Inner mongolia huhehot city 呼和浩特

Back from Xilamuren, we made our way back to the main capital Huhehaote 呼和浩特 - also known as Hothot - and Hushi (Hu City) 呼市.
The city of Hohhot is located about 400km west of Beijing.
 Most people stop over here primarily for the nearby grasslands - 
1. Xilamuren
希拉穆仁草原(the one I went),  
2. Gegentala
gé gēn tǎ lā cǎo yuán 格根塔拉草原, 
Huitengxile
3. 辉腾锡勒草原. 
And for us, it was the same purpose. 

* Okay before I forget, Its important to write down the Chinese writings of the grassland. Because the name is long and even if you know Chinese, its not easy remembering. At least for us.

And because I didn't share it in my previous post. 
Here's the info I got to get to the other grasslands

Huitengxile Grassland辉腾锡勒草原

Transportation: You can take a coach in Hohhot to the Qahar Right Wing Middle Banner of Ulanqab League, then charter a bus to the grassland. Or you can take a train to Zhuzhi Mountain, then charter a bus to the grassland.

Gegentala Grassland (gé gēn tǎ lā cǎo yuán 格根塔拉草原)

For Gegentela take a bus from Hohhot to Wu4lan2hua1 （乌兰花, 2 hours approx). You can take the bus (30RMB) from the long distance bus station which is very close to the central train station in Hohhot. From here you can take a minibus (10RMB per person) or a taxi (60RMB) to Gegentela (30 minutes).

Okay back to our city scene:

Coming out from the station, we were immediately swarmed with taxi drivers and tour touts trying to sell us tickets to the nearby grassland. We quickly broke through all these and continue on for our 1 day tour before advancing to

Er Lian 二连浩特至扎门乌德

Okay before I confuse everyone further

Here was my planned itinerary 

3^rd August Saturday – Arrival in Beijing Evening) ; Sit night train to Hohhot

4^th August Sunday -  Hohhot to Xilamuren Grassland

5^th August Monday – Xilamuren Grassland

6^th August Tuesday - Night train Hohhot to Er Lian 二连浩特至扎门乌德(2hours)Border crossing to Zamin uud 扎门乌德train station to Ulaanbaatar 乌兰巴托

(Border 830-6pm)

7^th August Wednesday –  Ulaanbattar –

8^th August Thursday – Terelj National Park

9^th August Friday –

10^th August Saturday –

11^th August Sunday – 

- The rest left blank were to be planned when we reached Ulaanbattar. 

By foot,  we made our way to Islam Style Street. - Its not that it was anything fascinating since we come from a country with Muslims as well, its just that museums were not something we liked - unles sit was related to cultures or history of the place that we did not know of -  and there were not much else to choose from. Considering the limited time we had.

It will however be very interesting for those who have not seen such scenes.
Here you will be able to see Muslims doing their prayers
Here you will be able to taste mutton dumplings.
Here you will be able to get animal coverings and traditional costumes.

 

 

 

 

Walking around, you will be able to see Chinese temples.
Which you have to pay to get in.




Between the small streets, there are also small stores selling antique items.



The best part for me here was exploring the food.
Cheap and delicious.









After exploring this whole area, we made our way back to the station to get our bagpacks that we had stored there. And grabbed food along the way for our train journey. Another night in the train.
Nothing to complain though. Love the trains in China.