Inner Mongolia Trip: Hohhot

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After finally finding a new way around the Great Firewall of China, the blog is finally back!

At the beginning of October there was a holiday period in China. The National Day, which celebrated the 60th anniversary of China, and the Mid-Autumn or Moon Festival, which is an historic harvest festival, were combined together for a whopping 8 days off from work. I should mention that in China it's normally necessary to work a day or two on the weekend before and after the holiday to make up some of the vacation days, which really makes the holiday about 5-6 days off from work. During the holiday I decided to go to Inner Mongolia, which is a province in northern China that borders the country of Mongolia and has some ethnic Mongolian inhabitants and influence. I figured that since Inner Mongolia is less populated than most parts of China and the trip would be during the low travel season for the area, it would be a good place to go during the busy holiday period.

The National Holiday is second to the Chinese New Year for the busiest and hectic travel time in China. At first I was a little hesitant to travel during this time, but I didn't want to waste what little vacation I have sitting around my apartment in Hangzhou. In order to get train tickets to Inner Mongolia, I went 30 minutes before the ticket offices opened on the first day the tickets would be available. Despite showing up early, all the tickets for sleeper beds on the train were sold out by the time I got to the front of the line. With no other choice, I bought a ticket for a seat for the 28 hour and 1500 mile train ride. That means I'd be sitting up for the whole train ride and also dealing with the masses since they allow standing tickets in the seats only area.

The train ride itself was pretty brutal. The first half of the train ride goes from Hangzhou to Shanghai and up the eastern coast of China to Beijing. During this part of the trip the train was packed to the brim in the seats only (meaning no sleeper beds) area. The aisles are so full of people and their luggage that it's hard to even get to the bathroom. If you are lucky enough to get to the bathroom, it's quite common for the water to run out on such a crowded train, which means that waste starts building and you can't wash your hands. The environment in the train is pretty terrible, with people smoking in the area between the train cars and the heat and smells that go along with such a crowded train. It's hard to sleep in that kind of situation. Naturally, people drop cigarette ash and spit on the ground, in addition to all other kinds of garbage. They had some people come by every so often to try and sweep up the mess, but their efforts were pretty futile for the amount of garbage produced. Fortunately, after we stopped in Beijing, the train gradually became more and more empty as we headed west into the less populated parts of China. I was able to catch up on my sleep a bit during the day until we finally arrived in Hohhot, the capitol of Inner Mongolia, at around 11 pm the night after leaving Hangzhou. That was the longest and probably the most unpleasant train ride I've ever been on.

The next morning I set off to explore Hohhot. Hohhot has a mix of Chinese, Mongolian, and Muslim styles. It was pretty cold and the air was so dry during my time there, in stark contrast to the hot and humid Hangzhou. My skin was suffering the whole trip due to the abrupt change. Around Hohhot they have all their signs written in Chinese and Mongolian. I liked the style of the Mongolian writing, which is written in vertical columns and from left to right. The best part of Inner Mongolia, at least to those of us who live on the polluted eastern seaboard of China, is the constant blue skies. It's pretty rare to have a clear blue sky in Hangzhou between the pollution days and the rainy days.

One of the better things to see in Hohhot is the Temple of the Five Pagodas. It is a Buddhist temple, but different than the style you normally see in China.

Temple of the Five Pagodas

Temple of the Five Pagodas

Mongolian Writing

Most of the tourist sites in Hohhot are in the same area and you can walk from the Temple of the Five Pagodas along this Muslim themed street to another temple area.

Muslim Street

Muslim Street

The Da Zhao temple is another famous tourist site in Hohhot. It is an active Buddhist lamasery, which makes it slightly less touristy than some other temples, although of course you still have to pay to enter. The style is more similar to other Buddhist temples in China, but still has some Mongolian flavor.

Sign at Temple with Chinese and Mongolian Writing

Temple with "Prayer Poles?"

Can Anyone Tell Me What Two Dear Staring at a Sun With Eyes Means?

While at the temple, I was lucky enough to catch a big group of Buddhist monks in a prayer hall chanting. They had some big horns, bells, and other noise making instruments that kept the hall pretty noisy, but it was definitely cool to see.

Hall with Monks Chanting

Monk Leading the Chanting

Big and Loud Horns

Chanting Hall

Young Monks Probably Skipping Church

(I Personally Have Never, Ever Skipped Sunday School)

Near the Da Zhao temple there was a big tourist shopping street. The local goods sold in Hohhot reflect the grassland and cold climate area. They had a lot of animal furs, skins, leather, dried meat, dried fruit, milk candy, and of course horse milk liquor. Horse milk liquor is kind of like the Chinese baijiu (white alcohol), which means it tastes like lighter fluid. It's recommended for those trying to bring tears to their eyes or for cleaning blood stains from clothing.

Vendors Selling Furs

Dried Fruits

Mongolian Goods

A Chinese Flag on Every Building Proves With Certainty

That the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region is Part of China

Guy Burning Picture Onto Animal Skin while Smoking a Cigarette

Genghis Khan, 1162-1227, Leader of Men

Genghis Khan's face was everywhere, almost as common as seeing a portrait of Mao Zedong in other parts of China.

Horse Milk Liquor in Real Leather Bota Bag

The food in Hohhot and the rest of Inner Mongolia was really good. They served a lot of dishes with lamb, dried meat, milk, and other delicious things. An interesting thing to try is Mongolian milk tea. It's salty and very milky (maybe whole or buttermilk), with a small amount of tea. Most of the foreigners I met didn't really like it, but I thought it was pretty good. The more I travel, the more food becomes my favorite part of traveling. Seeing so many tourist sites leads to the feeling of being herded around like cattle to spend your money for the "authentic" experience, but a lot of the sites start to blend together. In comparison, the local flavors of food normally tend to be more unique than the local tourist sites, at least in my opinion.

Dried Lamb Meat, Dried Beans, and Potatoes

Lamb with Fried Pita Bread

Fruit Salad with Yogurt

Mongolian Milk Tea

In keeping with a previous tradition of ending my posts with some pictures of Chinese people doing interesting things, here are a some pictures from around Hohhot.

Local Fruit Vendor with Donkey Cart

These circles of men huddled around are in every Chinese city I've seen. They're always playing cards or some kind of Chinese checkers. Normally there is gambling involved and they can get pretty loud and animated.

Man at Bike Repair Sleeping on the Job

More pictures on picasa: http://picasaweb.google.com/wallred10/Hohhot#

Aaron's Visit Part 2 - Yellow Mountain (Huangshan)

The second weekend of Aaron's visit, we decided to do a trip to Yellow Mountain. This was my third trip to Yellow Mountain, but before neither trip had fully lived up to the reputation because of rain or a poorly executed tour group visit. I won't go into as much detail about the trip since I've already written about Yellow Mountain quite a lot, but I'll post some pictures since this time the weather was perfect and everything worked out pretty well.

We left Hangzhou on Saturday morning and took the bus to the little city Tangkou, which is right next to Yellow Mountain. The best part of going to the mountains is that we were able to escape the terrible heat and humidity of Hangzhou. Even though it was still a bit hot hiking around, it felt really great to have some fresh air and less heat.

When we arrived in Tangkou, we were confronted with the normal hawkers selling hotel rooms, tours, etc. However, one of the guys spoke English quite well and we ended up talking to him. His name was Mr. Hu and had a restaurant and hotel that caters to foreigners. He runs quite a racket and seemed to have connections with all the other shops in town. He would just direct foreigners to go to the shops of his friends to buy tea, souvenirs, massages, etc. and I'm sure he got a cut of the business. To build trust, he showed us a book with a bunch of comments from previous people who had stayed with him and also mentioned he was in the Lonely Planet guidebook. He definitely knows how to work the business, because mostly when traveling you just assume those hawkers are out to pull some kind of scam. He helped us book our bus back to Hangzhou for the next day and we promised to eat at his restaurant after hiking the mountain.

After talking with Mr. Hu, we headed up to the entrance gate of the mountain and started our hike up. As I had done before, we hiked up the eastern steps, since it is a little bit shorter to go up. If you hike up the eastern steps and then back down the western side, you can see most of the main sites of the area and limit the amount of strenuous hiking you need to do.

A Very Chinese Red Banner at Entrance: "Ceremoniously Commemorate the 30th Anniversary of Comrade Deng Xiaoping's Remarks in Huangshan"

The hike up is pretty tiring since it is straight up the entire time. It's just one long set of stairs after another. If you hike steady you can climb to the top in less than three hours, so it's not that long, but still tiring. Even though it wasn't that hot, both of us were sweating a lot by the time we made it to the top.

View of The Peaks on the Eastern side

These Guys are a Little Sweaty

After making it to the top, we still had about an hour before the sun went down. We had these bowls of instant noodles, but the store at the top tried to charge us for hot water. Some nice Chinese guys saw that the store turned us away and invited us into their hotel, where they boiled some water for us and gave us some other Chinese snacks. I thought it was very nice of them to do that on their own without us even knowing them or asking for their help.

Since the last two times I went to Yellow Mountain it was rainy or we weren't at the peak at the night or morning, I hadn't yet seen the sunset or sunrise, which is the most famous part of Yellow Mountain. Luckily, this time the weather was perfect and the skies were clear enough to give us some great views. I think between Aaron and I we must have taken a hundred pictures because it was so beautiful. After compressing the pictures and then uploading them to the blog, the crispness and colors have kind of faded, so it's hard to show how beautiful it really was to see it in person.

Sun Going Down Behind the Cloud

Sunset with Yellow Mountain Peaks

Sunset with Peaks and Blue Sky

Sunset Closeup

Right Before Sun Goes Below Horizon

Sea of Clouds and Color After Sunset

After seeing the sunset, we went and checked into our hotel. We had booked two beds in one of the dorm rooms with six or eight beds in one room. When they first took us to a room, it seemed very crowded and chaotic, but luckily it seemed they overbooked and they took us to a lot more quiet area of the hotel and gave us a new room by ourselves. There were five beds in the room, but luckily no one else checked in that night. There were still plenty of Chinese dudes standing around in the hall smoking, checking their cell phones with annoying ringtones at full volume, and hacking their throats. So we still got the authentic Chinese experience, but had our bubble of privacy in the room.

The next morning we had to wake up around 4 am so that we could catch the sunrise. It wasn't supposed to happen until 5 am or so, but we had to get up, get ready, check out of the hotel room, and hike for about 30 minutes to the "Bright Summit" where we could have the best view. Unfortunately, even though we arrived early, there were mobs of people around with limited space to see. Aaron was tall enough to get his arms above the crowd and take some pictures as the sun was coming above the horizon, so at least we got to see it through that. Also, most of the people were content to see the sunrise for a minute or two, take a couple pictures, then move away from the viewing area, so after it cleared out a bit we were able to see the view as the sun was still coming up.

Crowd at Bright Summit

Sky Before the Sunrise

Sun Coming Above the Horizon

Sunrising

Sun Above Horizon

Sun Rise Closeup

After finally seeing the sunset and sunrise, I think all the hype around Yellow Mountain is justified. If you can catch it in person, it's worth dealing with the crowds of people and expensive entrance fee and hotel prices. During both the sunset and sunrise, there are certain times where it is hard to tell where the sky ends and the earth begins, with bands of red and orange blending it all together. It's really amazing to see in person and I'm happy that I was finally able to see it. I guess the third time is the charm for me.

Aaron and Sunrise

Wes and Sunrise

Sunrise

Wes and Mountains Near Bright Summit

Building at Bright Summit

After spending some more time at the Bright Summit, we started hiking our way down the mountain. There are a lot of great views on the hike down from the western side. Since I've already described this before, I'll just post some of my favorite pictures from this trip down.

View of Mountains and Valley

Wes and Aaron with Celestial Peak

Wes and Celestial Peak

Mattress Rock

Long Stairway to Celestial Peak

Mandatory Picture of Guys Carrying Packages

Western Steps Entrance

After hiking down, we got some lunch at Mr. Hu's restaurant as promised and also had enough time for a foot massage before taking the bus back to Hangzhou. This trip to Yellow Mountain really turned out great. It was great to have Aaron visit and hopefully the last two posts will convince more people to come visit, with the lure of eating strange foods and seeing nice sunrises.

Here are some more pictures from Yellow Mountain: http://picasaweb.google.com/wallred10/HuangshanWithAaron#