An Inner Mongolia Adventure
Mongolia — the very name conjures up visions of vast blue skies and swirling deserts…
of camel caravans laden with treasures journeying across the dunes…
of Gengis Khan and his legendary empire…
of tenacious, resilient, ‘invisible’ grassland warriors on mighty horses…
of hundreds of sheep dotting lush, windswept grasslands…
of nomads and herdsmen living simple, content lives in Yurts isolated from the rest of the world…
This exotic land of my imaginations came to life when we travelled this weekend to Inner Mongolia— the third largest province in China and an entirely separate place from the neighbouring country of Mongolia itself. Nine times the size of England and 2.5 hours away from Beijing, Inner Mongolia was also once inhabited by the indigenous Mongolian peoples but is now part of China, with its population comprising of 80% Han Chinese. The fascinating Tale of Two Mongolia’s is for another time, but here are some highlights from the trip:
- #1 Being so awestruck by all the immense space
- #2 Having This Salty Butter Tea
- #3 Making a new friend on the the prairies
- #4 Golden hour and just feeling the incredible lightness of being
- #5 Sleeping (really well) in a Mongolian Yurt in the middle of nowhere
- #6 Waking up to the sunrise without alarm clocks
- #7 Makeshift breakfast of Mantou (Steamed Bun), Congee and cucumber pickle :))
- #8 Roller-coastering at an amusement park in the middle of the Kubuqi desert
- #9 Sei Bi Nou Hohhot! – that feeling that we’ve traveled back in time and arrived in China of the 90’s
- #10 Da Zhao Temple – the most beautiful Tibetan Buddhist temple I’ve ever seen!
- #11 Seeing it all with this bunch!
- #12 Back to Beijing and checking off one place on my bucketlist and adding another— The real (outer) Mongolia 😀
