After The Hutong’s initial excursion to China’s wild west last June , this fall the Lions of Harrow became the first student conquerors of our Ningxia Bike Journey. With the route slightly tweaked to travel directly in the direct footsteps of the great Genghis Khan, our peloton swept over the Mongolian steppe and crossed the mighty Helan Mountains through the same Sanguankou pass that the grand Khan rode through on his conquest, centuries before.
We started our journey biking to a remote outposts deep in the heart of the Tengger Desert. Hauling across the arid landscape with the wind at our backs, we arrived at an experimental farm run by a local agricultural pioneer. Our students learned about the challenges of desert agriculture and the necessity of innovation to help local nomads who have seen modernity creeping closer on their traditional way of life in recent years. We refueled on a meal with ingredients only grown on the farm before grilling our own lamp kebabs and heading on our way.
We then chased the slowly setting sun, headed deeper into the desert until the road abruptly ended and we took our mountain bikes off road toward the sand dunes in the distance. Everyone had a rush traversing the bumpy dirt paths and shifted into high gear to make it up the last big dune in time to watch the sun set on an epic first day in the saddle.
The next morning we work early and headed off to the Nansi Buddhist Temple right outside of town, set in the shadow of the imposing Helan mountains. This visit prompted discussions of the ancient Silk Road trade routes and how there was more than just consumer goods being exchanged across this massive conduit between east and west. We then kicked off our longest ride of the trip along same path that the great Genghis Khan once took, riding parallel to the mountains in and eventually up the slopes of the Sanguankou pass. We had a barbeque lunch in the shadow of an ancient section of the Ningxia Great Wall, originally built to keep marauding invaders like ourselves from coming over the pass and out of the interior heartland.
Our intrepid explorers then hopped on the bus and took a little rest after a hard morning on the road as we made our way to the town of Yongning and the heart of Hui Muslim culture in the region. We toured the famous Najiahu mosque and had the opportunity to meet with the local Imam who told us all about the history of Islam in the region and China as a whole. We were then joined by the students from a local primary school for a classic Hutong Scavenger Hunt that saw the Harrow and local students working together to piece together clues, learning more about the local culture and each other in the process. Another jam-packed day was capped off at the home of one of the local students whose family opened up their home to us for dinner, putting the cherry on top of another fascinating day out west.
Our last full day in Ningxia was spent traversing the rolling foothills of the Helan Mountains on a picturesque ride to the dueling twin Baisikou Pagodas. Getting into a groove on the steep inclines and thrilling descents, we had to drag the peloton off their bikes as the first student Ningxia Bike Journey had come to a close. After a week of exhilarating biking and tremendous food, we already cannot wait until the next Ningxia Bike Journey to head back again to travel in the footsteps of the great Genghis Khan.
