Trip to Inner Mongolia

上个周末我去内蒙古了。我照很多漂亮的照片。我也去大通看看佛像。都很有意思。

This past weekend I went on a trip to the Inner Mongolian Province (still in China, North of the Great Wall). I only brought my camera backpack, which I filled with my camera, telephoto lens, batteries, toiletry bag, two shirts, sweatpants, and two pairs of boxers. We departed from Beijing (北京)1:00PM by bus. The busses seemed reasonably comfortable at first. Fairly cushy seats, legs had a few inches of wiggle room, and air con. They had quoted us 4 hours for the ride their with one pit stop. It ended up taking 9 hours (typical China planning). When we finally did arrive in Inner Mongolia, it was pitch black out and about 40°F (nice change from the blistering heat). We had some good food, watched a performance outside in the “Harry Potter Quidditch Arena”, danced, and went to sleep. We slept in Mongolian tents (yurits). They were surprisingly warm. However, they warned us of mouse droppings everywhere and to not kill the mice in the tent, as it would be very messy (how nice of them to tell us). I slept quite well except for the slight chill. I luckily woke up the next morning early enough to see the sunrise! Not only was the sunrise beautiful, but I also discovered that our camp was in the middle of an enormous wind farm! I couldn’t believe my eyes, absolutely incredible. I grabbed my camera and went crazy. I ended up walking/awkwardly running about 3 miles by the end of the morning from wanting to get different shots. After a good morning of shooting, we had a yummy breakfast (minus the rotten egg I got that would come back to haunt me) and headed out to watch the Mongolian wrestling and horse race. Turns out that the jockeys are the wrestlers. In addition, they idea of a race is the jockeys running back and forth and seeing who can pick up the most money off the ground (quite interesting; 很有意思). A few students from our group also attempted to wrestle against the Mongolian jockeys only to get taken down every time by the same guy (he must have done at least 10 matches; what a champ).

(our driver was WAY to close to the other trucks)

(Classic Mongolian...haha)

(everyone showing off their squatting abilities - very important in China)

(music show)

(Mongolian wrestling)

(guy from UNC getting owned)

(Harry Potter Quidditch arena)

(tent-mates; missing one of them)

After a fun show we got to ride the horses ourselves. It started out with them merely walking the horses while we slowly followed. However, thanks to either my Chinese speaking abilities or incredible ability to annoy for a long time, I was able to go on my own and really go fast. Now that was fun. It felt pretty cool. And it felt even cooler that my horse understood my Chinese (that made me feel good). After horses and a quick try at archery we boarded the bus again to go to lunch…two hours away. Lunch was delicious! It was also very quick. Before we knew it, we were back on the bus to go to the four star hotel we would be staying at. The hotel was amazing! Comfortable beds, included slippers, included robes, best shower ever, and air con! A few friends and I went out for some drinks before dinner and chilled in a nearby family park. They were having a nice squatting session (where everyone just squats together as a family…). We then departed to dinner which was…火锅！！！(hot pot) Oh it was soo nice to have this again. And this restaurant finally carried a peanut sauce like home…yum. After demolishing dinner, a relaxing night of cards, dancing, and talking on the terrace, we all hit the hay.

(series of food shots for Kay...)

(apparently if I looked like a horse, it would be this one)

(cool horse tricks)

(before and after of 火锅)

Sunday started with an interesting Chinese-French fusion breakfast before the bus ride to 大通 (Da Tong). 大通 was incredible. We got to explore the caves and pagodas filled with tributes and shrines to the Buddha. Despite the hustle and bustle of tourism, they was still a feeling of ‘presence’ as the statues/murals/carvings were just so astounding to be around. This was unfortunately the end of our trip. The only thing remaining was another 7-hour bus ride (quoted to be 4 hours).

(series of pics of the Buddha caves)

(more food for Kay...)

This week I am mainly just studying up for my final exam next Monday/Tuesday. Then next week, I have final exam, graduation, and two birthday parties! One is with my BLCU friends before my birthday (since they are leaving), followed by one with my longer-term friends on my actual birthday two days later. It’s going to be a very interesting week.

我希望你们都喜欢我刚写的。

再见！

－ 熊猫