20 September 1999
The night train left Hohhot at 22:15 and arrived in Yinchuan at 09:00. I toured the nearby sights in half a day’s time and even managed to buy my train ticket to Lanzhou.
Visited Haibaotasi and Chengtiansita which involved climbing up narrow staircases to reach the top of both towers. My indestructible plastic ticket claims that Haibaota was rebuilt in A.D. 407 by the Da Xia king. The tower has nine levels and stands 54 meters tall. The tower suffered some damage in an earthquake during Qing emperor Qianlong’s reign (1739) and was rebuilt in 1778.
Chengtiansi was originally built in A.D. 1050 by a Xi Xia emperor. It appears to have suffered damage in the same earthquake mentioned above, but was only rebuilt in 1820. There is also a museum dedicated to Xi Xia culture on the tower grounds. Apparently the Xi Xia were a mysterious people who rose and fell with astonishing rapidity, equivalent to our modern day dot com IPO boom and bust. The written language survives but is only understood by a handful of experts.