Diving, turning, braking sharply… In the Xiangshawan Tourist Area of Dalad Banner, Inner Mongolia, all-terrain vehicles freely traverse the uneven sand dunes. Engines roar, wheels kick up clouds of yellow sand. As the vehicles maneuver and drift, screams from passengers rise and fall.

"That was so thrilling!" Shandong tourist Qi Wenjing was still shaken when the car stopped. "I never expected there to be so many steep slopes in the desert, some even close to 90 degrees. It was like riding a roller coaster; my heart was pounding. But after it was over, I felt an immersive and exhilarating experience of the desert!"

Qi Wenjing is a high school teacher. This summer, she and her friends made a special trip to Xiangshawan. "When you think of Inner Mongolia, the first thing that comes to mind is the vast grasslands. I've been there many times with my family before. A while ago, I stumbled upon a video of Xiangshawan on a short video platform. I didn't expect there to be so many activities in the boundless desert. I was immediately drawn to it."

Today's deserts are no longer the "no man's land" of traditional impressions. In recent years, more and more tourists like Qi Wenjing have made special trips to the desert.

Xiangshawan, located at the eastern end of the Kubuqi Desert in Inner Mongolia, is called "Buremangha" in Mongolian, meaning "sand dunes with trumpets." Here, the sand dunes rise 110 meters high with a 45-degree slope, forming a crescent shape and creating a large echo wall. Climbing the cloud ladder, as people slide down from the top of the dunes, they hear a roaring sound like an airplane flying overhead; when they forcefully scoop sand into their hands, they hear the croaking of frogs. Xiangshawan is thus known as the "singing desert." As a national 5A-level tourist attraction, Xiangshawan receives over 1 million visitors annually. To date, the highest single-day visitor count this year has exceeded 24,000, setting a new record.

After experiencing off-roading and camel riding, Qi Wenjing and her friends changed into cool swimsuits and tried water activities such as jet skiing and whitewater rafting. There is a 45,000-square-meter water park built in the desert, offering a variety of rides and providing visitors with a cool and exciting dream experience.

"Building water-based projects in the desert sounds like a pipe dream, but it became a reality thanks to the team's collective efforts," said Fan Shuo, a staff member at the Xiangshawan Tourist Area. He explained that Xiangshawan is bordered by the Liugou River to the west and the Hantai River to the east, boasting abundant groundwater resources that provided the material foundation for the water park's development. In terms of facilities, the water park adheres to a green and low-carbon development philosophy, utilizing solar energy to heat the bathing water and solar and wind power for lighting. Fan Shuo said that with the nourishment of water, the desert has been revitalized. Visitors can enjoy the majestic desert landscape while refreshing themselves in the water, releasing stress and having fun.

To implement the Xiangshawan entrance landscape improvement and supporting projects, the local government invested a total of 44.28 million yuan, completing 214 mu of greening projects, planting 11,072 trees and shrubs, and implementing 9.3 kilometers of water supply projects. The Xiangshawan Ecological Parking Lot was built, adding 3,686 parking spaces, including 686 for new energy vehicles, and equipped with a RV campsite, restrooms, and other infrastructure, greatly alleviating the problems of parking difficulties and insufficient facilities during peak seasons. Five new communication base stations were built, and 15.2 kilometers of communication pipelines were laid, effectively addressing the shortcomings in regional communication infrastructure and providing efficient communication support for smart tourism and digital management of the scenic area. With the continuous improvement of infrastructure, the scenic area's carrying capacity has been further enhanced, and its popularity is increasing.

Thanks to the development of the scenic area, more and more local residents are increasing their income and becoming wealthy right at their doorsteps.

Recently, the Xiangshawan to Wayashe rural road construction project, part of the Hantaichuan ecological restoration project in Dalad Banner, was completed and opened to traffic. The road is 2.462 kilometers long, connecting the Wayashe homestay cluster in Guannianfang Village, Shulinzhao Town, to Xiangshawan.

Leveraging its proximity to the Xiangshawan Scenic Area, homestays have sprung up like mushrooms in Guannianfang Village in recent years, with many villagers becoming homestay managers. Currently, more than 30 homestays have opened in the village, making it a source of income for the villagers.

“In the past, tourists coming from Xiangshawan Scenic Area to stay in homestays could only travel on bumpy gravel roads, which became muddy and impassable after rain. Now, this tourist sightseeing route leads directly to the village entrance, allowing vehicles to travel freely, which gives the village more confidence in developing homestays,” said Kang Wenming, Party Secretary of Guan Nianfang Village.

"In the future, we will take the Xiangshawan Scenic Area as a starting point, coordinate and link the Yinkentala and Engebei Desert Scenic Areas, integrate diverse resources such as photovoltaic industry, rural homestays, and intangible cultural heritage, continuously optimize the business layout, achieve differentiated development between the east, west, and central regions, avoid product homogenization, and continuously enrich the diversified supply of high-end vacations, cross-border travel, ecological research and study, and rural leisure. We will promote the tourism development model to accelerate its iteration and upgrade from traditional single desert sightseeing to desert resort complexes, allowing tourists to transform from 'seeing the sand' to 'enjoying the sand'," said Liu Zhen, Director of the Dalad Banner Culture and Tourism Bureau. (Source: People's Daily Overseas Edition)