This strange small 80-hectare (200-acre) desert is close to northwest Beijing and has two sand dunes that cover about 85 acres. You can see the Guanting Reservoir, a movie base, and Great Wall relics, and you can climb the dunes and go for rides on horses.
Highlights of Tianmo Desert
Tianmo desert has a combination of mountain scenery, a reservoir, and dunes that presents a rugged refresher from Beijing City life.
A fun thing people do is sand skiing. Outfitters will give you proper sand skis to use to slide down the hill. Tourists can slide down the dunes and see the scenery from the top of the desert.
There are old rammed earth beacon towers that date from about 300 BC, some of the earliest Great Wall relics. See Great Wall History.
The Tianmo Film and Television Base uses this small desert area to shoot desert scenes for movies conveniently. So you may see a movie being shot in the location. Traditional Chinese opera is staged for entertainment.
Getting to and around Tianmo
Tianmo Desert is located in the Longbao Mountain area in Huailai County. It is 90 kilometers or 56 miles away from Beijing. Tourists can access Tianmo desert by either bus, taxi, or train from Beijing. These services are not only convenient but comfortable.
By Bus (at Deshengmen station)
At Deshengmen Station, there is a bus line (880) that leaves for Tianmo Station (terminal at Shacheng Passenger Station) at 7:00, 9:00, 11:00, 13:00, 15:00, and 16:00. It takes approximately 2 hours to reach Tianmo. The full ticket fare is CNY 28 for a single trip.
By Taxi
From Beijing, there are taxi services that can take you to Tianmo Desert (show the driver: 天漠沙漠). It is 100 kilometers (60 miles or 2 hours) from Beijing downtown to Tianmo Desert.
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- Half-Day Beijing Walking Tour in a Neighborhood
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Tianmo Travel Information
- Open: 08:00 - 18:00
- Ticket for Tianmo Park: 30 RMB (4 USD)
- Tianmo sand skiing: 30 RMB per hour (4.6 USD)
- Bathing beach: 15 RMB (2.3 USD)
- Off-road vehicles: 30 RMB/ circle (4.6 USD)
- Riding a horse: 90-120 RMB/h (10 - 15 USD)
Nearby Attractions
When the weather is good, many people enjoy fun activities on the grasslandsKangxi Grassland: This is the largest steppe in the Beijing region. Kangxi is 80 Km from downtown Beijing and 25 km from Tianmo Natural Desert scenic area. Kangxi Grassland has the largest state-operated horse racecourse in China. There is a superb horse race arena, professional horsemanship club, hunting ground, and jeep race club inside.
Badaling - most beautiful section of the great wall: Badaling is the most visited section of the Great Wall by far. Tourists choose to visit this particular section because it is easily accessible, well developed for tourism, most famed, and the walking conditions are friendly. Badaling is 73 kilometers (45 miles) from Beijing city center on your way to Tianmo.
To visit this section and Tianmo desert, simply take route G6 (national expressway). They are only a 30-km (20-mile) drive or approximately 30 minutes apart.
Touring Tianmo Desert with China Highlights
Enjoy desert terrain that appears in movies. We can help you plan a perfect tour.To help you tour Tianmo and enjoy what the attraction has to offer, you could have us extend one of our popular tour itineraries to Tianmo.
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