The Western Xia Tombs are located on the eastern foothills of the southern section of the Helan Mountains in Yinchuan, Ningxia, about 30 kilometers from the city center. It takes about half an hour by car to reach the site. The admission fee is 68 yuan, but shuttle buses to different tombs require separate payment, which is quite unreasonable. Some combo tickets include 3D/4D movies, but surprisingly, these aren't about the Western Xia Tombs—they're actually strange romance films or animated movies. Be sure to avoid these when purchasing tickets.
Visitors typically start with the museum, though you may opt to take the shuttle to tour the tombs first before viewing exhibits. We recommend scheduling outdoor tomb visits during optimal lighting conditions based on weather forecasts.
The museum spans two floors. The first level primarily covers basic Western Xia history and culture, though its exhibition design and explanations feel mediocre—some displays offer less detail than what I've learned from books. A quick glance suffices here. The museum's true treasures reside on the second floor, where artifacts deserve careful appreciation. The primary excavated artifacts are architectural components, with the most exquisite being the Kalavinka. Kalavinka is Sanskrit for the celestial bird of the Buddha's paradise, renowned for its beautiful song. Those unearthed at the Western Xia Tombs come in two types: green glazed and gray pottery. They are shaped like human heads with bird bodies, featuring wings on their backs and tail feathers. The museum houses a significant number of Kalavinka sculptures, each with distinct characteristics. Personally, I particularly like a green-glazed beast resembling a lion, its mouth wide open as if roaring. Unfortunately, its hands are slightly damaged, likely preventing it from being classified as a first-class cultural relic. The most renowned artifacts unearthed from the Western Xia Tombs are the glazed chimera and the gilded bronze ox, though one resides in the National Museum of China and the other in the Ningxia Museum. To see the full collection, one must visit multiple locations. The Western Xia Tombs Museum displays red and gray ceramic chimeras, both sharing a similar form: dragon heads with fish tails and fiercely glaring eyes. I find them rather less endearing. More endearing are the green-glazed sea lions and Capricorns, perched on their bases with heads and tails arched upward, vivid and lively. Other notable pieces include the stone-carved strongman-shaped stela bases with exaggerated figures, inscribed with Western Xia script and Chinese characters, holding significant scholarly value. The stone dragon-carved balustrade pillars, featuring three sides adorned with “two dragons playing with a pearl” cloud patterns, offer considerable aesthetic appeal. The museum also provides detailed introductions to the Western Xia Tombs. If you plan to visit the actual tombs, this section can be skipped, as corresponding textual explanations are available on-site.
The museum tour takes about 1-1.5 hours. Afterward, we watched the 3D movie included in the ticket package. Though not worth watching, it offered a chance to sit and rest. We left halfway through and took the shuttle bus to Tomb No. 3. Tomb No. 3 is believed by researchers to be the burial site of Li Yuanhao, the founding emperor of Western Xia. Located about 2-3 kilometers from the museum, the shuttle departs once full—accommodating roughly 20 passengers. Visiting on the holiday's final day, we encountered light crowds and boarded shortly after a brief wait. The journey took approximately five minutes.
Tomb No. 3 faces south with its back to the north. Viewed from the south, a massive conical earthen mound rises from the vast plain, backed by the distant, undulating Helan Mountains. Remnants of low earthen walls surround the mound. Under the light rain that day, one could sense both the desolation and grandeur of the Western Xia Kingdom. This large earthen mound is called a mausoleum tower. Experts speculate it originally featured a seven-tiered eave structure, possibly topped with a spire. Due to prolonged exposure to wind and rain, as well as human damage, the tower's exterior and upper structure have been destroyed, leaving only the existing layered earthen mound.
The entire mausoleum complex forms a rectangle, with the tomb city measuring 180 meters north-south and 160 meters east-west. Its ramparts have 3-meter-wide foundations, segmented and rammed with yellow earth. To the south lies a rectangular moon city, 120 meters east-west and 52 meters north-south, with foundations approximately 2 meters wide. Further south, stele pavilions and gate towers stand symmetrically along the central axis.
South of the tomb pagoda, where an offering hall once stood, only a rammed earth platform remains—20 meters in diameter and 0.7 meters high. A burial mound passage, approximately 50 meters long and running north-south, connects the offering hall to the pagoda. At its northernmost end lies a looting pit, 20 meters in diameter and about 5 meters deep. Amidst the desolate yellow earth, a cluster of green plants sprouts from this looting pit—perhaps symbolizing the rebirth of the Western Xia land after catastrophe.
A thorough tour of Tomb No. 3 takes less than an hour. Afterward, shuttle buses northward return visitors to the museum or proceed to Tomb No. 4 or the Twin Tombs. Lacking time for other tombs, we skipped shuttle tickets and returned directly to the museum.
Exploring the entire Western Xia Tombs complex requires considerable time. Visiting just the museum and Tomb No. 3 took us about three hours. As the newest UNESCO World Heritage site, the park's layout and services still have room for improvement. We hope future enhancements will include better curation of artifacts and explanatory materials, along with reducing unnecessary fee-based attractions that seem designed to extract money. Such improvements would help attract more visitors from around the world.