inner mongolia.. the lands of chengis khan

---

In October 2008 I travelled to inner Mongolia for the national holidays. I was accompanied by my Chinese friend whose hometown was Hohhot the capital of Inner Mongolia. The day I reached Hohhot straightaway I was taken to a restaurant where the parents and relatives of my friend were waiting for our arrival. The restaurant served hotpot mostly mutton as Inner Mongolia is famous for its mutton. The rest of the seven days I was treated with food, food and food, I even had alligator meat in a restaurant supposed to be the biggest and most expensive restaurants in Hohhot.

We went to Kubuqi desert near Hohhot where they have some places for entertainment such as sand dunes scooter ride, four wheel drives, camel ride, parachute ride etc. the camels where all Bactrian camels(camels with two humps) very different from the camels we find in India. After the exciting camel ride our guide took us to a Mongolian Ger and served us milk tea which was rather salty than sweet. The tea was served with other sweets made of milk. From the Ger we went to a restaurant where they had a play on Mongolian wedding ceremony, we had our lunch watching the ceremony. After the lunch we took the car and hit the road to Ordos(the richest town in entire china) also the place where Chengis khan’s mausoleum is located.

Few words about Ordos:

Ordos had a GDP of USD14500 which was higher than hongkong’s GDP,the economy comes from coal mining and the town is filled with billionaires. Everything in the town was expensive(over priced) as the people of this town don’t care about spending money. We just settled for McDonald’s breakfast and headed for Chengis khan’s mausoleum.

The next morning we went to the mausoleum which was built in memory of chengis’ khan. We hired an English speaking guide in the entrance for 100yuans and entered the vast mausoleum. Our guide was a Mongol girl and she had the answers for all the questions I asked about chengis khan and Mongol people. In the mausoleum I understood that Mongol people considered Chengis Khan not only as their king but also a representative of God. They swear in front of chengis khan’s picture during their marriage, and all the marriage proposals are written in front of Chengis’ picture. In the mausoleum they have created a Durbar of chengis khan with his hordes men. They also have a bow which was supposed to be used by the great Khan himself, it was very big that it could only be used by a person who is 6feet tall or more. The mausoleum also had a place of worship were the mongol people worship their god “Tengri”, this place is filled with white and blue flags left by the people who came to worship. Mongols consider white and blue as sacred, white represents the milk and blue represents the sky. The guide gave us a wonderful story on why this place was selected for building a mausoleum, the story goes like this. “Oneday when Chengis khan was moving with his horde, he was mesmerized by the beauty of this grassland and dropped his horse whip on the ground without his knowledge which no mongol warrior would do.He came back for the whip and was believed to have said that he will pass on the empire to his sons and retire here in this grassland for the rest of his life" that's why the Chinese government had chosen this place to build the mausoleum.Fascinated by the history of chengis khan and his empire we started to our hotel and prepare for the trip to Baotou next day.

Baotou is a place located in the bank of the Yellow river, was a major trading port before and after the mongol rule. In Baotou we visited the Army’s weapons factory museum where they had all the weapons of the war of independence. Baotou is also famous for muttons as the other cities of Inner Mongolia and one dish particularly famous and unique to Baotou is Kobuli baozi. Kobuli baozi is a dumpling filled with pork that melts like butter when we eat. All I remember about Baotou is mutton, so I skip to my last two days in Hohhot where we visited one of the best museums in the world. The museum is a feast for history lovers like me especially Mongol history, it was filled with artifacts and weapons of Mongol era and the rest of the Chinese empires, they also had the collection of all the minerals of Inner Mongolia. There was a Ger which was a replica of Chengis Khan’s Ger was amazing as the interior was stuffed in Leopard and tiger skins. I just got the answer for my question “why there are no wild animals in China?”. four hours in the museum we were tired walking aoround and came out for shopping where i bought some small keychains tagged to Gers as a souvenir.

My friend’s Mom presented me a portrait of Chengis Khan made of leather on the day i departed from Hohhot.



I finish my brief blog on Inner Mongolia, I will come with another blog about Ningxia province later when I find time to write.

---

Photos

Inner mongolia- the land of chengis khan
Statue of Chengis Khan

ordos
Chengis khan's mausoleum

Hohhot
Square in honour of Chengis and his hordes men... me , Zhao and his mom

mongol wheel
mongols killed all the enemy men taller than the wheel...but a much smaller wheel

inner mongolia
camel ride in the desert

Kubuqi desert
Bactrian camels

Kubuqi desert
parachute ride in Kubuqi

Chinese hospitality
my friend's father and his relatives.. i am with the portrait of chengis Khan

restaurant
You can see the alligator tail in the tank behind me.... unusual situation where alligator is the prey

restaurant
beautifully decorated restaurant based on different cultures in china