Zhenbeibu, the Ningxia frontier fort that sold its emptiness to Chinese cinema

On the rammed-earth wall above the main gate at Zhenbeibu, the wind coming down off the Helan Mountains carries grit you can feel between your teeth. Below the parapet, a man in a rented robe and a gold headband takes directions from a friend holding a phone: step to the edge, look back, hold still. He is acting out the last minutes of a mid-nineties comedy that much of the Chinese-speaking world can quote, on the wall where it was filmed. The wall itself is several centuries older than the film.

A fort that sold its emptiness

Zhenbeibu Western Film Studio (镇北堡西部影城, Zhenbeibu Xibu Yingcheng) stands on the bare gravel plain northwest of Yinchuan (银川), the capital of Ningxia (宁夏). It occupies two frontier forts side by side: an older one from the Ming dynasty and a newer one added under the Qing, known locally as the old fort and the new fort (老堡 laobao and 新堡 xinbao). When film crews first came, both were half-collapsed mud enclosures. What drew them was the view: nothing modern stood between the battlements and the horizon.

The novelist Zhang Xianliang (张贤亮), who lived in Ningxia for most of his adult life, turned the ruins into a working studio and a paid attraction. His phrase for the venture still turns up on signboards and in guides' patter.

他说，这里卖的是荒凉。

Chumai huangliang (出卖荒凉), he called it: selling desolation. In practice that has meant light restoration. Walls are patched, not rebuilt, the lanes are packed earth, and sets from different productions stand next to each other with little to say which film they came from. Read the small placards by the doorways, which name the films. Without them, the place looks like one long, dusty village.

The gate tower from A Chinese Odyssey

For many Chinese visitors, the reason to come is A Chinese Odyssey (大话西游, Dahua Xiyou), the two-part Hong Kong comedy loosely drawn from Journey to the West (西游记, Xiyou Ji). Its closing scene was shot on this fort's gate, with flags snapping in the wind and a crowd looking up from below. The gate and its tower have been kept close to how they look on screen. On weekends expect a short queue on the steps and a small crowd on the parapet repeating the same routine. One person stands at the edge, another films from the courtyard, and someone off camera recites the line about a distant figure who looks like a dog.

Near the foot of the wall, vendors rent out the golden headband and rough versions of the Monkey King's costume, and photographers with long lenses offer to shoot you on the battlements. Ask the price before anyone hands you a prop. It is usually charged per costume or per set of edited photos, and both vary. If a section of wall is roped off, a crew is probably working. The studio still hosts shoots, and active sets take priority over visitors.

The Red Sorghum yard

A few minutes' walk inside the old fort is the set for Red Sorghum (红高粱, Hong Gaoliang), the late-eighties feature set around a rural distillery. The yard keeps the film's look: low earthen sheds blackened inside, big glazed jars lined up against a wall, a wooden lattice gate. The liquor in the story is called Eighteen-Li Red (十八里红, Shibali Hong). Expect to see the name on souvenir bottles around the yard. Treat them as keepsakes, not as an example of local drinking, which in Ningxia leans toward baijiu and, more and more, grape wine.

The detail worth slowing down for is the soot. The ceilings of the sheds are smoked a deep brown, and you can't tell how much came from the original shoot and how much from later dressing. Performances in the courtyards, including a bouncing bridal sedan in the manner of the film's opening, run on a schedule posted at the entrance, and not every day. Check the board when you arrive, not when you reach the yard.

Old Yinchuan in plaster

The new fort holds Old Yinchuan Street (老银川一条街, Lao Yinchuan Yi Tiao Jie), a rebuilt Republic-era market street with a teahouse, a pawnshop front, a blacksmith's forge and a cloth merchant's counter. Some of these are working stalls that sell snacks or cups of eight-treasure tea (八宝茶, babao cha). That is the Hui-style brew served in a lidded gaiwan (盖碗) with rock sugar, red dates, longan and Ningxia goji (枸杞, gouqi), and the cup is topped up with hot water as you drink. Other fronts are just facades with storerooms behind them.

This street is where you see the studio's double life. Behind the shopfronts there are racks of padded Qing jackets, and stacks of takeaway boxes in a doorway mark where the extras ate lunch. On a working day the people in costume may be playing a scene rather than posing for photos. Watch for a crew member's raised hand before you walk into a frame.

The Helan foothills beyond the set

The studio is one of several stops along the eastern foot of the Helan Mountains (贺兰山, Helan Shan), and it is worth combining it with at least one other. The Western Xia Imperial Tombs (西夏陵, Xixia Ling) lie to the south: tall earthen mounds standing in open steppe, eroded into ridged cones. Further north is the Helankou rock art site (贺兰口岩画, Helankou Yanhua), where carvings of animals and wide-eyed faces are pecked into the boulders of a dry gorge. Between them, along the same slope, are the vineyards and chateaux of Ningxia's wine country. Many of them take visitors, mostly by appointment.

Back in the city, eat at a Hui restaurant, marked qingzhen (清真), meaning halal. Order hand-held mutton (手抓羊肉, shouzhua yangrou), which comes on the bone with cut garlic and spiced salt, and mutton offal soup (羊杂碎, yang zasui) in the morning. Don't bring outside food into these places, and expect that some won't serve alcohol. In the evenings, Huaiyuan Night Market (怀远夜市, Huaiyuan Yeshi) has rows of grills and noodle stalls. The Drum Tower (鼓楼, Gulou) in the old centre is a useful landmark for getting your bearings.

Getting there, and when to go

Yinchuan is served by Hedong International Airport (河东国际机场, Hedong Guoji Jichang) and by high-speed trains into Yinchuan Station (银川站, Yinchuan Zhan) from Xi'an and Lanzhou. The studio is on the city's northwest edge. A ride-hailing car from the centre usually takes under an hour, depending on traffic. Public buses also run, but routes change, so check them with your hotel or a local map app on the day. Book your return car before you leave the studio, because cars can be scarce out there in the late afternoon.

Late spring and early autumn are the comfortable seasons. Summer afternoons on the walls are hot and shadeless, winter wind cuts through any coat, and spring can bring dust storms that turn the sky the colour of the walls. Go early in the day for the gate tower, before the tour coaches arrive. The ticket structure has changed over time and may combine a gate fee with separately charged attractions inside. Confirm current prices, opening hours and performance times through the studio's official channels or the Ningxia tourism authority before you go, and carry your passport, since ticket counters at many Chinese sites ask for ID. The mistake to avoid is treating the visit as a museum stop of an hour. The forts are bigger than they look from the car park, the placards are spread out, and the best light on the wall comes late in the afternoon, so allow half a day.