Hohhot 呼和浩特| Inner Mongolia 内蒙| The springboard to delve into the cultural overlay of human presence

Inner Mongolia is an inland Mongolic autonomous region located in Northern China. It is the third-largest province-level subdivision in China, covering approximately 1.2 million square kilometers, about 12% of China’s total territory, more than four times of the United Kingdom. Curved in a banana shape, Inner Mongolia borders the Republic of Mongolia and Russia to the north, and Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Ningxia, and Gansu provinces from northeast to southwest.

Language in Hohhot
There are 36 ethnic groups in Hohhot, including Mongol, with Han Chinese as the dominant ethnicity.
This mix of ethnicities has resulted in a combination of languages in the city as well.
Many of Hohhot’s older residents speak the Hohhot dialect, but the newer residents speak Hohhot-based Mandarin.

Top Attractions in Hohhot
1. Xilamuren Grassland
Xilamuren Grassland is located in the Xilamuren Town of Baotou City, but it is more close to Hohhot (about 88km) than Baotou (about 180km). It is the nearest grassland to Hohhot with about 1.5 hours drive. “Xilamuren” is previously called “Zhao River” (“Zhao” means “Temple” in Mongolia),

2. Dazhao Temple
Dazhao Temple, or Wuliang Temple, the first building of Hohhot, is one of the oldest and largest temples in Inner Mongolia dedicated to the Tibetan Buddhism of Gelugpa order. Unlike its older brother in Lhasa enjoyed kinds of respect, Dazhao Temple had been ignored for the first decades since it was originally built in 1579, and gained its fame among people from all over Mongolia, until 1586 when the 3rd Dalai Lama came to the temple and consecrated a gigantic silver statue of Sakyamuni. Besides the 10ft silver buddha statue, the temple houses another two treasures: the remaining murals and the lifelike dragons carved on the aureate pillars that sit on both sides of the statue.

3. Zhaojun Tomb
Zhaojun Tomb is perched on the Dahi river, about 9 km from the city of Hohhot. It is an honorary mound in commemoration of Wang Zhaojun, a commoner woman from the Han dynasty who married a Xiongnu Chanyu (nomadic chieftain from the grasslands) and brought a harmonious relationship enjoyed by both Han and Xiongnu people. Even though her remains are not actually buried beneath this 33-meter-high tomb, it’s still noted for its remarkable scenery and striking statues.

4. Inner Mongolia Museum
Inner Mongolia Museum, a massive provincial museum, sits on Xinhua Street in the city of Hohhot. The museum, with an exceptional inclined roof resembling the boundless grasslands of Inner Mongolia, particularly gives an insight into the history and traditions of the Mongolian people, from the exhibition dedicated to the life of Genghis Khan to the exhibition of ethnic relics reflecting the daily life of nomadic Mongols, including production, culture, folklore, art, and religion, as well as the display of complex Mongol bone carvings describing historical events. In addition, the museum is well-known for its large-scale collection of well-preserved fossil skeletons of dinosaurs,

5. Mausoleum of Genghis Khan
The world-famous Mausoleum of Genghis Khan is located in the Xinjie Town in the Ejin Horo Banner in the Ordos Prefecture of Inner Mongolia, about 115 km from Baotou. This is the grandest temple paying tribute to Genghis Khan, where he is worshipped as a godlike figure, dynastic founder, and deity of the ancient Turkic religion known as Tengrism. In fact, the mausoleum is a cenotaph where the coffin contains only headdresses and accessories, but no remains of the great Mongol warrior himself. The actual location of his remains has never been discovered because he was buried without any marks according to his will.

6. Resonant Sand Bay (Xiangshawan)
Known in Chinese as Xiangshawan, the Resonant Sang Bay is located in the eastern end of Gobi’s Kubuqi Desert of Inner Mongolia, about 1 hour’s drive from Baotou. It gets its name from a roaring sound created by sliding down its sand dunes from the top during dry weather, and the sound is similar to that of an airplane. It was the most unreclaimable site, but it was developed as the first comprehensive desert resort, in the process of China's general campaign to fight against desertification. This desert-themed resort contains four "islands" of sand-based entertainment activities surrounding the main site - Xiangshawan Port, as well as the Sand Dune Resort which is used as the reception area.