Giant Buddha Temple, Western Xia Dynasty 大佛寺，西夏王陵
October 13-14, 2025
After spending the night in Zhangye, we visited the Giant Buddha Temple (大佛寺 Dàfó Sì) in the morning. Originally built during the Western Xia Dynasty, the temple houses an enormous reclining Buddha—about 35 meters long—which is the largest indoor clay reclining Buddha in China.
After that, we headed to the high-speed rail station and took a train to Yinchuan. On board, we first bought the braised pork clay-pot rice offered on the train for lunch, but it was quite disappointing—almost all white rice but little meat. Fortunately, we discovered that nowadays in China you can order food delivery on high-speed trains, which is brought directly to your seat when the train stops at a station. Of course, this service is available only at some of the larger stations, and the choice of vendors is limited. We ordered two roujiamo from a shop at Lanzhou West Station. Just a few minutes after the train departed, a crew member arrived at our seats carrying the takeout bags. The roujiamo were hot and delicious—this service is truly fantastic.
After arriving in Yinchuan and checking into our hotel, we had dinner at a restaurant next to the hotel, where we enjoyed the best yóuxiāng flatbread and traditional aged yogurt we’d had.
The next day, we first visited an aunt who, together with her husband, had moved to China’s northwest and devoted her entire life to helping build a university there more than 65 years ago. We shared lunch together, and our thoughtful cousin chose a restaurant featuring southern Chinese flavors; the authentic dishes were no less impressive than those in Shanghai.
In the afternoon, we visited the Western Xia Tombs, often referred to as the “Pyramids of the East.” We had known very little about the history and culture of the Western Xia beforehand, so starting with the Western Xia Museum gave us a foundational understanding of this dynasty, which emerged after breaking away from the Song dynasty, and deepened our appreciation for its unique contributions to Chinese civilization. We then took a shuttle bus to visit the tombs themselves. Although a light drizzle accompanied our visit to Tomb No. 3, the experience still felt thoroughly worthwhile.
Yinchuan is clean and orderly, with modern, well-designed architecture. For dinner, we enjoyed local specialty barbecue—very authentic and delicious. The only regret was that our stay was too short; we didn’t even have time to visit the banks of the Yellow River. That will have to wait until our next visit.
大佛寺，西夏王陵
2025年10月13-14日
在张掖住了一晚，第二天早晨我们参观了大佛寺（Giant Buddha Temple）。这座寺庙最早建于西夏时期，寺内供奉着一尊长约35米的巨大卧佛，是中国最大的室内泥塑卧佛，气势宏伟，令人叹为观止。
随后我们前往高铁站，坐火车前往银川。在火车上首先买了车上提供的腊肉煲仔饭作为午餐，很失望，几乎全是白米饭。幸运的是，我们发现如今中国在高铁上都可以订外卖，到站时会送上火车。当然只是一些稍大的火车站提供这项服务，并且店家也是很有限的。我们从兰州西站的一家肉夹馍店订了二份肉夹馍，火车离开兰州西站没几分钟，乘务员便拎着外卖袋送到我们的坐位，热乎乎的肉夹馍非常好吃，这个服务真的是超级棒。
抵达银川，入住酒店之后，在酒店旁的一家餐馆就餐。吃到了最好吃的油香饼和老酸奶。
第二天，我们首先拜访了从上海去大西北扎根办学工作一辈子的阿姨，姨父一家并且与他们共聚午餐。周到的表弟特地选了家南方口味的饭店，地道美食不比上海差。下午参观了被誉为“东方金字塔”的西夏王陵（Western Xia Tombs）。原本对西夏的历史与文化知之甚少，先参观西夏博物馆的展览，让我们初步了解这个从宋朝分裂出来的王朝，并对其在中华文明中的独特贡献有了新的认识与敬意。然后坐接驳车去看王陵，虽然参观三号陵时天公不作美，细雨纷纷，但这次行程依然让人觉得不虚此行。
银川市区干净整洁，城市建筑现代大方。晚餐吃了当地的特色烧烤，十分地道，美味可口。唯一的遗憾是停留时间太短，连黄河边都没能去看看——只能留待下次再访了。