Inner Mongolia, 2008
In October 2008 I was studying Chinese in Beijing Foreign Studies University and we got one week of holidays for the National Day. What to do, where to go? When holidays were approaching there were always some people from a tourism agency handing out catalogues for the students. They arranged trips to many places in China, from 2 days in Chengde, Hebei province, to a full week in Tibet or Yunnan. We decided to give it a go and chose a short trip to Inner Mongolia.
Inner Mongolia is a huge province in the north of China. We took the night train from Beijing to Hohhot, its capital, where we arrived in the morning. What is there to do and see in Inner Mongolia? Well, this province is more about natural landscapes than about cities, so we spent one day in the grasslands, one day in the desert, and right before taking the train back we visited a temple in Hohhot.
Slurping instant noodles is a must when riding a Chinese train.
The grassland we visited were halfway between Hohhot and Baotou (another city). It was a village especially built for tourism, with small round houses imitating the Mongol yurtas.
The rooms.
The houses/rooms didn’t have an ensuite toilet and everybody had to use the communal toilet. Which was… how to say it… very rustic. It was a separate house with a few holes in the ground. That was it. If you looked down when doing your business, you would see a brown swimming pool!
Scary or not?
What can you do in the grassland? Well, not much. You can enjoy the clean air and take a walk. But we were in an organized tour, so they arranged activities for us: first we rode horses for a while (I still remember the butt pain!), then we went back to the village for lunch. The star of the meal was a grilled whole sheep. We were also offered a shot of a very strong liquor, ceremoniously handed by a young man with a white scarf on his hands. In the afternoon we were taken to visit a local family house (it was a normal house, not a yurta) where we tried Mongolian milk tea (it is salty! I liked it) and were taught a few simple words in Mongolian (I can’t remember any of them now…). In the evening, after dinner, the tourist village had a bonfire and performances.
The grassland.
The horses.
The poor (but delicious) grilled sheep and a Chinese tourist with a very weird expression.
I remember well the extreme weather. During the day it was nice and warm, but at night it was so cold! Fortunately we were smart enough to bring the down jackets, even though in Beijing we did not need them yet. It was also very cold inside the yurta/room.
Sunset in the grassland.
The next day we drove to Baotou to visit the Gobi desert. We were only on the edge of the desert, but it was extremely cool. It was also scary to see that the desert is not a motionless entity, the huge sand dunes keep advancing and covering more territory. The agency also organized some activities in the desert, like camel riding or paragliding (pulled by a car) but these had to be paid apart so I spent the time just walking around and taking pictures. We had to wear some kind of high cloth boots on top of our shoes to avoid getting full of sand!
The desert!
Even insects leave footsteps in the sand.
Check my fancy cloth boots!
The camel rest area.
In Hohhot we only stayed for a very short time, so I only rememeber visiting this temple. It looked basically the same as the temples in Beijing. There is also a museum with dinosaur skeletons in Hohhot but we didn’t visit it. That’s the bad side about travelling in an organized group… you cannot choose where to go!
Temple in Hohhot.
It was an interesting trip because we went to places that I had never been to, like the grassland and the desert. It would be extremely cool to do a road trip though Inner Mongolia, driving your own car, but now that I live in Suzhou it is a little bit too far to drive up there!
I really like that photo of you the four of you slurping instant noodles. Very cosy and I am sure they tasted great :D There seemed to be a lot of activities on the organised tour. Were you allowed to not participate in the activity if you didn’t want to? For example if you don’t drink alcohol, could you have refused the liquor?
Yeah, I think it was fine if you refused it. It was very strong!
El viaje a Mongolia interior es uno de los timazos chinos… El peor de todos los viajes. Te venden un exotismo que en realidad es morirse del asco… Desde mi punto de vista. Sólo estuve en Hulunbuir, no vi el desierto. Ni asomo de las praderas de ensueño que salen en las fotos de google, más bien, tierra hostil, yerma.
Me ha encantado la foto del insecto dejando sus huellas.
Mi viaje como solo era de 3 días estuvo bien. Además éramos todos estudiantes extranjeros y no había que pelearse por la comida, jaja. Y como tampoco tenía ni idea de cómo son supuestamente las praderas me parecieron bien (de hecho me recordaron al paisaje de Cáceres). En primavera supongo que estarán más verdes.
It looks great. Inner Mongolia is a place I still want to visit and I hope it won’t be with a travel group… or at least with one which is more flexible than the ones I have travelled with thus far
If you could go with your own car that would be perfect! :D And it is definitely closer to Xi’an…
Yeah the thing with the Chinese license is something annoying in order to drive around. Anyways I doubt I could survive driving in china, some friends told me you just need to switch off your brain and let primal instinct guide you through the streets…
That is very accurate xD
You’re so lucky that you went. What a unique experience. I wonder if it has changed much? It doesn’t seem like it, but maybe, since the Travel Channel has been up there now. :P
I think it must be pretty much the same, it is a huge province so if the part of the desert I went to is now crowded, for sure there will be an empty one 20 km ahead :D
I haven’t been able to eat instant noodles since a nightmare train ride in 2009. Stuck on a slow train to Chongqing for 72 hours with nothing to eat but instant noodles. Haven’t touched them since. I do miss the idea of eating them but shutter at the memory.
Inner Mongolia is high on my China to do list, bathrooms be damned. The best part about being older is having enough money not to travel in tour groups or needing to stay in hostels.
If you’re a history fan, you should check out Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History on the Mongols (dancarlin.com). Crazy, amazing and sheds some light on why the Chinese dislike them so much. They’re still free for the time being and is a great five part series.
Thanks for the recommendation! Is it the Wrath of the Khans series that appears on the website? I had not heard about it. I have a book called The Secret History of the Mongols but I didn’t read it yet.
I only eat instant noodles when I am in a long train ride, I also got tired of them haha.
yeah, Wrath of the Khans I-V. The first 20 minutesis a slow build and then, whoa Nellie, the insanity begins. Those Mongols were crazy/blood thirsty/horrific/impressive. It’s about 15 hours total.
I bet there are lots of people who don’t know that Inner Mongolia is part of China. It appears you have a sense of adventure. Good for you.
An English man told me some time ago that a fellow English girl applied for a teaching job in Ulan Batou, the Capital of Outer Mongolia. He has lived there for many years. At her interview, she was asked how she would cope with the winter. She didn’t know where Outer Mongolia was, that it is the highest city in the world and the coldest. Bless her!
To be honest I also didn’t know China had a province called Inner Mongolia until I came here, haha!
Really enjoyed reading about Inner Mongolia Marta. I had booked a trip there during my last visit to China in 2014 but the flights from Beijing were cancelled twice so I didn’t end up going which is very unfortunate especially after reading your post and looking at your photos.
Oh, no! I hope you have another chance in the future :)
I think Inner Mongolia would be fascinating (maybe it’s because I am Australian and have a thing for big open spaces!) The accommodation looked pretty interesting and I imagine seeing the sunset over the grassland would be a beautiful site :-)
My favourite part was the desert, maybe because the grasslands are kind of similar to my hometown’s (only bigger, of course haha).
Have you ages in 8 years? ;)
YES!! I have wrinkles now :_( But I still look better now, haha.
Wrinkles. Why! We don’t need them, so why do we get them?! :)
Those little imitation yurts are adorable. And with lovely windows!
Yeah well, they were incredibly cold at night, and it was only the first week of October. I think we slept with the jackets on!!
Marta, you are the first person I have seen eating pao mian with a fork in such a long time. :)
I am in awe with your pics of the Gobi desert. I have always wanted to go there – maybe someday. There is something about those sand dunes and seeing desert as far as the eye can see. Oh, and you are totally rocking those boots!! :)
Hahaha, it is the little plastic fork that comes inside the noodles package!
The sand had superpowers, even with those boots I got sand inside my shoes!
Do you even age? You look the same in 2008 as you do now
I think I look better now, with wrinkles and everything! :D
That picture of the insect leaving footprints in the sand was the best!
Brr, that trip looked scary, to me. (Shy person here. Don’t know if I could cope with all that…)
I used to be shy but I found out when I speak in English I’m less shy, and when I speak in Chinese I am not shy at all. Learning languages helped me a lot! There are several articles online saying that each language gives you a different personality and I totally agree. Don’t miss on experiences because of shyness! It’s not worth it! Grab a friend if you need and just do it :)
Oh, you are right about the language-personality issue. I am a tad bit less shier when talking in English too.
Thank you for the cheer! ;-; I shall take small steps towards that. ;-;
What fabulous window into Mongolia – from the smallest insect to remarkable architecture to horses, camels, sunsets to dinning!
Thanks Carissa!
Wow super jealous Marta! I remember during Golden Week and all those other holidays I’d always want to go travel in China, but was worried about the crowds and cost. I often joked with my friends about going to inner mongolia cause I couldn’t imagine a ton of Chinese tourists going (actually I wasn’t joking, but no one would go with me :( ). Was it pretty crowded?
When I go to China this June I’m thinking about going to Lanzhou in Gansu province to see the rainbow mountain. But maybe Inner Mongolia might be a better experience? lol. I gotta look!
Oh yes, and it sounds like the tour was good! Do you recommend using a tour when going to inner mongolia?
It wasn’t crowded, I guess because it’s not a super popular destination! Also because there are many places to see the grassland and the desert (like, everywhere!) so the people are spread apart. I think to go to Inner Mongolia going to a tour is a good option if you don’t have a car, as it can be difficult to get to the places. But a friend went with a tour to the north of Inner Mongolia and says it was a total nightmare. So it can depend on luck!
Lanzhou might have more things to see, and you could also go to Dunhuang!
Nice post. I wish I had gone to Inner Mongolia. I’d also heard about the outdoor toilets and based on your description, I see why they are so notorious. I guess there weren’t walls or rooms inside the toilet right?
Of course no walls and doors, that would have been fancy :D Only a concrete floor and holes that gave you a “panoramic view” to the “lake”. I was terrified my glasses would drop from my face and fall into the lake of shit, hahaha.
Haha, that is grim. I’ve come across a few of these open toilets across China though not with a “lake” underneath.