wineries, food and history; featuring desert and mountain backdrops and green agricultural oases"
Welcome to Ningxia!
On arrival at Yinchuan Airport (INC) we’ll have a transfer ready to take you to our downtown Yinchuan hotel (35mins). You’ll meet your guide who will help you check in, answer any questions you may have and set a time to meet for our afternoon winery visit. After freshening up, we’ll make our way over to Chateau Changyu Moser XV to explore the winery, sample some wines and have our first group dinner together once the Chateau closes to the public. A fitting way to start our tour!
Chateau Changyu Moser XV is a collaboration between China’s first wine producer, Changyu Pioneer Wine Company, which began operation in 1892 in Shandong, and winemaker Lenz Moser, whose famous Austrian family have been producing wine for centuries. Opened in 2015, the chateau is a reasonably big producer of wine and attracts many tourists, as much for its classic European architecture and manicured grounds as for its wine (wedding photos are popular here!). There are sprawling grounds to explore, interactive displays, a wine museum, cavernous cellar and self- bottling brandy souvenir areas to wander through.
After setting up our bikes and meeting our cycling guides and drivers, we set off for the hills! The Helan Shan Mountains can be seen from the city and we’ll be making our way through town to connect up with a leafy cycling path that will take us up on a gentle incline to the base of the mountains. From the top, you’ll see views of the mountains, ancient temples and pagodas, and views below to vineyards and the city beyond. We’ll break out the coffee to sit back and take it all in. Continuing along the mountains on undulating country roads the views of the mountains expand before we turn downwards and make our way speedily to our first winery visit of the day, Silver Heights Winery.
Silver Heights is a family business whose story began on a hunch by Gao Lin, who planted French sourced vines in the 1990’s and sent his daughter Gao Yuan (Emma) off to France to study Oenology. She eventually returned, after receiving her Masters and with a French winemaking husband in tow, to establish Silver Heights and quickly became the poster child Ningxia wines with her successful early vintages that gained recognition abroad. If we’re lucky, we may have the opportunity to meet Emma to continue the story of Silver Heights and its wine in person.
After our winery visit, we’ll continue downhill for a little before stopping for a light lunch of local Hui fare. Our last cycling section will take us past Zhenbeibu film studio, where several film and television productions were shot, and dozens of wineries before arriving in our hotel for the evening. The hotel location is close by Geliqi Winery where we will finish our day with wine tasting and dinner.
An action packed day awaits as we continue through Ningxia’s wine region on tree-lined and flat cycle paths that take us past yet more wineries and agricultural lands that have been reclaimed from the dry rock-strewn plain. Our first destination is the UESCO listed Xi Xia Mausoleums, where we’ll take a coffee break and check out the museum. You will have the opportunity to visit the park to take in the views of these ancient tombs against the back drop of the Helan Shan before coming back to Legacy Peak Winery, located within the park, for a lunch and wine tasting.
Legacy Peak is one of the oldest wineries in Ningxia and boasts the first exports of locally produced wine from the region. Our last leg of cycling will bring us through villages and towns to Xi Xia Wang Winery, where we will be staying for the evening in the large picturesque chateau. Dinner and wine tasting will be the evenings activities where you’ll learn about this larger wineries produce.
After a leisurely mornings breakfast, we take a two hour transfer to the start point of our undulating ride to Haba Lake Nature Reserve. The first section has us cycling through the relatively recently developed agricultural areas. Huge government spending has gone into these poorest of Ningxia’s communities; irrigation, water conservation and green energy projects designed to re- green and revitalise the arid landscape to become productive growing land are evident. Dozens of re-located Hui communities make up the majority of these farming communities.
Our last section takes us off-road for around 10km through scrub- covered sand dunes, wetlands and groves of trees: an oasis of relatively more fertile land. Our destination is nearby the lake where we stay in quant detached rooms with picture windows to take in the surrounds and the incredible night skies. With little ambient light and the clear desert air, the stars unfold dramatically after sunset and we’ll take advantage with an outdoor barbecue of local roasted lamb and, perhaps, a glass of wine or two!
Back on the bikes! Today we’ll have a short 2 minute ride to a delicious local breakfast before we continue on out of the reserve. We’ll pass by several rural villages and towns, centres for farmers and livestock grazing (mostly sheep), before turning onto a larger county level road for a long gentle downward cycle to the start point of our Great Wall ride (some may choose to skip this section and put the feet up on the bus to save energy for the section along the wall). We turn onto mostly dirt tracks and wind along and around the Great Wall as it, and the ancient towns along it, crumble back into the earth. The prominent wall that can be seen is from the Qing dynasty but you’ll also be able to spot sections of eroded wall dating back to the Sui dynasty. Our ride brings us into Yanche town for the evening. Yanche retains its (renovated) old city walls, city gates and drum tower which make for a brilliantly lit evening stroll or an equally recommended morning walk.
We’ll allow time this morning for those wanting to explore the city walls before breakfast, and recover from the previous days big ride!, before making a two hour transfer to Hongsibu. We’ll jump back onto the bikes and cycle up to the base of Luo Shan Mountain that overlooks town. The ride will offer fine views of the surrounding valley and old abandoned Hui villages, before we turn downhill and wind our way through vineyards, Goji Berry orchards and fields of corn to Hongsibu town and our hotel. With time to freshen up, we’ll spend the rest of the afternoon and evening at Luo Shan Winery where the vivacious owner will offer us a tour of the winery and a tasting followed by dinner. You will be free to linger on the grounds before we head back to the hotel for the night.
Today we drive two hours to the Yellow River and the start point of the final day of our wine ride! We start by cycling paths and country roads that offer glimpses of the Huang He, agricultural communities, wetlands and small villages and towns. After lunch we turn away from the river and start a gentle climb into more rural landscapes until we reach our final winery and accomodation for the night, Xige Estate. One of the most modern and ambitious wineries in Ningxia makes a fitting end to our tour. A winery tour and tasting in sumptuous surrounds will precede our final night’s dinner where we will toast the end of our tour, and a bright future for Ningxia’s wine growing future!
Zai Jian! Today is departure day and we will arrange a transfer to Yinchuan airport. Arrival and departure flights will be advised closer to the tour date so you can book appropriate flights to match the transfer times.
