The Helan Mountains, frequently called Alashan Mountains in older sources, are an isolated desert mountain range forming the border of

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...

's Alxa League and

Ningxia Ningxia (,; , ; alternately romanized as Ninghsia), officially the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region (NHAR), is an autonomous region in the northwest of the People's Republic of China. Formerly a province, Ningxia was incorporated into Gansu in ...

. They run north-south parallel to the north-flowing

Yellow River The Yellow River or Huang He (Chinese: , Standard Beijing Mandarin, Mandarin: ''Huáng hé'' ) is the second-longest river in China, after the Yangtze River, and the List of rivers by length, sixth-longest river system in the world at th ...

in the Ordos Loop section. The river is mostly east of the mountains, but in the north it crosses without making a significant gorge and flows on the west side. To the west lies the extremely arid

Tengger Desert The Tengger Desert or Tengri Desert ( mn, Тэнгэр цөл, ) is an arid natural region that covers about 36,700 km2 and is mostly in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in China. The desert is expanding in size.Haner, Josh, et al. (24 O ...

, while to the east is an irrigated area beside the Yellow River, in which lie the cities of

Yinchuan Yinchuan (, ; ) is the capital of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China, and was the capital of the Tangut-led Western Xia dynasty. It has an area of and a total population of 2,859,074 according to the 2020 Chinese census, and its buil ...

and

Shizuishan Shizuishan, formerly Shizuizi, is a prefecture-level city in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. It is the northernmost prefecture in Ningxia and the second most populous, after the regional capital Yinchuan, bord ...

- a little further east of which lies the Mu Us portion of the

Ordos Desert The Ordos Desert () is a desert/steppe region in Northwest China, administrated under the prefecture of Ordos City in the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region (centered ca. ). It extends over an area of approximately , and comprises two sub-des ...

. To the north lies the Inner Mongolian city of

Wuhai Wuhai (; mn, ''Üqai qota'', Mongolian cyrillic.Үхай хот) is a prefecture-level city and regional center in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China, and is by area the smallest prefecture-level division of the region. It is located ...

. They are about 200 km from north to south, from 15 to 50 km wide and average about 2000 meters in altitude (the Yellow River here is about 1,100 meters above sea level). Their highest peak is .

Emerging wine industry

With the increasing popularity of

Ningxia wines A Ningxia wine is any wine produced in the Chinese province of Ningxia ( Chinese: 宁夏; pronounced ǐŋɕjâ. Since large producers moved into the region in the 1980s and local producer successes at wine competitions in the 2010s spurred furth ...

, the Chinese authorities have given approval to the development of the eastern base of the Helan Mountains as an area suitable for wine production. Several large Chinese wine companies including Changyu and Dynasty Wine have begun development in the western region of the province. Together they now own 20,000 acres of land for wine plantations and Dynasty has ploughed 100 million yuan into Ningxia. In addition, the major oil company

China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (中国石油化工股份有限公司) or Sinopec (), is a Chinese oil and gas enterprise based in Beijing. It is listed in Hong Kong and also trades in Shanghai. Sinopec Limited's parent, Sinopec G ...

has founded a grape plantation near the Helan Mountains. The household appliance company

Midea Midea may refer to: * Midea Group (美的集团), a Chinese electrical appliance manufacturer * Midea, Greece, a Greek town * Midea (Argolid), a citadel in the town of the same name * Midea or Mideia, name of four figures in Greek mythology * '' ...

has also begun participating in Ningxia's wine industry."Grape expansion: Chinese wine companies move west"
, ''Want China Times'', 15 December 2011. Retrieved 17 December 2011.

Gallery

File:AlshaaUul.jpg, Landscape with modern pagoda in Helan uplands. File:贺兰山岩画太阳神.jpg, Petroglyph of a sun deity. File:A picture from China every day 287.jpg, Helan mountain setting of Guangzong temple, Alxa league. File:A picture from China every day 289.jpg, Guangzong temple, Alxa league. File:贺兰山山丹丹.JPG, Helan wildflower: scarlet-flowered

Lilium ''Lilium'' () is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants growing from bulbs, all with large prominent flowers. They are the true lilies. Lilies are a group of flowering plants which are important in culture and literature in much of the world. M ...

species. File:Helanshan.jpg, View from cable car, Helan Mountains, Ningxia. File:Xixia.jpg, Remains of

Western Xia The Western Xia or the Xi Xia (), officially the Great Xia (), also known as the Tangut Empire, and known as ''Mi-nyak''Stein (1972), pp. 70–71. to the Tanguts and Tibetans, was a Tangut-led Buddhist imperial dynasty of China tha ...

(Tangut Empire) mausoleum no. 3, foot of Helan Mountains, Ningxia. File:XiXia Tomb 3 two stele bases (east).jpg, Fierce,

hag HAG is a Swiss maker of model trains. The company was founded by Hugo and Alwin Gahler on 1 April 1944 in St. Gallen, Switzerland. The Gahler brothers originally manufactured model trains in O scale but due to competition, particularly by Märk ...

-like grave guardians sculpted on two

stele A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), whe ...

bases, mausoleum no. 3,

Western Xia mausoleums The Western Xia mausoleums occupy an area of some at the foot of the Helan Mountains in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of northwestern China, and include nine imperial mausoleums and 250 tombs of imperial relatives and officials of China's ...

References

{{Authority control Mountain ranges of Inner Mongolia Landforms of Ningxia Highest points of Chinese provinces