Inner Mongolia – HurricaneMaine

Inner Mongolia thoughts (and traveling in a pandemic)

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.

Dazhao temple

This temple in Hohhot is part of the Gelugpa Tibetan Buddhism Temple, and the Gelug Sect (Huang Jiao). It was founded in the early 15th century by the leader of the Tumut tribe of the Ming Dynasty (Alatan Khan) in the 7th year of Ming Wanli’s reign. They follow Gru, the law of goodness, emphasizing strict adherence to the commandments. The the monks wear yellow caps. The six great Buddhist temples of Gelugpa are only to be seen in Tibet. Because the temple is dedicated to a silver Buddha, it is also known as the “Silver Buddha Temple.”

Dazhao Temple is the earliest built Huangjia Temple in Hohhot. It is very large with temples and halls including Shanmen, Tianwang Hall, Bodhi Temple, Jiujian Building, Jingtang, Buddhist Temple, etc.

Walking on the way back to the hotel we saw what we thought was a temple and it was. It was a Muslim temple. We were stopped quickly on the entrance as women have to have their legs and shoulders covered. I still got a few pictures.

Afterwards we had some of the best noodles I have had so far. They are handmade. Here is a recipe : https://thewoksoflife.com/green-bean-noodles-bian-dou-men-mian/ We also tried the local hohhot brewed beer.

Kubuqi Desert

We drove from the grassland in inner Mongolia to the desert. It was the longest drive and at this point we are getting pretty tired of being on the road but everything is so far away.

Container rooms and yurt from drone photo.

Drone image of me on a 2 km run through desert.

This area is part of the greening of China initiative. See the paragraph at the end of this post.

We stayed in a container room. It was not our best accommodation but it was nice to walk right out on to the desert when I wanted without driving there. In the early morning I went out to get a sunrise shot but many clouds were in the horizon.

We set out to walk around when it was so quite warm.

Sunset pictures were taken from a viewing platform a half hour drive away and overlooking a very expensive 5 star accommodation.

There is a large solar panel farm on the desert. They are also greening the desert areas that have been overgrazed for centuries. From Time article:

Kubuqi, for one, boasts China’s largest single-stage solar farm, boasting 650,000 fixed and sun-tracking panels, which together channel 1,000 megawatts of electricity into the national grid — about half the power-generating capacity of the Hoover Dam. A team of 47 households are employed to maintain the panels. “Everyday each household can clean more than 3,000 panels using high pressure water jets,” says chief engineer Tian Junting. “And the run-off water feeds the crops that grow underneath.”

On our morning walk we saw a set up fur a desert themed wedding.

Xilamuren grassland

This is the nearest grassland to Hohhot and the earliest grassland to have been developed for tourists in Inner Mongolia. It is 1,000 square kilometers (400 square miles) and at an altitude of 1,700 meters (5,600 feet).

This plateau grassland has a chain of hills around it. In the Mongolian language, Xilamuren means “yellow water”. Unfortunately, tourism and changing weather patterns is changing the grasslands. There are other grasslands but they are farther away.

This was a memorable part of our trip. We enjoyed a traditional welcome ceremony where we were handed a blue scarf and given a cup of baiju.

We stayed in another yurt, though we know it is not traditional.

We drank kumiss which is a fermented drink made from animal milk. This one was from camel milk. It was very delicious and smooth.

In Mongolia, there are the Three Games of Men: “Horse Racing”, “Wrestling” and “Archery”. We saw a show that gave the history of Mongolian people and demonstrated these three games. Mongolians are known for their horse riding capabilities and ability to shift sides and other tricks. They told the story of tribes and eventually being unified into one Mongol group.

This rider went off one side and went under the horse to go back up the other side.

These are actual Mongolian ethnic people.

Aobao (敖包)

The aobao is the Mongolian stone piles or heaps for worship. Local people always sacrifice food goods and alcohol to the gods at the Aobao to pray for good weather, harvest and fortune.

At night we celebrated at a feast. We wore Mongolian dress and were served some really great food while being entertained.

The main dish was roast lamb. They had three lambs brought out and carved to be served.

The winner of the wrestling competition.

We went horse riding to a herdsmen’s home through the grassland.