2 day trip from Hohhot to see the Xilamuren Grasslands and Kubuqi Desert
Summary
From Hohhot there are a series of standard tours that take you to a few of the places nearby area, but primarily to the Xilamuren grassland, where you can see local horse riding, and Resonant Sand Gorge of the Kubuqi Desert, where you can slide down the dune and generally play around in a full-on desert. All of this with a night staying in one of the traditional Mongolian Yurts
The whole experience is relatively fun as you do get to see some great countryside, but unfortunately most of these tours are very much catered for the domestic tourist market, which means large numbers of fellow tourists, often spaces concreted over to make way for the masses, manufactured “traditional horse riding shows”, and, of course, the serene-breaking megaphones.
I’d say give it a go if a bit tight on money and don’t mind the mass tourist nature, but otherwise see if you can get a tour company that takes you further afield so that you can escape the crowds and see some of the more traditional Mongolian culture rather than the Chinese branded version
highlights
#1 Visiting the Resonant Sand Gorge of the Kubuqi Desert, and seeing just how defined it is against the grasslands that surround it
#2 Watching some of the "traditional horse riding shows" in the early evening
#3 Traveling through the vast Xilamuren Grasslands
#4 Exploring the Kubuqi Desert, where you can slide down the dunes and generally enjoy that fell-blown desert environment
#5 Watching some of the super touristy wrestling shows
Some broad tips for travelling in China
- China is vast – both in terms of its sheer land area, population, economy, but also its history and culture. You could spend a lifetime travelling China and still only scrape the surface. Very much like a continent on its own and, in recommending a book to read or movie to watch, it’s a bit like recommending a book to read on “Europe”. However, I did find that the book Wild Swans by Jung Chang, gave me good context on modern Chinese history. The book tells the true story of 3 generations of women living in China from 1909 to modern day and I’d highly recommend
- The Chinese people – it’s often difficult to interact with locals in China – there are certainly strong cultural differences that go deeper than you would experience in most other parts of the world, but the main problem is of course the language. Get out google translate for simultaneous translation. You’ll be surprised how keen the locals will be to speak to you, and just how interesting you may find their stories
- Frustrations – travelling in China can often be difficult . . . scream-out-loud, pull-all-your-hair-out, call everyone a c**t, never-ever-going-back style difficult. The language barrier, the often radically different way of doing things, the combo of an often world leading digital country mixed in with archaically manual processes can all make it feel at times like a challenge rather than a joy. I lived in China for 2 years and experienced a lot of these frustrations. My advice is simply to go with it, its all part of the adventure, and above all don’t lose your temper. Shouting at someone or generally showing frustration will just be viewed by the Chinese as embarrassing and, at worst, a loss of face for them, which means you’ve got very little chance of them helping you. Patience, politeness and a smile will often see them wanting to help you. They’re not trying to be difficult . . . most of the time 🙂
Experiences nearby
The below map shows experiences nearby with a colour that reflect the Overall Score of those experiences
Other Desert Experiences
Score Detail
Background - how many times have you asked someone what a travel experience was like and the response was "amazing" or "awesome"? That response is nice to know, but it makes it hard to differentiate that experience compared to others. That is exactly what these scores are trying to do - differentiate the experience by giving a score out of 10 based on 6 categories and then giving an overall experience score
This overall experience score is calculated by: take the highest of the "Culture" or "Nature" score (1-10) + "Fun factor" (1-10) + "Avoiding the crowds" (1-10) + highest of the "Unique" or "World Famous score" (1-10). Then convert into a score out of 100
Extra detail - the logic being that I find all of the 6 individual scores important, but I don't want to mark an experience down just because it doesn't cover both "Culture" and "Nature", or because it isn't both "World Famous" and "Unique". Take the examples of Safari in The Serengeti and walking through Rome - they both appeal at opposite ends of the nature / culture spectrum, and you can have a fantastic time without needing to appeal to both sides. So, their overall scores aren't penalized for their lack of one or the other, and I've done the same for "World Famous" vs "Unique". But . . . I do think that the "Fun factor" of an experience is important, irrelevant of other factors, and so is "Avoiding the Crowds" (or where there are crowds that add to the experience). So, both of these scores are standalone