Gobi Desert, Inner Mongolia, China

Around Ejina Qi, Inner Mongolia

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Diversifolious poplar trees have been dubbed as one of the earth's few "living fossils." Locals describe their longevity by saying that the poplar trees can live for 1,000 years and after they die, they will stand for another thousand years before falling; yet, it takes another thousand years for their trunks to decompose.

Mutton + local veggies

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Delicious!

Hei Cheng 黑城 , Black City

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Heicheng was built in the Western Xia dynasty and expanded in the Yuan dynasty and became an important post house along the road from the Gansu Corridor to the north of Yunling. It was abandoned at the beginning of the Ming dynasty.

Hei Cheng 黑城 , Black City

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Heicheng has a rectangular shape with a total length of 434 meters from the east to the west and 384 meters from the north to the south, the total area of the city is 180,500 square meters. There are five pagodas made of original adobe on the 10 meter-high city wall foundations at the northwest corner. The ruins of pagoda shaped like an overturned bowl still stand at a height of 12 meters. The pagoda can be seen from distance of over 10 kilometers.

Hei Cheng 黑城

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Heicheng was built in the Western Xia dynasty and expanded in the Yuan dynasty and became an important post house along the road from the Gansu Corridor to the north of Yunling. It was abandoned at the beginning of the Ming dynasty.

Hei Cheng 黑城

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Heicheng has a rectangular shape with a total length of 434 meters from the east to the west and 384 meters from the north to the south, the total area of the city is 180,500 square meters. There are five pagodas made of original adobe on the 10 meter-high city wall foundations at the northwest corner. The ruins of pagoda shaped like an overturned bowl still stand at a height of 12 meters. The pagoda can be seen from distance of over 10 kilometers.

Hei Cheng 黑城

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Established in the year 1032 AD as the city of Iji Nai (in the lost and refound Tangut Language), according to legend the city, which lies along the river and nearby Gashun Lake, was abandoned after Chinese forces diverted the river away from it during a Siege in 1372 AD. Some 100 years before that event, the City of Khara-koto was visited by Marco Polo who named it Etzina, Capital of the Tangut Kingdom. The place of the abandoned ruins has been legendary since, its mythical reputation only enhanced by late 20Th Century and early 21st Century visits by famous European explorers who excavated an unusual amount of ancient scripts, objects and knowledge. Apart from excavating the remains of a lost remains of a lost Civilization with its own language and culture, Khara-Koto was the site where explorers found various types of silk road currencies, as well as early types of moveable type block prints.

Hei Cheng 黑城

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Heicheng became a ruined city for the shortage of water

Hei Cheng 黑城

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Water was an issue though...

Hei Cheng 黑城

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An another amazing walk amid the desert and the ruins of the Black City.

Hei Cheng 黑城

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Try imagining people living here 2000 years ago

Hei Cheng 黑城

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A taste of the past