I must confess that I knew nothing about Inner Mongolia, China before arriving on Thursday morning (we actually had to verify a few times that it was China and not Mongolia). China is big, after all, but the city we were headed to wasn't even in our Trans-Siberian guidebook. The first thing I noticed after stepping out of the train station (besides the three sad little monkeys being forced to do tricks) was the Mongolian script on all the buildings and signs. I got excited for a second thinking it might be Arabic turned counter-clockwise 90 degrees, but then I realized that made no sense and moved onto Mongolian. I was a little surprised that the language would be so prevalent since China isn't always known for being kind to their ethnic minorities (Tibet).
The fact that we were in the middle of nowhere was reinforced by all the intense staring and murmurings of "lao wei" or "waiguren." In Beijing we definitely got some looks, but in Hohhot, people would actually stop in front of us and look for a few minutes then either continue on their way, ask for a picture, or hang around trying to figure out why we were there and what we might be doing. Thankfully we had a great honcho (Rita) on this stop who was unphased by the attention and took us around to different temples, neighborhoods, and even a tomb that we would have had no idea existed. It was hot as blazes out (we're getting closer and closer to the Gobi desert) but I saw a lot more than I knew existed in Hohhot.
Five Pagodas Temple
Tomb of Wang Zhaojun
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