Yinchuan is known as a rural city, it having a population of "only" around one million people. It is an extremely spread out city, with incredibly straight roads that go long distances. One road runs for 40km through the city and is dead straight all the way!
The areas near Yinchuan are viticulture growth areas, as the climate there is thought to be well suited to wine production. The history goes back a bit, with a 1984 wine being recognised as the first white wine made in Ningxia. There are some good reasons to have grapes growing here - supposedly it has the second highest number of sunshine hours per year, second only to Tibet, which is probably a bit too harsh of an area! However, the same drawback are here - it's so cold and dry during the winter that the vines must be buried each autumn. A major headache, even in this land of plentiful labour.
Rainfall is only 200mm per year, but it can occur pretty much all at once! The wettest months on average are July through December, so right during the grape ripening season!
The soils are very sandy, so phylloxera is not yet a problem (it has been found in the Shandong province and in the areas around Beijing), and thus most vines are own-rooted, propagated by cuttings taken from another vineyard (which has meant the spread of virus has been wide and far!). Soil pH can be very high before amendment - 8.9!!
The soil in a vineyard near Yinchuan - pure sand!I was told that there are about 5000 hectares of grapes in Ningxia, and a good yield for the red varieties they like to grow is in the range of 22 tonnes per hectare, which is very high!! Although the rows are reasonably far apart, the between vine spacing is very close.
Vines in the Chateau Helan vineyard, with the Helan Mountains in the background. Vines are very closely spaced, with the vertical trunks being laid down along the row in the Autumn, before being covered with soil.All in all, a very different area to grow grapes!!
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