Camels in the Gobi

My 10-year-old son wanted to go to the Gobi Desert since he has an interest in desert habitats.  I wanted to take him somewhere in China to improve his Chinese - and he's a useful interpreter.  I thought - how about we get some camels, go out into the desert and camp there? - yet was dubious that there'd be a way to make it happen - at least without spending a fortune.  But anyway I booked tickets to Beijing, which is not far from the desert (as the crow flies).  The idea was to buy train tickets from there to somewhere like Erlian.  A few days before the trip we went to Shenzhen to check ticket prices and availability and maybe buy them - but they were already sold out.  Thus, with Google Maps and Wikipedia and other sources I instead determined that Yinchuan in Ningxia was the place to go: just next to the desert and also culturally interesting as the Hui people's province.  They are a Muslim people, but speak Mandarin.

Still, the likelihood of a desert trip any more than a taxi ride and hike seemed low.  I made some inquiries and beyond what is basically a desert amusement park called Shapotou, there wasn't much going.  I'd seen a number for desert treks in the Lonely Planet book - but the tour agency I went to in Yinchuan said the info was out-of-date and they were no-longer functioning.  Disappointing.  But, the book was published this year - May 2013 - surely Lonely Planet's checking hadn't collapsed to that extent!  So I called the listed mobile phone - and indeed, departing from the nearby Zhongwei, it was possible to take camels and camp in the desert.  Price reasonable!

On the way out we also saw a surprising and remarkable sight: what may be the world's largest solar array.  Never heard of this and there's not much about it on the web (things happen so fast in China!)