Blogs from Inner Mongolia, China, Asia - page 2

Geo: 49.2037, 119.754Three families travelled as far north as possible in China and ended up very close to the Russian border. We could see Russia far off in the distance.We had one crazy tour guide.... If you could call him that.... And that is really being very nice. One very interesting border control that wasn't even the border. Drank a variety of different vodkas and beers. We saw a very rocking Rock band and ate a whole sheep.All of the kids got sick, except one and one of the mums joined the... read more

Happy year of the horse!! This celebration of the Chinese new year has been quite an adventure! We use that word to describe so many things that happen here, but truly, there isn't a better way to describe our travels than 'an adventure!' We are on holiday and spending it with Jarek's friend Wang Zhen. He is so kind to let us into his apartment to stay for a week and let us participate in all the family traditions. It has been awesome! I have learned so much about the culture here. I will start at the beginning of the festivities: 5:00 Dinner. On 'New Year's Eve' we went out to dinner with Wang Zhen's whole family. His mom, grandma (who is 93!), aunts, uncles and cousins. It was a very fancy restaurant - you know, ... read more

Tuesday, October 1 - Thursday, October 3 Inner Mongolia, China It has been a wild, wild whirlwind of a couple of weeks! As we determined, Rachael and I hit 8 cities in 12 days, and spent most of those days trekking around on foot. It was a fast-paced, adventuresome vacation, and both of us had brand new experiences of note. The first of these experiences was Inner Mongolia. To summarize our time in Inner Mongolia, it's a good thing that that is how we got started, because the only way for the rest of the trip to go was up! Hohhot is described as being an, "up and coming city," which, in reality, means it is a run-down ghost town with a lot of construction going on. There is absolutely NOTHING to do in that city. ... read more

Naadam Festival Our van rolled into the festival headquarters of the Genghis Kahn Polo Club to find the crew hard out setting up camp, 4 Gers; kitchen, store/boys room, dinning entertainment centre and another sleeping Ger. After checking the horses were none the worse for wear after their 14 hour trip, Hamish and I wondered off to have a look around and check out the polo field. He was pleased to find the field almost at the race finish line so was assured we would be in the thick of the action. The Naadam is a festival of Mongolian games, archery, wrestling and horse racing, traditionally the games of men although women now participate in archery and girls in horse racing. The Genghis Kahn Polo Club was there this year introducing the game of polo ... read more

#1: Meiligeng Meiligeng (link) is a natural park located in the Yinshan mountain range (a.k.a. Daqingshan mountains) some 30 km's west of Baotou. To get there we took a small (and slow) bus from the 公共汽车站 in Kunqu which took us across the Kundulun river right into the industrial heart of Baotou. Mainly subsidiaries belonging to the Baogang group http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baotou_Steel and other factories line the coal-blackened streets with their chimneys belching various-coloured fumes. A grim place if you ask me, and I didn't bother to take pictures from the bus window. The bus dropped us off just under an hour later on the highway where a car and driver waited for us, warned by the busticket puncher. With the 5 of us, it was a bit cramp but since the drive into the mountains was only ... read more