Zhaoshaogou Petroglyphs of the Zhuozi Mountain Rock Art

Open all day

15 RMB per person

Eastern part of Wuhai City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region

All year round

To be confirmed

In 1997, Wuhai was served by one major railway trunk line, the Baotou–Lanzhou Railway. There were 18 arterial highways in total, including National Highway 110 from Dengkou to Mahuanggou and National Highway 109 from Qipanjing to Shizuishan. The annual passenger transport volume reached 1.9418 million person-times, with freight volume hitting 11.1647 million tons. Railway services carried 311,800 passengers and 2.4147 million tons of cargo, while highways transported 1.63 million passengers and 8.75 million tons of goods.

These are rock carvings on gentle mountain slopes, situated on the south slope at the west entrance of Zhaoshaogou, 15 kilometers southeast of downtown Wuhai. Geologically, the site belongs to the folded belt of the Zhuozi-Helan Mountains, a spur of the northern Helan Mountains. The area features sparse vegetation and a desolate landscape.

Its geological formation consists of Ordovician grey limestone, alongside minor Cambrian shale and argillaceous shale, with the limestone registering a hardness of 7 on the Mohs scale. This site constitutes cultural relics left by northern nomadic tribes dating back to the Neolithic Age.

In May 1986, the People’s Government of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region designated these petroglyphs as an Autonomous Region-level Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit. The rock art was abraded and carved onto a gentle slope of roughly 30 degrees. Concentrated carvings cover a limestone bedrock surface of about 650 square meters, split into three segments by gullies eroded by rainwater. Scattered petroglyphs spread across an area measuring approximately 400 meters by 400 meters.