Helan Mountain Rock Art (贺兰山岩画)

The Helan Mountain Rock Art (贺兰山岩画) is a 60 km wall of schist cliffs at the northern foot of the Helan range, and the carvings on it are the oldest and most important rock art in northern China. The whole Helan corridor is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, inscribed in 2019, largely because of what is scratched, pecked, and painted into this rock.

Highlights

Over 2,000 individual carvings - Mostly ibex (yán yáng, the blue sheep) at rest, running, fighting, and clustered around newborns. They come in groups of dozens, and single cliff panels hold a few hundred figures. The hunting scenes are startlingly accurate; the humans are stick figures next to them.

The Sun Faces - The images everyone photographs: round faces, wide across the forehead, some with rays or rays above the head. Usually read as masked figures or a deity. No one agrees, and the disagreement is part of why they stick with you.

The west face open-air museum - A roughly 2 km loop of boardwalk along the accessible side of the cliff. This is where the famous faces are and it takes about an hour. The east face has far more carvings but needs a guide and a separate permit.

The mountain itself - The Helans still hold native wild grape and the densest raptor population on the range, and the road up passes the Great Helan Mountain arch bridge, one of the highest concrete arch bridges in China.

¥60 ($8.40). 40 km west of Yinchuan, 45-60 minutes by taxi, ¥90-150 ($13-21) one way. Open daily. The carvings are unfenced and unlit, so the last hour of light is when the faces read best - but do not walk the boardwalk in the dark, the footing is uneven.