Revisiting familiar places

A business trip and a tornado ago I found myself cycling around high above Beijing whilst biting down feverishly onto a piece of gym in a desperate attempt to not allow my breakfast to resurface. This rare exception for the frequent traveler that I pride myself in being, soon landed me in Inner Mongolia** too tired to process what had just happened.

Crossing the international border into China via Inner Mongolia. You can see the very distinct Mongolian writing system on the airport border control lines.

This was the dramatic culmination that awaited my return, after leaving Asia to travel back to my home country for two months. Two months during which extreme heat and copious amounts of work with ample opportunities for frustration, depleted me of my batteries, both physically and mentally. I must have been overcome by fatigue and jetlag because the only thing I can recall from that emergency landing was that briefly upon our plane touching the ground, I surrendered myself to a peaceful sleep in our – finally - stationary aircraft. All the while I was in dreamland, the staff of the “tiny”* airport of Hohhot would be trying their best to attend to the engine problems of the large airbus they had not expected to land abruptly on their doorstep.

In a country that has sworn zero tolerance to airplane accidents, any such hiccup is indeed out of the ordinary. Had it not been for my debilitating fatigue, I may have actually taken a moment to feel surprised at the occurrence. But alas! Morpheus got the better of me, and I resolved to surrender myself to whatever other whims fate had in store for me for rest of the day. Unsurprisingly, and in true Chinese fashion, what was in store for me only became more interesting and bizarre as time went on.

Suitcases - check! Band of confused passengers - check! Off we go into the night!

Five hours later, the agitated conversations that were turning louder and louder into a crescendo of complains and frustration, finally became loud enough to wake me from my slumber. The engine did suffer damage after all, and we had to begrudgingly offboard. I guess an overly strict plane control system does have its downfalls (hehe) after all. I thought I was fully awake, until upon leaving the cabin, the characteristic strong wind of the Mongolian plateau slapped me across the face. “Oh yes, that famous Inner Mongolian summer” I thought as I shuffled down the rattling stairs alongside everyone else, one hand in my pocket and one hand holding onto to my hat that seemed to be adamant about flying off of my head.  

Left: The stunning sights of downtown Hohhot welcomed us as we entered the city. The characteristic horses of the region can be seen decorating some of the most prominent buildings of the capital. Right: Volcano that can be found in the flatlands of the Mongolia Plateau. Climbing it, last time I visited Inner Mongolia, left me with bruises and scratches as I battled the impossibly strong winds to make it to the top.

This was not all that different from the last time I was here. All I can remember from my last visit to Inner Mongolia, was that I had managed to make it back to camp safely after crawling up a volcano against the deadly winds of the valley. For all my caution, I only ended up being bucked off of a hose the very next day, just a few meters away from the ice-cold yurt I called my temporary home. Now, as I looked around me at my lavishly dressed fellow international passengers, some of which quite possibly had never entered China other than for a connecting flight, I figured I was not the one who was about to experience a cultural shock…

Inner Mongolia is one of the most real places I have ever visited. The down-to-earth people, many of which are focused on their cattle, live in the prefecture’s vast green valleys that are only interrupted by blue lakes and cozy white yurts. It is the land of fairytales. But it is also the homeland of a strong people, who have survived extreme conditions, gushing winds and frigid winters.

This is what the green countryside of Inner Mongolia looks like. A fairytale land discovered by few. (Photo credit: 小红书 - Wr)

They enjoy playing with animal bones, drink horse wine from a horned leather skin, sew their own homes by hand and their children learn how to ride a horse at the age of three.  For those who live in its capital, Hohhot, life is definitely a lot more modern. But, more often than not, their relatives still relish in the lands of infinite space in the Mongolian Plateau. For those out there, there is a type of crazy that is interwoven with their unique lifestyle, a type of crazy that the world has chosen to forget about.

However, this time round, the crazy was definitely setting in. The language barrier was the first hurdle, the lack of internet was the second. When travelling to China for the first time, it is always a shock to enter a country that is not anglophone. Partly because there is no need for it to be. To be more precise, in these more remote areas of China, which partake in the massive internal tourism industry, learning English for the 1-2 English speaking tourists that may stray their way, seems like a lot of investment for nothing. As for the internet…that is a whole other story. Even if you managed to get a working internet connection at the airport, which you would probably need a Chinese phone number to do so, you would then have to navigate your way around a very different system of logic while also being able to type out some basic Chinese along the way. As for apps such as google maps, google translate, Instagram and Facebook, none of these work in China.

A welcoming cup of traditional Inner Mongolian tea after a long day full of surprises. The locally produced cereal that is added to the beverage, gives a very distinct pop to its flavour.

I used my very poor Chinese to help two of my compatriots who had never left our home country before. This was their first experience abroad, and it was already becoming quite an interesting adventure. I also pointed to Inner Mongolia on the Chinese version of google maps. I can’t say if that helped or made matters worse. 

The sun was now setting and so seemed that with it, the last strands of patience and consideration abandoned the members of our small, unexpected group. The agitated long queue that was waiting to cross the border-check only became all that more frantic when a two-fingered man caused the fingerprint recognition system to malfunction. He was only to be coupled by a lovely but very disconcerted first-class passenger who had given up waiting in line and instead rather manically approached person after person in a desperate attempt to give her cat away because “the hotel we were staying at would not approve and would probably try to get rid of it in one way or another…” I asked her how she had reached this conclusion and she told me it was common sense. I did not understand how.

And so it was, that a few dramas and a strange bus ride later we were approaching our 5-star hotel where we were each given a single deluxe room, that indeed accepted pets, and a buffet dinner of royal proportions. I cherished a steaming hot bowl of beef noodles in rich soup and washed it down with a cup of Mongolian milk tea offered to us by the welcoming hotel staff.

Waking up to the beautiful views of Hohhot the next morning was not so bad after all.

The next morning was one of early wake up calls and multiple flight cancelations. I did not stick around to find out more. At some point a fellow passanger messaged me to let me know that the plane was leaving 24 hours later. I thanked him, but by that point I had already left Inner Mongolia and was traveling to Beijing with a bag full of traditional regional gifts. Once in China, the game of getting from one place to the next is on a completely different level. Teaming up with some of the new friends I had acquired from the flight, we sat around our snacks and drinks and looked outside the train window as the plateau gave way to the cityscape of Beijing.

One of the gifts I picked up on my journey. This is the original version of the game "five stones". In ancient Greece, the game was known as Knucklebones. Though other countries across the world, may have replaced the bones with other items which were easy to find, such as shells and stones, in Inner Mongolia you can still find the game in its original ancestral form. (Minus the bouncy ball of course).

What had started as an inconvenience and a test of perseverance on a very tired mind, turned out being a lovely reminder of a place I had forgotten about. It seems that every time I make it here, one way or another, my limits are tested in true Inner Mongolian style. But is seems that regardless of the cold, the fatigue and being bucked off of a horse, my friends always enjoy my stories of this place best, maybe because of just how beautifully crazy they always are. For the full story of Inner Mongolian craziness and charm check out my 2021 trip to the stunning Mongolian Plateau: (link to be shared)

*tiny is an understatement in China. A point of reference would be China's 3rd tier cities, the equivalent of what we would call a village. The only difference is that in China those “villages” boast a population of 5 million or more residents, most of whom live in high-rise buildings.

**Inner Mongolia is an autonomous region situated in the north of China. Though both Inner Mongolia and Mongolia share the extremely expansive Mongolian Plateau, Mongolia is actually further North, borders Siberia and is a separate country which is not part of China.