内蒙古 (Inner Mongolia)

I just sat at my computer for about 10 minutes thinking about how to start describing the past week. Nothing - until I realized our trip to Inner Mongolia could best be summarized with a picture:

Day 2 of our trip. Out in the Inner Mongolian grasslands at some sort of retreat. Living in 蒙古包 (Mongolian tents - seen in the background of the picture). After dinner, one of our teachers decided to teach us a Chinese game that turned out to be fairly similar duck duck goose. The minute we started playing, nearly all of the other guests (locals) hurried over to watch. Curious. What the hell were 20 外国人 (waiguoren - foreigners) doing sitting in a circle, running around each other? What the hell were we doing here in the first place?

Growing up in New York, it would be an oddity to see a mass of people all of the same ethnicity. In Beijing, it is normal. It is odd to see foreigners. Nevertheless, our program is at a University which specializes in teaching Chinese, so there are many foreigners on campus and in the surrounding neighborhood. Throughout my week in Inner Mongolia, I saw 7 (exactly) foreigners. I remember each one, and I remember where and when I saw them. Everywhere we went, we were an attraction. Several times people would almost jump back when they saw us. A lot of the time they would say "hello" with a big grin on their face - only to be shocked when we answered 你好 (ni hao) and occassionally started conversations in Chinese. In a store, a child saw three of us and started cracking up. A factory worker I interviewed said it was the first time he had ever had a conversation with a foreigner. So while we still get the occasional 外国人！in Beijing (today at KFC actually), it almost feels like home to be back.

Now for the trip. Last Friday afternoon, we took an 11 hour train to Huhhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia. I think the following picture gives a good idea of what the train ride was like:

Small room. 6 beds. Often other people hanging out in our room (like our teacher Guan Laoshi). Crowded, claustrophobic, not that comfortable, but still fun.

11 hours later we arrived in Huhhot, got on a bus, and drove out to Siziwangqi grassland. I have tons of pictures which I'll post a link to at the end. Once there, we broke up into groups of 5 students and 2 teachers and went out to interview local shepherd families. For those of you who don't know, the purpose of the trip was a "social investigation," or to better understand life in Inner Mongolia. At the end of the week, each student had to write a 1200 character report on his or her discoveries (something I just finished).

Later that night, we watched and then participated in a Mongolian Wrestling match. Mongolia (and Inner Mongolia - which is a province in China) has three national sports: wrestling, horseracing, and archery. Wrestling is simple: first one to the ground loses. Here's me about to get crushed:

Next day, Sunday, was similar. Drive to different grassland (site of the first picture), horseriding there, "traditional" Mongolian party at night (not really traditional, very touristy). Monday was more interviews, then drive to Dongsheng city where we checked into a hotel. First shower in three days. A real bed. Internet. Breakfast that didn't involve unfamilar animal parts. Living in the grasslands was a unique experience, but it was nice to be back in a city. The album Inner Mongolia Days 3 and 4 are pictures of Dongsheng, Inner Mongolia's wealthiest city.

Tuesday morning we drove to Erdos Cashmere factory, one of the largest cashmere companies in the world. After touring the factories exhibition center, we got to see parts of the factory itself and talk to the workers. Lots of neat pictures. Later in the day, we visited Genghis Khan's (renovated) tomb. Pretty interesting except for the fact that I had no idea what our tour guide was saying the entire time. After the tour, we got to interview some of the guards of the tomb. Amazingly, the guards are direct decendents of Genghis Khan's closest cirlce of advisors. Not that most of Inner Mongolia isn't somehow related to Genghis Khan (supposedly 8% of Asia), but his advisors passed on the job of guarding the tomb from generation to generation - all the way to the 21 year old man we interviewed. If you ever think work is difficult, think of this: he works from 7:00 in the morning to 5:30 in the evening 365 days a year. He expected to work until he is 50. That is 10585 days, or 111,142.5 hours left to go. Luckily, he says he likes his job and feels his work is important.

Day 5 started with a visit to the desert. What we thought was going to be a "cultural experience" turned out to be kind of like Disneyland in the desert. Rides, food, and an overpriced gift shop. Fun, but very touristy and expensive. Night, bus back to Huhhot.

Day 6 began with a visit to Mengniu Dairy factory, the largest dairy factory in China. I forgot my camera battery, so unfortunately no pictures. At night we took a trip to Ruyi square to visit a giant "music fountain" (really just a fountain with music playing outdoors). It's becoming incredibly slow to upload pictures into my blog, but there are many of Huhhot (a really, really cool city - especially at night) and the fountain.

Day 7 included a visit to a local high school (which involved me, alone, having to talk to 4 high school girls completely in Chinese for 45 minutes - one of the most intimidating experiences of my life) followed by a visit to 内蒙古大学 (Inner Mongolia University). There my friend Dominic and I got paired with two college girls who showed us around the school, took us to lunch, and, of course, took us to a bubble tea store (we're addicted, and milk tea is one of Inner Mongolia's specialties). 10 hours after meeting the college students (I am still not sure why they decided to leave 10 hours with nothing planned - we met up with some of our teachers, went to an arcade, went to McDonald's, went to dinner, went back to the bubble tea store for seconds, and somehow managed to fill the day) we got on the bus back to the train station. After another claustrophobic 11 hours, we were back in Beijing.

This past week was one of the most interesting weeks of my life. For the past 18 years, I would have never guessed I would ever set foot in Inner Mongolia. I'm embarrassed to admit that I didn't really realize how developed an area it is. Giant cities. If move to the U.S. Huhhot would be our 10th largest city by population. And it is growing quickly. GDP growth averaged about 20% from 2003 to 2007. Massive factories. Beautiful buildings. Yet only a bus ride away life carries on in the grasslands as it has for hundreds, if not thousands of years.

It's Sunday evening. I haven't started my homework for tomorrow, when classes start up again. A familiar feeling.

Here are (lots of) photos from the trip:

http://picasaweb.google.com/LouisGilbert15