Blogs from Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China, Asia - page 6

With temperatures being below -20 again and with Spring festival (Chinese New Year) on our doorstep, which means a whole week to myself, its time to hit the skies again. This time unfortunately to a-not-so warm place. Still, compared to the Siberian temperatures here in Hohhot, Qingdao is gonna feel like a tropical paradise with possible daily temperatures of somewhere between 0 and +8 degrees...! At night it's still gonna be below zero, but who cares? I found a good hostel, there's beaches (in fact, there's an ocean adjoining it!!) and I hope to visit the birthplace of China's biggest beer brand: Qingdao. The birthplace not being the city itself with its factories, but more the proper birthplace; the origin of the springwater that makes the beer; Lao Shan. More about all of that in my ... read more

Like I wrote before, we visited Wusutu park, located just north of Hohhot on the slopes of the mountain range, on our day off with a small group. It was a lovely day to get out of the city, temperatures in the second half of September are still in the upper 20's (although it does really cool down at night) and the park itself was quite nice. After entering the gate, you walk down the lane where at the end the steps start that lead you to halfway up. Along the way are two or so places to stop for a refreshing drink or a game of pool, but more on that later. Then, at what you could call the first of many little hill tops, you have the possibility of climbing into a tiger's mouth... ... read more

Slight change of plans since my last blog; The local buses from Hohhot to Erdos were comparitively expensive, so we decided not to go there. I do hope to visit the Wusutu national forest park,located just north of the city though, so soon an update on that. The biggest change in plans is our idea to visit the bordertown with Mongolia; Erenhot. This is where the large dinosaur museum (a new one is being built right as we speak) is located which we wanted to visit... Well, now we're not just going there, we're even going to visit Mongolia itself! The visa apllication, which we did right here at the local Mongolian consulate, seemed at first to be a bit of a problem, not having a letter of invitation, but with the help of a good ... read more

After having spent 9 months in Hohhot, it was about time for me to go and see the grasslands which Inner Mongolia province is known for. On Monday morning the weather wasn't looking too good at first, in fact, the last few weeks we had loads of rain here in Hohhot. (something to do with Beijing not wanting any rain during the games...?) But luckily later on it cleared up so the next staff trip was on its way to Xilamuren, the nearest of the three grasslands near Hohhot. It was a lovely drive to the north of the city, where the road wound its way up the mountains. Due to all the rain these last weeks, the mountains were actually quite green, and it gave some nice views of the road and valleys we came ... read more

New changes are happening everywhere I look; within myself, my city and my friends. The semester ending has left parts of the city, especially those near the university empty and almost unused. Many of the thousands of students have returned home to their local city far from here. Like the students, many of the foreign teachers have taken this summer holiday as a chance to travel. I, myself just came back from a two week trip up north. It started with a very early morning train ride to Beijing with a friend of mine, Dusty. We didn’t stay long in Beijing, just seven hours, enough time for us to stretch our feet from the previous train ride of ten hours and to meet up with Dusty’s friend Sophia, a fellow Canadian. A quick walk around ... read more