World China Nei Mongol Hohhot

Pat & Richard's Adventures in Central Asia

4 July - Hohhot Jul 6, 2011

On Monday we set off for a 600km drive to Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia. It's a large town of over a million people. Hohhot apparently means 'Blue City' in Mongolian, which is supposed to be a reference to the wide blue skies over the grasslands. This is quite an industrial area and the skies are not blue any more but instead covered with a grey haze. We stayed one night in a hotel then headed out to a yurt camp up on the grasslands. The yurts were quite an experience. We have stayed in them in other areas, real yurts made of felt over a wooden frame, but these were metal with lino floors inside. And there were hundreds of them scattered over the hillsides. It seems to be big business over here. Our first impression was of Indian reservations in the US - not a promising start! We arrived in time for lunch, which one of the cook groups made. This truck we have joined (from Xi'an to Beijing) has not done any camping or cooking during their journey from Bangkok so we had a few days of cooking to give everyone a go. After lunch we organised those who wanted to go horse riding (me and two others) or quad bike riding (Richard and 3 other men) while the others just walked over the grasslands. Our Chinese guide, John, explained that the grasslands of Inner Mongolia used to be more lush than now due to the fact that the wolves ate the rats and kept the grasslands clean. If anyone died the Mongolians took the body to the outskirts or town to let the wolves eat them too - saves burying them. At some point the people started hunting the wolves which allowed the rats to build up and it had a detrimental effect on the grasslands. Now people have realised this and are restoring the balance, and the grasslands are growing back. Or at least, I think this is what he said - you have to concentrate hard to understand what he's saying. Anyway, after lunch we hopped on our chosen mode of transport and took off to have a look at the area. As soon as I got on my horse and trotted away I wished I had worn my sports bra - it was a very bumpy ride. He was quite a lazy horse and walked unless our guide came close, and then he broke into a fast trot or canter. We went up to an area of wetlands which was on someone's property so we could only look from a distance, then turned round and went back to camp. Gaetano our co-driver cooked tea, with the help of the cook group. He is a trained Italian chef and we have tried his cooking before, in South America. We started with bruchetta, then spag bol - delicious! A few of us had upgraded our yurts, so the couples had their own yurt and didn't have to share with anyone else. Ours even had a TV as well as electric light - never seen this before in a yurt! It was a real tourist attraction but quite a good place to stop for the night. And there was a lovely sunset too. On Wednesday we were up early for a 7am breakfast and 8am departure - we managed to get breakfast over early and were on the road before 8am for a long day's drive to our next stop, Datong.

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