Why it looks like this

Wuzhong sits on the Ningxia plain, where the Yellow River's water has been led into irrigation canals since Han and Qin times — the saying goes that 'the Yellow River brings a hundred harms, but enriches one region': this one. The city is a market centre of that canal-fed oasis strip between deserts.

It is also a heartland of the Hui, Chinese-speaking Muslims who make up a large share of its people; mosques and halal markets shape its neighbourhoods, and the city is known for its beef-noodle and tea culture.