It's been quite a few years since my last post on this. I've been travelling quite a bit in this time, but haven't really felt the motivation to write about it. However, I came across a pretty unexpected discovery in my recent travel in China, so why not write it down.
I spent a couple of days last week hiking around the Ningxia Province in China. Ningxia is an autonomous region located somewhere in the middle of China (towards the north), bordering on Inner Mongolia. Much of the terrain feels a lot like desert. Many of the areas I was walking around were supposed to be "protected" meaning that bushes have been planted and farming and grazing of animals is not allowed, to try and stop the landscape eroding into complete desert. That apparently doesn't stop the local shepherds, from walking around with their flock of sheep. I'm happy to cut the shepherds some slack though - if your job is to walk around watching a bunch of sheep all day, every day, for your entire life- in a place that's -30 in winter and +30 in summer - I say walk wherever you feel like it!
The terrain is quite amazing. It's made up of a series of sparsely vegetated steep rolling hills. The tops of the hills are pretty windy, so that's inspired the development of a very large wind farm in the area. I'm no geologist, but there appears to be no rock in the area. meaning the landscape is made of soft dirt. When it rains, you can see that this dirt just washes away, changing the landscape dramatically. There are many trenches and valleys that you can see have been made because of the erosion of soil. This makes for a bit of a challenge when walking around the area, trying to find the best way to avoid the steep cliffs that have formed. I would imagine those wind turbines have some giant concrete foundations to keep them upright in the soft ground.
But the soft earth seems to have created a housing opportunity for people in the region. The locals live in cave dwellings called a yaodong, dug into the side of the mountains. This took me by complete surprise when I first saw them. "Do people really live in those?". Apparently, "yes" is the answer. Some later research on Wikipedia tells me that 40 million people in China live in these style of dwellings. Cool. I feel like quite the fool for not knowing they existed. Apparently, even Chairman Mao's revolution is famous for having started from such caves. The caves, cool in summer, warm in winter, appear to be very practical places for people to live.
The caves vary in their size and grandeur. Some are just holes in the side of mountains, some have decorative archways and I imagine would be quite comfortable inside. It seems most also have electricity. We were standing out the front of some of these caves, marveling at how people could live in one of these when a local lady approached me and my travelling group. After a short conversation (of which I partook in only by smiling and nodding), she was very happy to show us around her caves. She pretty much had a farm built around a few caves. A couple of small caves used for storage of vegetables (basically fridge caves), a cave for the dog, a cave for the pig, a cave for the lambs (Ningxia is said to have the best lamb in China - can confirm lamb is tasty). She had a vegetable patch growing out the front, and a well where she collected rainwater that washes down the side of the hill she lives under. Her living cave was very simple - basically a single room with a bed inside...but... I did notice a massive satellite dish out the front, so all I can imagine she does is farm all day, and sit of the bed watching cable TV all night.
Words (my words at least) can't really describe this place, these people and the way they live very well. I took some crappy photos on my phone, but hopefully they can convey one of the lesser known curiosities of China.
I spent a couple of days last week hiking around the Ningxia Province in China. Ningxia is an autonomous region located somewhere in the middle of China (towards the north), bordering on Inner Mongolia. Much of the terrain feels a lot like desert. Many of the areas I was walking around were supposed to be "protected" meaning that bushes have been planted and farming and grazing of animals is not allowed, to try and stop the landscape eroding into complete desert. That apparently doesn't stop the local shepherds, from walking around with their flock of sheep. I'm happy to cut the shepherds some slack though - if your job is to walk around watching a bunch of sheep all day, every day, for your entire life- in a place that's -30 in winter and +30 in summer - I say walk wherever you feel like it!
The terrain is quite amazing. It's made up of a series of sparsely vegetated steep rolling hills. The tops of the hills are pretty windy, so that's inspired the development of a very large wind farm in the area. I'm no geologist, but there appears to be no rock in the area. meaning the landscape is made of soft dirt. When it rains, you can see that this dirt just washes away, changing the landscape dramatically. There are many trenches and valleys that you can see have been made because of the erosion of soil. This makes for a bit of a challenge when walking around the area, trying to find the best way to avoid the steep cliffs that have formed. I would imagine those wind turbines have some giant concrete foundations to keep them upright in the soft ground.But the soft earth seems to have created a housing opportunity for people in the region. The locals live in cave dwellings called a yaodong, dug into the side of the mountains. This took me by complete surprise when I first saw them. "Do people really live in those?". Apparently, "yes" is the answer. Some later research on Wikipedia tells me that 40 million people in China live in these style of dwellings. Cool. I feel like quite the fool for not knowing they existed. Apparently, even Chairman Mao's revolution is famous for having started from such caves. The caves, cool in summer, warm in winter, appear to be very practical places for people to live.The caves vary in their size and grandeur. Some are just holes in the side of mountains, some have decorative archways and I imagine would be quite comfortable inside. It seems most also have electricity. We were standing out the front of some of these caves, marveling at how people could live in one of these when a local lady approached me and my travelling group. After a short conversation (of which I partook in only by smiling and nodding), she was very happy to show us around her caves. She pretty much had a farm built around a few caves. A couple of small caves used for storage of vegetables (basically fridge caves), a cave for the dog, a cave for the pig, a cave for the lambs (Ningxia is said to have the best lamb in China - can confirm lamb is tasty). She had a vegetable patch growing out the front, and a well where she collected rainwater that washes down the side of the hill she lives under. Her living cave was very simple - basically a single room with a bed inside...but... I did notice a massive satellite dish out the front, so all I can imagine she does is farm all day, and sit of the bed watching cable TV all night.Words (my words at least) can't really describe this place, these people and the way they live very well. I took some crappy photos on my phone, but hopefully they can convey one of the lesser known curiosities of China.
The dog and the pig
The lambs with dig daddy looking down from above
Lambs and their cave
Satellite TV
Inside the cave
Posts
