Bayan Nur

About Bayan Nur

Bayannur sits where the Yellow River makes the northern arc of its great loop, and the river has made it a land of farms in the middle of the steppe. The Hetao plain, watered for centuries by canals dug from the river, grows wheat, sunflowers and melons in a region otherwise defined by grassland, mountains and sand.

The city's administrative centre is Linhe, a modern town of wide avenues and parks. North of the plain rise the Yinshan and Langshan ranges, whose rocks carry thousands of ancient petroglyphs of animals and hunters, and whose passes were guarded by Han dynasty forts against the nomads of the north. Mongolian herding life continues on the Urad grasslands beyond the mountains.

Water shapes the most popular sights: Wuliangsuhai, a large reed-fringed lake that draws migrating birds, and the Sanshenggong barrage that feeds the irrigation network from the Yellow River. To the west the Ulan Buh desert reaches the riverbank, so one day can take in irrigated fields, open water and dunes.