Dawukou District 大武口区

History

Mining at Shitanjing (石炭井) in the Helan Mountains began in 1958 to supply the Jiuquan Iron and Steel works; Shitanjing became a district of its own in 1970 and was merged into Dawukou in 2002. In the city, the Dawukou coal-washing plant, built in 1960 and closed in 2016, reopened in October 2020 as the Dawukou Industrial Heritage Park (大武口工业遗址公园), with a Ningxia industrial memorial hall, a new Dawukou railway station building and craft studios; it hosts the "Sound of Industry" (工业之声) rock festival. In its ecological repair of the Helan Mountains, the district government reports closing 129 coal-related firms and completing restoration work over 124 square kilometres.

What to see

Shitanjing keeps its mining-town factories, schools, streets and railway from the 1960s to the 1990s and is now used as a film set. About 70% of the 2022 film Home Coming (万里归途) was shot there, as were scenes of the television series Minning Town (山海情).

The North Wudang scenic area (北武当生态旅游区), a national 4A site since March 2020, sits on an alluvial fan at the eastern foot of the Helan Mountains. It takes in Shoufo Temple (寿佛寺), a four-courtyard temple begun in 1701 that combines Confucian, Buddhist and Taoist worship; a forest park planted on gravel desert from 1997; and the Helan Mountain Ecological Museum, built where fossil trees more than 200 million years old were found at Xiaoquzi Gully (小渠子沟) in 1994. The scenic area also presents the Heishimao rock carvings (黑石峁岩画).

The culture-and-tourism development of Longquan village (龙泉村) was named in the first national batch of "one county, one product" (一县一品) typical cases of local culture, and Hongzhuzi Street (红柱子街) is on the national list of night-time culture and tourism districts. An off-road rally is run in the Helan Mountain Grand Canyon (贺兰山大峡谷).

Food and local products

Chaohuirou (炒烩肉) is clear-stewed mutton, sliced and then stir-fried; it is red and glossy, meant to be very spicy, and tastes much like quick-fried lamb; the district's culture and tourism bureau says restaurants serving it are found all over Dawukou. Dawukou liangpi (大武口凉皮) was named in the first national list of regional brands under the "thousand firms, hundred cities" scheme.

Highlights

• Shitanjing film town 石炭井: Former coal-mining district from 1958, now a film location used for Home Coming and Minning Town.
• North Wudang scenic area 北武当生态旅游区: 4A area at the foot of the Helan Mountains with Shoufo Temple, begun in 1701, and a fossil-tree museum.
• Dawukou Industrial Heritage Park 大武口工业遗址公园: 1960 coal-washing plant reopened in 2020 as a park and venue for the Sound of Industry festival.
• Chaohuirou 炒烩肉: Spicy stir-fry of sliced stewed mutton.