Outings from Baotou

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#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 10 mins or so, we didn't mind. We paid our ¥40 entrance fee duly and started hiking up the granite mountains that had quite a bit of vegetation on it, as opposed to the rest of the same mountain range. The reason for this being is that in this particular spot of the range the rock is of a different type. Riddled with fissures, water is able to seep through, allowing more vegetation to grow than in other places. Mainly pines and cypresses, it's quite a beautiful setting, really. We hiked all the way up to the top, ignoring the newly installed cable car with its bright red, green and yellow painted ..... Along the way we passed several statues of various animals and the usual round, wooden pagodas with delicate paintings all around. It wasn't a steep climb, so we went off the path here and there to make it slightly more exciting.

In short, a nice little day trip from the city!

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Photos

Lipsticked pig
One of many little statues at Meiligeng