A Yurt

I am currently writing from a yurt in the middle of Inner Mongolia. (Well, I'm writing in my journal, which I will then type into an online blog post upon returning to Beijing.) Inner Mongolia is an autonomous region in China and a yurt is a transportable circular tent used by Mongolian nomads. Our yurt is made for six people, so Michelle, Gabe, Angel and I fit in it quite nicely. There are no beds, but just a large wooden platform with a thin layer of wool or some other type of material covered by a giant cloth. There is no bathroom and only one lightbulb to provide light at night. We are only staying here one night, but I think it will be a memorable one.

Today we went horseback riding for three hours. It was 50 yuan per hour per person, but they tried to charge us an extra 150 to pay for their guide to accompany us. I put up a fight so they took 50 yuan off, but we still refused to pay for him so finally they gave up and only charged us for ourselves and not the guide. That's one of the things that sometimes frustrates me about China. People try to rip us off all the time just because we're foreigners. I understand that they believe we have a ton of money because we're foreigners so if we're here we had to have enough money to get here, but at the same time I dislike constantly being overcharged for everything. But I digress. Riding the horses was a lot of fun, and I loved seeing the grasslands. The sky was a beautiful shade of light blue and full of puffy white clouds of all shapes and sizes. The sun was shining, but the wind was really strong, blowing my hair everywhere. I had to squint to keep sand out of my eyes. It was very peaceful when I closed my eyes and felt the sun and wind on my face. China continuously amazes me with its beauty.

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