The sights of Yinchuan are all located in Laocheng and can easily be visited on foot - perhaps with the help of cycle-rickshaws - in a single day. The best place to start exploring is the centre of the city, based around the eastern part of Jiefang Jie, which is dominated by a couple of well-restored, traditionally tiered Chinese towers guarding the chief intersections. Coming from the west, the first of these is Gulou (Drum Tower) at Gulou Jie, while the second, one block farther east, is the four-hundred-year-old Yuhuang Ge (Yuhuang Pavilion), at Yuhuang Jie, which also contains a tiny exhibition room.

Moving south from this part of Jiefang Jie towards the train station takes you through the main downtown shopping area of the city. The actual commercial heart of town centres around the massive Xinhua Shopping Centre on Gulou Jie, worth seeing as an example of how fast China has developed, even in little Ningxia. From here it is about another kilometre southeast to the Nanmen (South Gate) at the southern end of Zhongshan Jie near the bus station, where a mock-up of the front gate of the Forbidden City in Beijing has been erected, complete with Mao Zedong's portrait and tiered seating for dignitaries. Fifteen minutes' walk southwest of Nanmen is the Mosque . First built in 1915, it was rebuilt in 1981 after years of damage and neglect during the Cultural Revolution. The mosque is in the Arabian style with green domes and minarets, which sets it apart from the purely Chinese style of flying eaves and pagoda-style minarets of many mosques farther east.

Moving to the eastern half of Laocheng you'll find a couple more sights. On Jining Jie, a few blocks south of Jiefang Jie, is the small Regional Museum and Xi Ta pagoda, together on the same site (daily 8am-5pm; ¥20). The most diverting section of the museum is to the right as you enter, where there are some splendidly preserved Han relics, including ancient Chinese characters engraved on stone tablets, figurines and glazed pots. There are also some attractive coloured figures, some on horseback, from the Western Zhou, though perhaps the most interesting item is a bronze drinking vessel of Graeco-Roman origins, imported along the Silk Road two thousand years ago and recently discovered in Ningxia. Out in the grounds of the museum once again, you'll see the Xi Ta, a classic Chinese pagoda and a place of worship for Buddhists, which was built during the time of the Western Xia, around 1050. You can climb the 65-metre tower right to the top for excellent views.

Look north up Jining Jie from Jiefang Jie and you'll see another tower peering up from the horizon in the distance directly ahead - this is the 1500-year-old Hai Bao Ta , otherwise known as the North Pagoda. Brick-built, 54 metres high and of an unusual, angular shape, with protruding ledges and niches at every level, the Hai Bao Pagoda is architecturally by far the most interesting structure in Yinchuan and well worth a visit. Walking there from Jiefang Jie takes forty minutes.