A Trip to Inner Mongolia 《内蒙古之行》

By Belatriz Lamelo De Souza (Beijing Normal University, China)

Coming out of one of my first classes, and, true to any uni experience, we merge into the swarm of students flowing out of the building as we leave for lunch. As we get outside, several people hand out flyers for a student trip to Inner Mongolia, filled to the brim with information in several languages. Curious, we look further into it and realise that this might actually be a fun little adventure and decide to book it!

This trip was running through one of China’s holiday breaks (Golden week i.e National Day Holiday) for 3 days and 2 nights and came at a fairly reasonable price for an all-inclusive trip. Also, let’s be honest, who wouldn’t want to get onto a 10-hour coach ride to the middle of nowhere? (I promise it was completely worth it!!) So, here is what I did on my little trip to Inner Mongolia:

Day 1 “Yurt alert!”

The trip started with a bright and early wake-up time of 3.30am in order to get ready and to the meet-up point on time (4.50am). Though it was a struggle to wake up, I had quite literally laid everything out the day before so I could just grab-and-go in the morning. The meet-up point was at another university, so we took a ten-minute Didi (China’s ‘Uber’) and were warmly received (much needed in the early morning cold) by our guide. We wasted no time in setting off for our 10-hour journey to the grasslands until we stopped for a lovely lunch at a hotel.

After we resumed our journey and several pit stops, we eventually reached Inner Mongolia and our beds for the night: traditional Mongolian yurts. BUT we of course got an activity done before dinner; as soon as we got off the coaches, we were ushered towards an entire paddock of horses and set off for horse riding.

This was my first experience being with horses this closely, especially coming from an urban town on the outskirts of London. At first I was a bit shaky, but honestly it was quite enjoyable and secure. Seeing as we were grouped whilst on the ride, it was great to share the experience with everyone. We even got our pictures taken (which were available for sale for the low, low price of 20 yuan ~£3) to remember and treasure the moment.

After our horse riding, we got a chance to settle in and get to know our vast surroundings within the grasslands. Though our yurt was a great taste and immersion into a culture I could only dream of reaching, I must admit the shower was SUPER freezing but we were luckily blessed with two duvets to combat the harsh cold of night.

Night view of the outside of a yurt (a yurt is a circular tent usually made of felts with an interior frame).

Day 2 “Starter, main and desert”

The second day also promised an early start as we had a three-hour journey to the Gobi Desert for another action-packed day. Split between the south of Mongolia and taking up most of Inner Mongolia, the Gobi makes up an area of around 500,000 square miles. Despite receiving a meagre 100 mm of rainfall a year, it was drowning in beautiful landscapes and vast terrain.

When arriving at the tourist scenic area, we took a half-hour cable chair ride to the main area, enjoying the views whilst on the way. Fortunately, all of our activities were included, so we started off with the camel ride around the smooth and broad dunes.

Equipped with my one-day experience of horse riding, I was able to appreciate the views and briefly recollect my ‘Hot Desert Systems & Landscapes’ knowledge from A-level geography. However, it of course in no way compares to actually seeing the start of dune formation, hearing the gusts of wind that shape them and feeling the aridity that is what defines the desert.

Post-camel ride, we then had an exhilarating ride on quad bikes (as passengers tightly holding onto the back), whizzing around the Gobi. The next adrenaline-filled activity was a rather bumpy ride on a ‘Humvee’ (also known as a ‘High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle’ HMMWV) which is a type of truck designed for all sorts of terrain and desert tours.

All the rides and activities gave us unique perspectives in experiencing the desert (albeit at very different speeds), which were thankfully concluded by the more low-key, simpler sliding down off of a sand dune.

As day two ended, we made our way to our hotel for the night and recharged for our imminent last day.

Landscape view of Inner Mongolian desert from cable chair.

Day 3 “Hotpot till you drop”

Waking up to our last day was bittersweet, but still made us appreciative of how much we got done throughout the trip. We technically only had half a day, as the other half was taken up by our 10-hour coach trip back. Nonetheless, we set off to the ‘Inner Mongolia Museum ‘, which featured a wide variety of exhibitions from the history of the people to dinosaur fossils. This was a more chilled activity, which I think was perfect for our final day, as we could take our time looking around the extensive exhibits. The dinosaur fossils were a reminder of the species being present over 200 million years ago in Inner Mongolia where it used to be a subtropical haven for them.

After this, we had a filling lunch of hotpot with our own individual pots, which we could control the temperature of and other sorts of food personalisations. This particular meal was, in my opinion the best, as the variety of meats, carbs and vegetables allowed us to properly taste the cuisine.

Alas, as always, all good things must come to an end and so we ended our hearty meal before setting off for our return to Beijing.

My view of the last Mongolian hotpot meal of the trip, featuring a variety of dishes.

As I finish writing this on the last day of our Inner Mongolia trip, I’ve come to realise the immense value you can get out of group trips. Especially at the start of the academic year, it can be a great way for cultural immersion and understanding, meeting new people from all walks of life and viewing life overall from a different lens.