Hello.
I am wondering about your experiences of travel in Inner Mongolia. Which places did you go? What problems did you have? Worst and best places?
I had a great time in Inner Mongolia. It was one of the best parts of my China trip. I entered from Ningxia and spent the night in a surreal little no name town that i don't even know how to describe, because there was nothing memorable about it except that the public transport was for free. It just felt different from where i had been before. Peculiar place. The day after i continued on my way to a national park more northwest, where there were big leaf trees growing out of the sand, with gold colored leaves. I spent a night in a "mongol yurt camp" that turned out to be a chinese mass tourist plastic yurt camp with no mongols. There was some karaoke and expensive and bad food. But great fun.
After two three nights around that golden forest place i took the night train to Hohhot, spent a night there checking the temples out. Really nice that they were actually in use and for real. They didn't have entry fees i think. They were meant to have activities in, not to earn money from tourists. After some time in china i really appreciated that.
Later i went towards Xilinhot where i was gonna stay with a mongol family in the countryside. They lived a few hours outside Xilinhot close to the border to Mongolia and had a homestay. Spent a few days there in the grasslands and doing some stuff life horseback riding. Beautiful place and amazing people. Was there with a friend studying in Beijing and after those three four days we took the night bus out of the province, down to Beijing. That was the end of the inner mongolian trip!
Had a great time over there. Loved the trains and long distance busses, just looking out of the windows. There was one night train with a mongol man just sitting singing to himself. The landscapes through the window. Magical. I was a bit surprised at first how predominantly chinese the cities were but it quickly settled in.
I think it could be a bit complicated traveling there on your own if you dont speak any chinese, but luckily i was with a chinese friend for the first part of the trip and a non chinese with some chinese skills the second. And either way it wasn't worse than any other provinces, so anyone who can travel elsewhere in china should be fine.
Worst part would be the constant bullshitting about mongol yurts etc. First the plastic yurts with karaoke. Then i met some people and read online about others and it seems it happens a lot.
Eventually found out online about a place that now has the website http://anthropolodgy.com/ and decided to go visit them.
Would love to go back. Especially to the far north close to russia.
Any thoughts on or questions about inner mongolia?
