11 September 2025 FIVE LAKES CROSSING (五湖穿越), TENGGER DESERT Today took me beyond Ningxia’s borders and into Alxa Left Banner of Inner Mongolia. This was the part of the trip I had been looking forward to the most. Ever since I saw photos of the Wulan Lake (乌兰湖) on a Chinese reality TV show, the Five lakes Crossing has been quite at the top of my travel bucket list. Today, that anticipation finally turned into reality. I crossed into Alxa Left Banner, heading towards the Five

09 September 2025 MORNING AT STAR HOTEL (沙漠星星酒店) I set my alarm early because I really wanted to catch the sunrise. When I stepped out of my room, I was greeted by this huge, round, orange sun hanging low over the desert. It looked exactly like a salted egg yolk glowing in the sky. I felt so exhilarated just looking at it. The desert sunrise. The sun was glowing like a salted egg yolk. It was absolutely worth waking up for. Without even thinking, I ran up the sand dune in fro

08 September 2025 I begin my morning with breakfast at EVEN hotel. Here are some photos of the breakfast spread as well as what I ate. JOURNEY TO ZHONGWEI (中卫) Today I travelled from Yinchuan to Zhongwei. It is a few hours’ drive, but I was feeling excited as that brought me closer to the desert, and it was actually my first time being to one. To make travelling easier, I booked a tour on Ctrip (携程), thinking it would be a small group. It turned out to be a private tour — jus