内 蒙古 - Inner Mongolia- day 4

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Day 4

The next morning, we woke up, still freezing and stiff, but looking forward to a nice breakfast. Breakfast was at 7:30am again, and we were greeted with some rice porridge, veggies, and bread. We planned to leave right after breakfast at 8am, so we hurried back to our tents, grabbed our bags, and clambered onto the warm relief of the bus.

After sitting on the bus for about 10 minutes or so, our tour guide came on and told us that there was a small problem, and we needed to get off. So we were sent back into the cold to wait. No one knew what the problem was until we saw the bus driver check the engine: it had frozen over night. While he fixed it we killed time practicing our taiji, which didn last long seeing as we had only learned 4 moves.

Finally, our bus started, to thunderous applause, and we were off on another 2 hour journey to Huhhot, where we visited a "factory museum". The factory part was interesting, but it seemed odd. It was mostly empty spare a few seamstresses and a woman playing a Chinese instrument. It didn seem like bustling factory. There were mostly empty machines and products on display. This factory part took up one two story building, then were were led to the other 5 or 6 buildings that comprises the museum. The remaining 5 or 6 buildings were all stores containing anything from Mongolian milk candies to painted scarves and taxidermic goats. So I figure that trip was a ploy put on by the tour company to get us to spend money at the shops of friends or relatives.

After that "factory" visit, we had a quick lunch and headed back. Another 8 hour drive, and we were back in Beijing, happy to have a hot shower, a hot meal, and a warm bed.

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