Our second province was not actually a province at all, but rather an “autonomous region,” a political designation for those regions of China with large minority populations. We walked about 500 kilometres in Ningxia, and as in Gansu, we spent a bit more than half the time on the wall and a bit less than half off.
Apart from our first two days in Ningxia, all of our hiking was done after we returned from the broken foot incident, and our daily average reflects our slow progess toward full strength – we only hiked about 14.5 kilometres a day, down from over 25 a day in summer. The other noteworthy change from Gansu is in the average gradient – 3.9% in Ningxia compared to 1.8% in Gansu – still not incredibly steep but a fairly big change.
In addition to the Ningxia statistics, I’ve compiled the trip totals for the two provinces completed, which are below the Ningxia numbers. The Trip Log is also updated through Ningxia, which we passed out of on January 8.
Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region
Days in the autonomous region: 62
Days spent walking: 34
Days spent resting, sightseeing, wasting time: 28
Location at Ningxia’s western border: 35° 25’ 12.60” N, 104° 16’ 58.19” E
Location at Ningxia’s eastern border: 37° 43’ 31.66” N, 107° 29’ 42.66″ E
Kilometres walked: 496.587
Average daily distance (walking days only): 14.6055
Kilometres walked on the wall: 270.657
Kilometres walked off the wall: 224.93
Elevation at Ningxia’s western border: 1651
Elevation at Ningxia’s eastern border: 1333
Maximum elevation: 1736
Minimum elevation: 1097
Total ascent: 9564
Total descent: 9721
Average gradient: 3.883%
Trip Totals to Ningxia’s Eastern Border
Total days: 118
Days spent walking: 78
Days spent resting, sightseeing, wasting time: 40
Location at trip’s beginning: 39° 47’ 37.13” N, 98° 12’ 03.49” E
Location at Ningxia’s eastern border:: 37° 43’ 31.66” N, 107° 29’ 42.66″ E
Kilometres walked: 1390.22
Average daily distance (walking days only): 17.823
Kilometres walked on the wall: 724.543
Kilometres walked off the wall: 665.677
Elevation at trip’s beginning: 1735
Elevation at Ningxia’ eastern border: 1333
Maximum elevation: 2504
Minimum elevation: 1097
Total ascent: 18,023
Total descent: 18,206
Average gradient: 2.605%
My God ! that mapping is fantastic and what a huge effort it must be to log all that data on for us….thank you so much….
life is really going to be fun when you guys get back, choosing just what career path you will follow…looks like mapology is now on the list of things I can do…well done and thank you for all that…x