Zhenbeipu Western Film Studio

Zhenbeipu was a pair of frontier forts, one from the Ming and one from the Qing, built of rammed earth on the dry plain below the Helan range, and in the 1980s a writer, Zhang Xianliang, recognised that the weathered walls and empty desert made ready-made film sets. The studio he founded became the location for a long list of Chinese films, notably Red Sorghum and A Chinese Odyssey, and the sets from those productions have been left standing, so visitors walk through streets, courtyards, inns and workshops built for particular films, with stills and equipment displayed alongside.

What you actually see

• The two earth forts - Ming and Qing frontier walls and gates.
• The standing sets - streets and interiors left from famous productions.
• The film displays - stills, props and equipment from the shoots.
• The desert setting - dry plain below the Helan range.

When to go

April to June and September to October; summer is hot with little shade and winter cold and windy. Weekends and holidays are busy with domestic visitors who know the films.

Honest expectations

The appeal depends heavily on knowing the films; visitors who do not may find it thin. Sets are wood and plaster and weathering. Entry is charged and staged performances are frequent.

Nearby

The Western Xia tombs lie south; Yinchuan is east.