Shizuishan is the northernmost significant city in Ningxia, an industrial centre on the Yellow River close to the Inner Mongolian border. It is not a destination in the conventional sense — the city grew around coal mining and is now a working, unglamorous place — but it serves as the most convenient base for two natural attractions in the northern part of the province.
Shahu Lake, about 30 kilometres south of the city centre, is the more spectacular of the two: a shallow wetland where a large sandy island rises incongruously from the water, giving visitors the improbable combination of reed beds, migrating birds, and desert dunes within a single frame. The lake entrance fee covers a boat shuttle to the island; additional activities include camel riding on the sand, a chairlift, and hot air balloon rides. It is a popular Chinese domestic destination and can get busy in summer, but the basic situation — lake, island, desert — is unusual enough to justify the visit.
The Helan Mountain Rock Paintings site north of the city offers ancient petroglyphs from nomadic cultures of the steppe, similar in character to the better-known examples near Yinchuan but considerably less visited. The Yellow River Grand Canyon section nearby, where the river has cut through steep cliffs, is worth exploring for those with their own transport.
Shizuishan is about 90 minutes north of Yinchuan by car via the G6 expressway, or around 40 minutes by high-speed train on the Baotou-Lanzhou line. For most visitors the city is a day-trip destination from the capital rather than an overnight stop, unless arriving from Inner Mongolia on a southbound itinerary.