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Discover Inner Mongolia

Resonant Sand Gorge (Xiangshawan)

响沙湾

A 5A-rated resort at the eastern tip the Kubuqi, China's seventh-largest desert, named for the booming note the dunes make when sand slides down them. You reach the dunes by cable car or dune buggy, and there are desert hotels on the sand if you want to stay - it is a built-up experience, but the dune field itself is real and vast.

From ¥120 (entry); cable car, dune buggies and sand-sledging are charged on top and add up quickly≈ US$18Half a day minimum; a full day or overnight if you use the desert resortClosed None reported; limited winter operationPassport needed
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Resonant Sand Gorge (Xiangshawan) (响沙湾), Inner Mongolia
Photo: 天王星 · CC BY-SA 3.0

The story

What makes this place special

Xiangshawan, the Resonant Sand Gorge, is on the northeastern edge of the Kubuqi Desert in Dalad Banner, Ordos, and takes its name from a sound the dune slope makes when sand slides down it in the right conditions. It is one of the earliest-developed desert tourism sites in China: the first of its cableways was built in August 1999, described as the world's first desert cableway, at 498m one way, with a second of 450m added in 2007. The site has since been built up with resort accommodation including a large hotel in the form of a lotus, and the season is normally given as May to October.

What you’ll discover

You cross from the gorge rim to the dune field by cableway, arriving on sand, and from there the site is organised as a desert resort: dune buggies and 4x4 rides over the crests, camel strings, sandboarding down the slip faces, zip lines, a performance arena and a cluster of resort hotels out in the dunes. The dunes themselves are large and genuinely impressive once you walk away from the installations, and the sunrise and night sky from the resort side are the best of it.

A little local insight

Good to know before you go

  • The sand only sings under particular dry conditions, and the listening-to-the-sand activity is routinely cancelled for weather, as are sunrise and stargazing. Do not build the trip around it.
  • Walk out of the activity zone. Fifteen minutes on foot over two dune crests and the buggies and loudspeakers are gone; that is where the desert is, and the great majority of visitors never leave the serviced area.
  • Stay a night in the dunes if you can. Day visitors get heat, noise and queues; the overnight guests get sunset, sunrise and a sky with no light pollution, which is the actual attraction.
  • Sand gets everywhere and ruins camera and phone mechanisms. Bring a sealed bag, and shoes you can empty; sandals fill instantly and the sand surface reaches painful temperatures by midday in summer.
  • The season runs roughly May to October and the site is not a winter destination. Midsummer midday on open sand is brutally hot, so plan early morning and late afternoon activity with a long break in between.
  • Everything beyond entry and the cableway is charged separately and adds up fast. Decide which two or three activities you want before you arrive rather than buying at each stand.

When to come

May to June and September to October, when the sand is not dangerously hot and the light is good. Within the day, the hour after sunrise and the two before sunset; midday in July and August is unpleasant and the dune surface is too hot to walk on comfortably.

Getting around

Limited. The cableway boards on the level and the resort platforms and restaurants are built up out of the sand with boardwalks, so a wheelchair user can reach the dune edge and the facilities. Everything beyond that is soft sand, which a standard wheelchair cannot cross, and the activities involve climbing into buggies or onto camels. A bad knee can manage the serviced area but will find walking on dune slopes hard work.

Worth knowing before you go

The headline price is only the gate - budget for the cable car as well, because the dunes are not walkable from the entrance in summer heat.

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