Trip to Inner Mongolia (内蒙古)
// June 27th, 2009 // No Comments » // China, Harbin, Travel
Well, I’ve been so busy that before I had a chance to write about Harbin, we went on a trip to Inner Mongolia. I’ll have to write about Harbin another time. The trip was from June 19 to 21, 2009. We traveled by train and bus and visited many sites during our two days in the region. I guess I’ll just take you through the events one by one.
Friday night we all met in the lobby downstairs then took a bus to the train station. We boarded the train around 9:00 pm, and then Max and I promptly began writing songs in Chinese with the help of Jay’s guitar. Within 5 minutes we had a tune down and performed it, which resulted in a rather continuous flow of singing every song anyone knew until the wee hours of the morning. The train was a blast, although I think we definitely annoyed some people trying to get some sleep.
We arriving early in the morning in a city called 海拉尔 (hailaer) and were immediately welcomed by our tour company, “Flying Tourism Co. Ltd China, Harbin” (飞场旅游) who gave us yellow tourism hats with the company logo on it and a white silk-like scarf. We then went to a buffet style breakfast restaurant that had traditional food from the area. Most memorable for me was the milk tea that sort of had a flavor of butter, milk, and very light coffee. After breakfast, we went to 海拉尔战争纪念园 (Hailaer War Memorial). The building is an old Japanese Base that has been converted into a museum, and inside was some very disturbing facts about what the Japanese did to the Chinese. Oddly enough, there was a shooting range at the end (which some students tried out) and a blue screen where you could stand and look like you were flying over the city (a little out of place for a war memorial if you ask me, but eh, it was fun).
After the war memorial we went to a Mongolian tourist facility that is run by local Mongolians and set up as a traditional Mongolian festival house. There was one main tent and several smaller surrounding ones. When we arrived, we were greeted by the Mongolians and each took a celebratory shot of 白酒 (bai jiu). After the ceremony, we went to the back of the facility where the animals were kept and rode horses (well, not by ourselves, but it was still cool to get to ride one even with a guy in front guiding). Several of us, including me, rode the camel ride for 30 kuai (about $4.20, and totally worth it – definitely the highlight of the day). You don’t realize how high those animals stand until you get on one, and they make the strangest noise I’ve ever heard an animal make (kind of like those things from Star Wars that Luke kills and crawls inside to survive in the cold). During lunch, we ate traditional Mongolian food, which included among other things some incredibly delicious lamb. They bring it to you as just a plate of lamb chunks then you grab a piece and cut off what you want with a knife. During lunch, the Mongolians had a small show where they sung songs and played the “Morin khuur” (sort of a Mongolian cello with a horse head carved in the nut at the top). In Chinese it is known as the matouqin (马头琴). They say that when it is played, the horses outside cry.
After lunch, we got back on the bus to head on to Inner Mongolia. We took a pit stop for a group photo, and after the photo a few people started running towards the hill in the distance (I still don’t know what sparked this). Eventually everyone joined in and we ended up running a least a mile out into the field. From there all you could see for miles was a beautiful rolling prairie. I took a bunch of photos in an attempt to capture the exact photo from the Microsoft desktop screen.
We then rode the bus for about an hour until we came upon a traditional Mongolian home on the side of the road. We all got out and started chatting with the family that lived there. Surprisingly, their Mandarin was incredibly clear and we could understand most of what they said. I went inside one of the 3 tents and found several more students chatting with an older woman. She said she was 60 and had 4 daughters that lived in the city. She was a lovely lady and welcomed us to have some milk tea and crackers that were sort of like a dried cheese. Outside they had a small wind turbine and inside under the TV was a bunch of car batteries and parts of a CPU that converted and stored the electricity. I was pretty impressed to see such a rather advanced set up functioning in such a poor environment.
We rode on for about another hour and a half until we arrived in 内蒙古 (Inner Mongolia) and went to our hotel. Everyone was pretty beat, and I ended up playing cards then going to bed. The next morning we rode out to 呼伦湖 (Hu Lun Lake) which turned out to be a huge dried up area with 4-Wheelers and a Dune Buggy, so we drove them around and got covered in mud for the morning. After the morning fun, we headed to the final destination of our trip – the Russian border. 
When we first arrived, we were told we would have 15 minutes to walk around and take photos from about 300 yards out, then would have to leave. After about 20 minutes of walking around, we were finally allowed to get closer and actually go inside the Chinese-side main building. Afterwards we went down the rode to a huge courtyard that was filled with human-size Babushkas all around one gigantic Babushka in the middle. The Babushkas were all painted with different people and places (mostly famous Americans). After about 30 minutes of hanging out there, we got back on the buses and headed for the hotel. We grabbed some quick dinner then went to the train station for our long ride back to Harbin. It was about a 12 hour ride through the night, and then we had the morning to sleep and prepare for afternoon classes. It was an event-packed weekend, but one heck of a good time.
