Hohhot - Inner Mongolia

From Beijing, Goof and I caught an overnight train to Hohhot, a city of 2 million people in northern China in a province called Inner Mongolia. Our Honcho here was called David and while his spoken English was good, his ability to understand us was not at the same standard and so communication was quite stilted. Luckily I had my notebook and often I would write words for him instead.

A statue of Altan Khan, the founder of Hohhot and grandson of Chinngis Khan.

Our first destination was the Museum of Inner Mongolia. It was massive there were with four levels; one dedicated to Natural History (dinosaurs, yeah!!!!),  one to current Inner Mongolia, one to historical Inner Mongolia, and one to artistic items from famous authors and artists. 

Goof meets an Iguanadontia. I didn't want to get that close as it looked hungry.

For those who are unaware the Mongolian regions were a favourite roaming ground for dinosaurs and, as a result, it has been a treasure trove of prehistoric fossils. This was my first time with the dinosaurs and it was pretty amazing. The biggest issue with the museum was the limited English. Our guide was really good here and either knew lots of history or was memorising the plaques around him an translating them to English.

This is an ancient astronomical chart. I've always been fascinated by the mapping of stars and constellations by early man. It's actually in the five pagoda temple but it would not look out of place in the museum. 

This was followed by a walk around town and a nap, after which Goofy and I braved a meal and a nightclub on our own. Both were hilarious as no one spoke English. We picked a meal at random hoping it was a meat we would recognise (as its a sheep farming community the odds were with us) and it took 10 minutes to order our first beer at the nightclub (finding the toilet was another issue that we solved using a diagram of a stick figure peeing). 

 This statue depicts Chinese fable about a monkey that wants some fruit. The elephant, monkey, hare, and a bird work together to get the fruit. Similarly Goof and I had to work together to get drunk that night. Ever the opportunist Rudolph tries to share in the spoils. 

Awesomeness ensued as we watched the bartender juggle bottles, met the owner (who supplied us with drinks), and joined in their dice drinking games. Weirdest thing ever - nearly everyone in the club would buy a bottle of Chivas Regal and mix it in a carafe with iced tea.

Pete Thomson could learn a lot from this guy about serving cocktails. That said Goof and I didn't see him pour one drink all night, but he sure drank a lot.

The following day we visited three temples. The temple of the five pagodas is a Buddhist temple with over 1500 images of Buddha carved into the walls. It also has the Mongolia cosmological map showed earlier.

The temple of five pagodas

The Dazhao temple is the oldest building and largest temple in Hohhot. The third Dalai Lama visited this temple in 1586, which led to the temple being the a religious centre for Mongolians.

Animal statues in the Dazhao temple.

and the Great Mosque (there is a pretty big Muslim community in Hohhot).

After Ramadan many Muslims gather in this tower to feast.

We finished the day by relaxing in their town square before jumping on our train to two day train to Mongolia.

The Chinese flag in the Square. Behind it a multitude of kites can be seen, these are all flown by people on the Square.