Desert adventure around Beijing

By Todd Balazovic (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-30 10:26

Bargaining with a local fisherman, Balazovic and company hired a fishing boat to cross the Guanting Reservoir just in time to catch the last train home to Beijing. [Photo by Jonah Kessel/China Daily]

A short getaway lead four friends on an unexpected journey to Heibei

I awoke from a light sleep sprawled across five seats in the Shacheng railway station, unwashed, still tired, and slightly grumpy.

We arrived in Shacheng late the previous evening and after several hours of unsuccessfully locating a hotel we could afford or accepted foreigners without the need for a passport (I had forgotten mine) we were forced to sleep in the railway station.

In an effort to escape the concrete confines of Beijing and desperate for a change of scenery, a group of colleagues and I decided last minute to make a run for the Tianmo Desert, located roughly 90 km north of Beijing in Hebei province.

After unsuccessfully finding a place to stay, the group spent the night in Shacheng railway station. [Photo by Jonah Kessel/China Daily]

Undiscouraged by the previous night's folly, we awoke and exited the rail station into the city of Shacheng to hail a cab, determined to make it out to the Tianmo Desert.

As we exited the city, we caught site of a fist erupting from the ground, gripping a giant bottle of Great Wall wine, a steel monument to the city's biggest benefactor. Built in 1983, the Great Wall Winery is one of Shacheng's most popular attractions, producing more than 50,000 tons of China's internationally recognized wine annually.

We slept for most of the hour and a half journey to the desert, though occasionally I cracked open an eye to catch glimpses of the mountainous landscape zooming by.

We arrived to the Tianmo at around 8 am, before the sun had risen high enough to bring its full heat, resulting in a cool breeze that made the massive mounds of sand that lay before us seem less like a desert and more like a beach.

And as the taxi departed, we realized that we had no real means of making it back to the rail station to catch our 6 pm train back to Beijing.

The Tianmo Desert is cradled at the foot of the Qipan Mountains and is the closest desert to Beijing and consists of two colossal sand dunes that span more than 83 acres.

A solitary spot of sand in an otherwise lush area, the origins of Tianmo still remain somewhat of a mystery.

With the Qipan Mountains at our back, we sat gazing across the surrounding landscape, marveling at the miles of farmland surrounding the Guanting Reservoir, Beijing's primary source of freshwater.

The group took a two-hour standing ride.[Photo by Jonah Kessel/China Daily]

We shook off our exhaustion and climbed to the top of the tallest dune, which took a total of 10 minutes. Not in the mood to take advantage of the horseback rides offered by the locals occupying the desert, we decided to hoof it, hiking along the outskirts of the desert. As the sun pushed higher into the blue skies above, the heat began to get to us and we decided to make our way towards the cool blue of Guanting Reservoir in search of a place to quell our rumbling stomachs.

Heading towards the water, we marveled at the miles of farmland containing primarily sunflowers, corn and wheat. Occasionally, the farmland parted giving way to the colossal wind generators, part of the Guanting wind power field, which were scattered as far as the eye could see.

Surrounding the reservoir, the Guanting wind power field is Beijing's first major wind power field. The recently completed first phase saw the construction of over 33 new wind power generators, which are expected to help ease Beijing's coal consumption by 50,000 tons.

Previous Page 1 2 3 4 Next Page