Su Wu Desert Scenic Area 苏武沙漠景区

About Su Wu Desert Scenic Area

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism's rural tourism route feature places the area in Minqin county and describes Suwu Desert Grand Scenic Area as a national 4A-rated tourist attraction, a comprehensive desert-culture attraction with six sections: the international desert sculpture camp, Zhaixing town, Suwu town, the cold and arid modern agriculture demonstration park, the desertification-control new technology display area and the desert joy valley. The ministry page says the aim is to build it into a leading area for western desert cultural tourism, a new model for night-sky tourism in the Tengger Desert and a staging-post desert tourism complex.

The sculpture camp is the area's centrepiece. The ministry page says it invites Chinese and foreign artists to create sculptures interpreting environmental protection and harmony between people and sand, and that it has run five sessions since 2018. The National Forestry and Grassland Administration's review of the Hexi corridor desert-edge campaign gives the numbers: the base in Minqin holds more than 100 sculptures of varied forms set against blue sky and golden desert, and 8,815 works were submitted by 2,688 artists from more than 90 countries and regions, of which 132 were selected and installed.

Around the sculptures, the forestry administration's review lists a 漠上花开 experimental plot showing the latest desertification-control techniques, the frontier-culture Suwu town, Zhaixing town and gobi cold-arid modern agriculture solar greenhouses where visitors can pick winter jujubes, figs, pepino melons and other crops. The ministry page describes Zhaixing town as having technical support from the National Astronomical Observatories, designed on a Milky Way theme with clustered spheres, twin-peak tents and other forms, and as a desert astronomy base combining science education, study travel and tourism; the forestry administration calls it the country's first desert astronomy science study base with desert stargazing as its theme.

Suwu town takes the legend of Suwu herding sheep as its background and, according to the ministry page, has, among other features, a Suwu culture axis, a desert-style commercial street and Suwu culture theme guesthouses, presenting Han central-plains and frontier culture. The same page's itinerary for the Minqin route runs through Hongqigu ecological tourism village, Ruianbao, the Shajing culture folk tourism area, Suwu Desert Scenic Area and Sushan guesthouse.

What to look for

• The sculptures of the international desert sculpture camp, more than 100 of them in the forestry administration's count, with 132 works installed out of 8,815 submitted since 2018
• Zhaixing town, the desert astronomy base designed on a Milky Way theme with clustered spheres and twin-peak tents
• Suwu town's Suwu culture axis, desert-style commercial street and Suwu culture theme guesthouses, among other features
• The 漠上花开 experimental plot showing desertification-control techniques
• The gobi cold-arid solar greenhouses, where winter jujubes, figs, pepino melons and other crops are grown
• The desert itself, in the Tengger Desert country of Minqin county

Location & getting there

Getting to Su Wu Desert Scenic Area

Confirm the road and activity operator, weather and return transport. Stay on permitted routes and do not treat open land as unrestricted access.

• Search for 苏武沙漠景区 with 武威市 and 民勤县.