Hami Wubu Yadan: The Five-Forts Devil City of the East

The Red Fortress East of Hami

East of Hami city, where the Gobi runs to the horizon, wind and time have carved a field of red sandstone into something that looks built. This is Wubu Yadan — the Five-Forts Devil City — a yardang desert where erosion has left walls, towers, and gates of bare earth standing in the flat. I expected a smaller version of Karamay’s famous Devil City and found something rougher, redder, and far emptier. For most of my visit I was the only car in 90 square kilometres of ruined earth.

Wubu is 90 km east of Hami city on the G30 then a desert track south (signed “Wubu Devil City”). The run is about 90 minutes. Come for the light and you will have the place to yourself.

The Drive Out

The G30 east of Hami is fast desert highway; at the Wubu exit you turn south onto a sealed county road that degrades to hardpack over the last 20 km. Any car manages the hardpack at 40 km/h; the issue is not the road but the wind, which on the plateau hits 80 km/h and will shove a van across the lane. I drove it one May morning in calm air and had no trouble; a friend who went in March described being pushed onto the shoulder twice. Check the wind before you leave Hami.

The site has a gate (¥40, 2025) and a one-way loop road of about 25 km that carries you past the named formations — the “castle,” the “queen,” the “expressway of the dead.” The loop takes 90 minutes without stops; I took three hours with them.

Reading the Stone

Yardang is what you get when wind-borne sand scours soft rock for a million years: ridges and furrows, then isolated towers where the furrows meet. At Wubu the rock is red-brown, from iron in the silt, and the towers catch the low sun like lit coals. The named formations are a local invention — none is older than the wind that made it — but standing under the “castle” wall, 30 m of vertical earth, you get why people call it a city.

I walked away from the loop road at a pull-off and climbed a low ridge for a wide view; the whole field lay like a ruined capital at dusk. The Karamay Devil City is bigger and more famous, but Wubu’s red stone and empty lanes suited me better. Pair the two if you drive the whole north-south span; they are the same process in different colours.

Light and the Wind

The yardang reads best 5–7 p.m., when the sun rakes the towers and the shadows lengthen the “streets.” Mornings are flat; midday is white glare. The wind is the constant hazard: it lifts a red dust that coats the car and stings the eyes, and on bad days the site closes the loop for safety. I carried goggles and a scarf and used both. The Dabancheng wind corridor shares Hami’s gusty character if you want to compare causes.

Food and the Melon Country

On the way out, the Hami melon roadside stalls are the draw — netted-skin melons at ¥2 a kilo in season, the sweetest in China, picked that morning. I bought one at the Wubu turn-off and ate it at the gate, juice to the elbows. In Hami city the grill rows do kawap at ¥3 and zhuafan at ¥22; the Hami guide lists the night-market strips. The site itself has only a summer noodle tent at ¥25 — bring water and a snack instead.

Where to Sleep

Stay in Hami city (90 min north, full hotel range per the Hami guide) and day-trip Wubu. The site has no lodging and the wind makes camping miserable. I did dawn-to-dusk from Hami and was back for a hot shower by 8 p.m. That is the right shape for a yardang day.

When to Go

April to May and September to October are calm and comfortable. June to August is hot (38°C+) but the light is good; go early or late. November to March is cold and windy, with the loop sometimes closed by ice and gale. The Turpan side of the mountains is hotter; Hami’s altitude keeps it a few degrees kinder.

Practical Notes

No border permit. Checkpoints light. Fuel in Hami before the track; the one Wubu pump keeps odd hours. Mobile signal is full to the gate, gone in the field — download offline maps and tell Hami your plan. Stay on the loop road; the towers look solid but the silt crumbles, and a fall from a “wall” is a long walk to help. The red dust stains light clothing permanently; wear the old stuff.

Wubu is the desert’s architecture, built by weather and abandoned to it. Drive east from Hami, walk the red streets at sunset, and you will have stood in a city nobody built.

The Named Formations Walk

The site maps name about a dozen formations, and the names are half the fun. The “Castle” is a tower with a doorway the wind cut; the “Queen” is a slender spire the locals say wears a crown at dusk; the “Expressway of the Dead” is a long ridge with parallel furrows like a ruined road; the “Turtle” is a low dome that does, from the right angle, read as a shell. I walked the loop road and climbed to three of them, each a ten-minute scramble up soft silt that the wind is slowly erasing. The names are a local invention, but standing under the Castle wall at 30 m you see why people reach for buildings.

The loop road has pull-offs at each named point; park, walk in, and the formation is yours. The site is rarely busy — I shared it with one other car — so you can take the time the towers deserve. The Karamay Devil City names its formations too, but with tour buses at every one; Wubu’s you have alone.

Geology of the Yardang

Yardang (a Turkic word for “steep bank”) forms where wind-borne sand scours soft rock along a preferred line, cutting furrows, then isolating the ridges between them into towers. At Wubu the rock is lake-bed silt from a drier age, iron-stained red, and the prevailing northeast wind has done the cutting for perhaps a million years. The towers lean downwind; read the lean and you read the weather of the place. I ran a hand over a tower face and it came away red as dust — the whole structure is going back to the air that made it, one grain at a time. The Dabancheng corridor shares the wind but not the rock; Wubu is the yardang in colour.

Compositions for the Camera

Wubu shoots best wide and low. A 16–35 mm at knee height makes the towers loom; a 70–200 mm isolates the Queen against the plain; a polariser deepens the red in the late light. The “Expressway of the Dead” is the one wide shot — stand at the ridge end and let the furrows run to the horizon. I shot it at 6:40 p.m. as the sun raked the wall and the shadow filled the “streets”; the exposure was 1/30 at the low light, so a tripod helped. The photography route guide ranks Wubu high for minimalist desert frames; the red rock is the reason it is not just another Devil City.

Bring a cloth for the lens — the red dust is constant in wind and stains. And wear the old clothes; the silt comes home in every seam.

The Wind Check Before You Leave

Wubu is a wind decision. Check the Hami forecast for the plateau (not the city) before you set off; if the gust line reads above 60 km/h, postpone — the loop road closes in a gale and the red dust blinds. I learned this from a Hami driver who refused to go one March morning and was right; the gate was shut by noon. The calm windows are dawn and the late afternoon, with the midday often the worst. Plan to arrive at the gate by 3 p.m. for the 5–7 p.m. light and a wind that usually drops with the sun. The Hami guide lists the drivers who know the plateau; use one if the forecast is grey.

The Loop Road, Stop by Stop

The 25 km loop runs past, in order: the Gate View (the field opens), the Castle (first tower, 10 min walk), the Queen (slender spire, 15 min), the Expressway of the Dead (long ridge, 20 min), the Turtle (low dome, 10 min), and the Far Wall (the best wide shot, 30 min). I spent 3 hours and skipped none; the Far Wall at 6:40 p.m. was the frame. The pull-offs are graded and signed in Chinese; park clear of the track so the loop keeps moving. The Karamay Devil City is the bigger cousin; Wubu’s loop is the quieter, redder version.

What to Bring

For Wubu: 2 litres of water per person (the wind dehydrates), a scarf and goggles for the dust, a windbreaker (the plateau is 15° colder than Hami), closed shoes (the silt is sharp), a lens cloth, and a full fuel tank from Hami. Cash for the ¥40 gate and the ¥25 noodle tent. A downloaded offline map — signal dies at the gate. I carried all and used the water, the goggles, and the map; the rest were insurance that earned its place.

The Gate and the Small Museum

The Wubu gate has a low museum of yardang geology — a few panels on how wind makes the towers, a tray of the red silt, and a photo wall of the named formations in different light. It is free, takes 20 minutes, and explains what you are about to drive through; I read it first and saw the loop with new eyes. The gate staff also rent the goggles and scarves you forgot (¥10), and sell water at ¥15 — overpriced but welcome if you ran dry. The Hami guide covers the city base; the gate is the desert’s front desk, and worth the stop before the loop.

Pairing Wubu With Hami

Wubu is the eastern cap of a Hami day: leave Hami at 1 p.m., drive the G30 east (90 min), do the loop at 3–6 p.m. for the light, and return for a kawap dinner on the Hami night market (the melon guide names the stalls). I ran it as a half-day and the red towers at dusk were the headline, the city the footnote. If you are looping north Xinjiang, Wubu is the easternmost stop before the G7 carries you out of the region; the Karamay Devil City is the western bookend, and the two frame the yardang country between them.