Zhongwei tour takes you to a comfortable ancient town with a continental temperate climate just 160 km to Yinchuan. The winters are typically long and cold there and the summers are short and hot. The rainfall is minimal and there's plenty of sunshine. At the center of the town is the Gulou and it's small enough to walk everywhere. Historically, the ancient, walled city of Zhongwei was said to have had no north gates - simply because there was nothing more to the north of there. Today, Zhongwei is surrounded by a rich bed of irrigation fields and a desert. The river outside the town at Shapotou should definitely be visited during your Zhongwei tour.