First Yurt on the left

I spent the weekend in the cold steppes of Inner Mongolia, in Hohhot and the nearby Xilamuran grasslands and Kubuqi desert. A group of seven of us arrived in the Hohhot train station Friday morning and immediately went to the grasslands by way of the Anda Guesthouse, a hostel that I stayed at last year when I traveled to Hohhot for the Nadaam Festival. The weather was cold and cloudy, which made me very glad that I had bought a real winter coat the week before. 

We spent the day enjoying the scenery, horseback riding, practicing archery, and eating meals prepared by our hosts. At night, we all packed into our yurt for cards, a few games of mafia, and eventually and early night sleep. 

We woke up early to see the beautiful sunrise on a clear sky in freezing temperature somewhat below 30 degrees. We huddled together, used our blankets, and shot arrows for warmth as we eagerly awaited the sun's warmth. 

After a quick breakfast, we loaded into the van to go to the desert, stopping to pick up four European travelers who joined us for the day. We drove for about six hours, passing grasslands, grazing animals, farms, a delicious restaurant, very curious locals, and at least two nuclear power plants (one of which had a cooling tower feet from the road blocked of by a mere six foot fence). Finally we arrived in the desert, where we put on sand socks, and embarked on an afternoon of sand-surfing, camel-riding (which, I discovered, are much more suitable for my height than Mongolian horses), taking part in sand-rolling contests (video should be on Facebook soon), and getting sand in every possible nook and cranny. 

We returned to Hohhot, had a delicious dinner of grilled meat with some rice and canned peaches (the modern man's chips and salsa), and slept wonderfully until breakfast, snack-buying, and our train back to Beijing. 

Now we are moving our feet back to the crowded streets of Beijing and our noses back to the grindstone.

 Modern day sheep-herding

 Some Chinese adventurers had almost flipped their car as they sped around dunes, requiring another car to use a chain to pull them straight