I enjoyed looking at all of the signs on buildings. They are in Mongolian which is a bit similar to Arabic and also have mandarin as well. The building designs are pretty distinct and different from the rest of China.
I have seen these milk candy (they are not sweet and some of them are a bit chalky) in Guangzhou but they are everywhere here. They also have Mongolian milk tea powder made of camel milk, etc. It is actually quite tasty.
We rented a car to get around. We could only do that because Jack is Chinese. It was the easiest way to move from the volcano cluster, to the grassland, and then the desert. They are not close together but the longest trip was 4.5 hours. My friends were worried that there would not be anything for me to eat as there is a lot of meat eating there but there were quite a few tasty vegetable dishes. We made a joke that I grazed on the grassland! I did try the lamb which was amazing.
I have seen so many snacks here in China but going on road trips and stopping at rest stops has some different foods. This is a pig foot.
I’m always interested in critters I see when in nature. This bug was pretty cool.
I’m obsessed with the lions that are on each side of doorways. These are different obviously as it is more Mongolian than Han Chinese.
It was interesting to see the different housing in inner Mongolia. This is a very old dwelling we saw.
Each house has a wall around their yard. They keep their livestock there after they let them graze during the day. This is not similar to villages in the south of China.
The gardens here are just as beautiful as they are in the rest of China. These lotus flowers are beautiful.
We stayed in a couple 5 star hotels in hohhot. It was interesting to note that in the south there will be English movies that play in english with Chinese subtitles but up here in the North they dub the voices in Chinese and there is no English subtitles.
We definitely drew attention to us as not many foreigners are up here nor visit. We were asked often to have our pictures taken with Chinese. Many were on vacation from places there are not foreigners. Running through Hohhot also drew many looks.
We still saw some people turn away or put on masks when we approached. We saw that behavior more in the south however. Otherwise, there was actually less mask wearing up in inner Mongolia (and also Chongqing) than other places. There is fake news going around that since scientists believe covid was around longer but not as deadly, that it was manufactured somewhere else and brought to China (read: the USA). That is something many Chinese find ridiculous as well, but human beings are the same everywhere.
At the volcano cluster a Chinese person asked Jack where I was from. After he replied, she asked if the pandemic was over. Of course not. But many don’t realize that some expats have been here the whole time so it is natural for them to think we just arrived on vacation.
It is frustrating when we check into a hotel that we have to show our passport, visa, AND stamp of arrival to China. Since there is a 2 to 4 week quarantine period if you are able to get back in the country, I’m not sure why that matters anymore. Some have said it is for tracking but they can always track our movements through passport records and online booking. This is definitely a sign of the times. The grassland and desert places didn’t even ask for our passport to check in. They were pretty chill and it was great to feel normal.
I am fortunate despite all of the headaches to be able to see parts of China many don’t go to. I saw much last summer and plan to see the rest this year as no telling how long I can stay here as it is difficult to leave and no guarantee you can come back.
I loved inner Mongolia for all the nature and the food but now excited to see the last two ancient capitols: Nanjing and Luoyang.