Sunday, July 16 Picnic in (Inner) Mongolian Steppes

[soid]

 (Written two weeks later in Hangzhou)

Not much to say about the road – I've already seen that dry hilly landscape of Inner Mongolia on the way from Beijing. Then, getting off the freeway, passing a mountain range, and we get to green grasslands – Mongolian steppes. Mongolia, the country, is a few hours away drive. 

A short drive on an unpaved road, and we get to something that looks like a Mongolian settlement: many yurts (with glass windows), harnessed horses, and open fires cooking food for newly arrived tourists. And tons of Chinese tourists take pictures with Mongolian-themed goodies. All that looks like shit. I start worrying.

Tourist trails in Mongolian steppes.

Luckily, we pass the tourist trap and continue our drive until we get to another similar but better-looking "Mongolian settlement". Our hosts say it used to be empty, barely visited lands just a few years ago, but now overran by tourism. The entrance fee to a trail among picturesque hills and steppes is US$30; it includes a zip-line, a (ski-like) lift uphill, and other attractions. We continue our journey. 

Canola oil fields.

Finally, we drive off-road to the top of a hill. We take a shade from the car, set up folding chairs, and a portable table, and then brew Mongolian milk tea, eat Russian pickles, Chinese smoked duck, and other goodies. Picnic in the steppes it is.

Wind turbines afar, cows on the grass fields.

In the afternoon I took a stroll around. On a closer look, the green grass fields turned out not that green – it was covered by all kinds of flowers, from white and yellow to pink, and light blue, and purple; so much diversity of those grass plants. The ground was rocky and not a single three around. So strange that trees are unable to grow here. It was sunny and hot, but the wind was cold, so I had to wear a sweater.

The drive back was harder. We took some other road among the villages, where we got lost and couldn't find the way to the main road. No Google, nor Baidu could help us. By word of mouth, we found the way out from the farmer's houses. Chinese villagers are very interesting to observe: after dinner, the whole family walks out leaves their house, sits down outside, and observes the road, as we are passing by on it. I wish I had time to join them.