Inner Mongolia – First day in Baotou
July 22
Inner Mongolia is a region that has been controlled by China for centuries. We visited the largest city, Baotou, a major industrial city built up by Chairman Mao when he was trying to move major industries away from the heavily populated coastal areas. I had read that the majority of people in Inner Mongolia – at least 65% are ethnic Chinese (Han), while fewer than 35% are ethnic Mongolians. But I was shocked to find out just how invisible Mongolians are in Inner Mongolia. Almost everyone we met or interacted with was Chinese. And when we drove through the countryside south of Baotou, we did not see any Mongolian nomads living the traditional lifestyle, in yurts, with flocks of sheep and goats. Not one. We were told that most Mongolians do not live in cities but live as nomads in the northern part of Inner Mongolia.
Jeanne and I arrived in Baotou on Sunday, July 22, around noon. Our goal here was to see the Genghis Khan Mausoleum, but there was not enough time that day. We also wanted to see a famous Tibetan Buddhist monastery, but it had been raining heavily and we were told that the road was unsafe. So instead, on Sunday afternoon we went to a Genghis Khan park in the city of Baotou, opened just two years ago and not mentioned in our guide book. Jeanne and I rented a bicycle built for two and rode for 70 minutes, a distance of eight kilometers, all around the park, which is mostly Mongolian grasslands, but also includes a charming forest of willow trees. Then we rode on camels! just 1000 meters, led by rope, but still very fun. After that, we practiced our archery. We got 12 arrows each, for about $2.50. I got TWO bulls-eyes, which entitled me to 24 extra free shots. I must be channeling my character, Emmajin.
Then we stayed for dinner at a Mongolian restaurant. We had mutton and donkey-meat (paid $20 for a plate of it and neither of us could eat more than two bites) and tree-fungus and crispy noodles and milk-skin snacks (like little cheese triangles). We wanted to order mare's milk wine, but the restaurant didn't have any. An added bonus: the restaurant was hosting a huge party, to celebrate the twelfth birthday of a girl named He Xiao-he. It was very elaborate, a sit-down dinner for 220 guests at 22 tables, a parade of little-girl guests through archways of balloons, firecrackers, fireworks shooting out of torches and out of a "happy birthday" sign, an announcer, an event planner, a four-layer cake, champagne, the works. We were amazed. Most of the guests were adults - undoubtedly friends and colleagues of the parents. Our driver told us he had such a party - bigger, actually - when he turned twelve. It's a common custom here. Not one that we had ever heard of!
Monday, July 30, 2007
Genghis Khan worship
Inner Mongolia – Genghis Khan Mausoleum
On July 23, a cool and rainy day, we visited the Genghis Khan Mausoleum. Neither of us realized that this is the rainy season in Inner Mongolia – rain the farmers and herders welcome and need. This made us wonder if we had picked the wrong season to visit Mongolia as well. (It turns out Mongolia is having a serious drought. Go figure!)
At our hotel in Baotou, the Shenhua International Hotel, we befriended a young man named He Run Gang (sounds better in Chinese) who supervises the baggage handlers and doormen. When we asked about how to get to the Genghis Khan Mausoleum, he arranged to take off from work and drive us himself. He is a tall, good-looking young man of 24, and he brought along his girlfriend, a very pretty Chinese 23-year-old, dressed in tight jeans and high-heeled shoes. They were both born in Inner Mongolia and consider it home, and they told us a lot about it.
The Genghis (more properly spelled Chinggis) Khan Mausoleum, about two hours’ drive south of Baotou, is not where Genghis Khan’s body is buried. When he died in 1227, his body was taken back to his birthplace in Mongolia to be buried, and hundreds of horses trampled over it so that no one would ever know where it was. However, his “spirit” is said to be at this site, near Dongsheng. According to legend, he dropped his horsewhip at this site once, passing through. Normally, that is a bad omen for a Mongolian leader, but he refused to see it as such. On the contrary, he said, I like the scenery here and would like this to be my final resting place. After he died, as his body was being transported back to Mongolia, a wheel on the horse cart broke at this site, so a memorial was set up, in a yurt, and it was said that his spirit resided there. Kinda goofy, but that’s what they say.
Anyway, the original eight white yurts contain his saddle, his bow and arrows, and other “sacred” objects. They are now housed inside a large, imposing concrete building built by the government of China. The whole complex, atop a hill with 99 steps leading up to it, is designed for the “worship” of Genghis Khan – almost a religion. There are altars and incense burners, and even our Chinese guide lit a stick of incense and bowed to him. A group of Mongolians called Darkhats are responsible for keeping an eternal flame burning and organizing ceremonies four times a year. It’s very strange, actually, since Genghis Khan attacked China and his sons and grandsons conquered it. For years, his name was not allowed to be mentioned, certainly not in admiration let alone worship. Then Chinese President Jiang Zemin allowed this mausoleum to be built, saying that the Mongol conquest is a fact of history and people should be allowed to draw their own conclusions.
I took lots of notes at the mausoleum, with Jeanne’s help on the translation. Our guide told us the whole story in Chinese, and explained us all the objects. It was kind of surreal, actually. Perhaps the Chinese allow Genghis Khan worship because they know there are so few Mongolians left who might take it seriously. Certainly, those in Mongolia have begun to celebrate Genghis Khan and his life, as a source of national pride. I guess the Chinese can see there is nothing to fear in this revival. Our Chinese guide even told us that under the Mongols, China reached its largest size ever – as if the Mongol Empire were Chinese. It’s amazing how different people in different periods rewrite history.
On July 23, a cool and rainy day, we visited the Genghis Khan Mausoleum. Neither of us realized that this is the rainy season in Inner Mongolia – rain the farmers and herders welcome and need. This made us wonder if we had picked the wrong season to visit Mongolia as well. (It turns out Mongolia is having a serious drought. Go figure!)
At our hotel in Baotou, the Shenhua International Hotel, we befriended a young man named He Run Gang (sounds better in Chinese) who supervises the baggage handlers and doormen. When we asked about how to get to the Genghis Khan Mausoleum, he arranged to take off from work and drive us himself. He is a tall, good-looking young man of 24, and he brought along his girlfriend, a very pretty Chinese 23-year-old, dressed in tight jeans and high-heeled shoes. They were both born in Inner Mongolia and consider it home, and they told us a lot about it.
The Genghis (more properly spelled Chinggis) Khan Mausoleum, about two hours’ drive south of Baotou, is not where Genghis Khan’s body is buried. When he died in 1227, his body was taken back to his birthplace in Mongolia to be buried, and hundreds of horses trampled over it so that no one would ever know where it was. However, his “spirit” is said to be at this site, near Dongsheng. According to legend, he dropped his horsewhip at this site once, passing through. Normally, that is a bad omen for a Mongolian leader, but he refused to see it as such. On the contrary, he said, I like the scenery here and would like this to be my final resting place. After he died, as his body was being transported back to Mongolia, a wheel on the horse cart broke at this site, so a memorial was set up, in a yurt, and it was said that his spirit resided there. Kinda goofy, but that’s what they say.
Anyway, the original eight white yurts contain his saddle, his bow and arrows, and other “sacred” objects. They are now housed inside a large, imposing concrete building built by the government of China. The whole complex, atop a hill with 99 steps leading up to it, is designed for the “worship” of Genghis Khan – almost a religion. There are altars and incense burners, and even our Chinese guide lit a stick of incense and bowed to him. A group of Mongolians called Darkhats are responsible for keeping an eternal flame burning and organizing ceremonies four times a year. It’s very strange, actually, since Genghis Khan attacked China and his sons and grandsons conquered it. For years, his name was not allowed to be mentioned, certainly not in admiration let alone worship. Then Chinese President Jiang Zemin allowed this mausoleum to be built, saying that the Mongol conquest is a fact of history and people should be allowed to draw their own conclusions.
I took lots of notes at the mausoleum, with Jeanne’s help on the translation. Our guide told us the whole story in Chinese, and explained us all the objects. It was kind of surreal, actually. Perhaps the Chinese allow Genghis Khan worship because they know there are so few Mongolians left who might take it seriously. Certainly, those in Mongolia have begun to celebrate Genghis Khan and his life, as a source of national pride. I guess the Chinese can see there is nothing to fear in this revival. Our Chinese guide even told us that under the Mongols, China reached its largest size ever – as if the Mongol Empire were Chinese. It’s amazing how different people in different periods rewrite history.
A day in the Mongolian grasslands
July 28, Bayan Gobi
Just two hours drive from Kharkhorin, Bayan Gobi means “rich Gobi” and it is the northernmost part of the
Our ger camp here, the Double Zagal, is “a cut above” the last ger camp. The gers are smaller, but the showers are designed with a small changing room each and a bench to put your stuff on, and the hot water works. The sinks are clean, and the overall impression is a much cleaner, better run ger camp. The restaurant is air conditioned! And there is an outdoor covered area with chairs and tables, very pleasant for sitting on a hot day. The temperature went up to about 30 Celsius today – much more pleasant than the 37 the other day, but still pretty hot.
After lunch, we drove to an abandoned monastery that was destroyed twice – once during a civil war in the 1600s and then again in 1937. A wise old woman named Davaa was there, dressed in yellow satin and “ruffling” the Tibetan sutras. Her grandfather was a monk there in the old days and told her father to keep the learning and restore the monastery someday. This father died in the 1980s, but his daughter, Davaa, set about restoring it after the Communists fell in 1990. She is quite an inspiration. She has been praying for rain, and – lo and behold – it rained while we were visiting the ruins of the old monastery. Only a few small temples remain of what was once a monastery with 1500 monks. Now there are four monks, including her two grandsons. It’s wonderful to see how a few Mongolians are trying to restore the old ways, now that the Communists are gone.
At 6 p.m., Jeanne and I rode Mongolian horses! We rode for an hour, with a local wrangler and horse owner named Dashkim. It was great fun. Both of us did pretty well on horseback, and we were able to trot and even get up to a canter briefly. He took us down the hill to a beautiful grassy area, where a large herd of horses were grazing by a small lake. We rode through the lake, and then past the horses and past some sheep, then up around the ger camp and back. Very nice.
We had a typical Mongolian dish for dinner – a type of lightly fried meat pie with beef in it. We also had a vegetarian version and learned how to order beer in Mongolian.
Another good day on the grasslands.
Visiting the ruins of Kararkorum
July 27, Kharakorum (now known as Kharkhorin)
Oh boy, what a day! I got to see the third of my three “dream” sites relating to the Mongol Empire: Kharakorum, the capital of the Mongol Empire during the mid-13th century. Chinggis Khaan’s son, Ogodei, who succeeded him as Great Khaan, built a palace there, surrounded by a huge thick wall, to be the capital of the Mongol Empire. It was the first fixed building in
Not much is left of the palace and city of
In our ger camp, there is a miniature reconstruction of the city of
Most of the bricks and tiles used in the palace and walls of Kharakorum were used to build a Buddhist monastery in the 16th century, called Erdene Zuu. Its walls are 400 meters long, about one-tenth the length of the walls of Kharakorum. Along its outside walls are 108 white stupas – a stunning sight from a distance. We saw it from several overlooks above the city. Inside, there used to be 40 temples with at most 150 lama monks, but most of the temples were destroyed by the Communists in 1937. Today, it is once again a working monastery, with 40 monks. Only 14 temples remain.
The three most prominent of the temples are richly decorated, with statues of Buddhas and elaborate banners and wall paintings. They have also set up a school for training young monks, and we visited it while the monks were chanting the sutras in Tibetan. Jeanne and I put one of our blue khadag scarves on one of the fierce guardian statues that is said to protect the monastery. I hope it helps!
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Xanadu at last!
On July 20, Jeanne and I finally arrived in Xanadu!
The Chinese call it Yuan Shangdu - the "upper capital" of the Yuan Dynasty, but it was in fact the site of Kublai Khan's summer palace. Most Chinese have never heard of it, but we managed to find a guide and driver brave enough to try to find it.
Let me tell you, Xanadu is hard to find! We drove ten hours north from Beijing to an obscure (but growing!) town in Inner Mongolia called Duolun, and it was a hard drive. For at least an hour we were on unpaved roads, mostly going over the mountains, with a cliff going up on our right side and a steep cliff going down on our left, through a rock quarry, fording a stream, over mud roads and gravel and extremely bumpy, uneven, rocky patches of "road." Our driver was cheerful the whole way, despite the fact that he was not driving an SUV but rather a fancy Chinese-made car called a "Red Flag." That car will need a tune-up very soon. The scenery along the way was gorgeous: lush green mountains, corn-planted valleys, up and up and up, over several mountain ranges, then to a high plateau, the rolling grasslands of Mongolia.
On the map, Duolun looks like a tiny town, but it now has THREE stoplights and many new buildings and many wide streets lined with shops and restaurants, as well as fancy street lights and a big town square with a roller skating rink, paddle boats on a small lake, and live music at night - right outside our hotel window! We ate spicy mutton kebabs and cheese sticks for dinner. We stayed at the fanciest hotel in Duolun, a two-star hotel, and our room was, well, um, spacious.
The next morning, we drove half an hour due west of town to "Yuan Shangdu," Xanadu. I had to keep pinching myself to believe I was really there. I had been told there was not much to see there, and this is true, but there was more than I expected. A number of stone walls are still standing, crumbling, in the green grasslands. Our guide, Miss Dong, told us where the original palace and palace walls stood, where the garden was, where guests stayed, where the hunting grounds were and the forest. She even told us where, exactly, Marco Polo met Kublai Khan. I had described Xanadu as in a valley, but that is not exactly right. It is in a flat grassy plain, and you can see mountains all around, but in the distance. In July, the grasses are covered with a profusion of wildflowers of all colors, including many kinds that are used in Chinese medicine, especially "jinlianhua" - a golden flower that is dried and used in tea to cure throat and respiratory ailments. We later bought some. I wish I could send some to Paul right away - he's got a killer sore throat and cough.
I learned many facts about Xanadu that I didn't know. Kublai Khan insisted that the floors be earthen, because he did not want to lose his Mongolian connection to the earth. The gates were lined up perfectly North-South, in a straight axis with the palace in Beijing, except off by two degrees, by design, because nothing is perfect, even in nature. The garden was smaller than I thought, and the surrounding land bigger. And the palace was surrounded by thick walls and protected with a moat. I will definitely need to make some revisions in my book.
Overall - it was a thrill to visit Xanadu.
The Chinese call it Yuan Shangdu - the "upper capital" of the Yuan Dynasty, but it was in fact the site of Kublai Khan's summer palace. Most Chinese have never heard of it, but we managed to find a guide and driver brave enough to try to find it.
Let me tell you, Xanadu is hard to find! We drove ten hours north from Beijing to an obscure (but growing!) town in Inner Mongolia called Duolun, and it was a hard drive. For at least an hour we were on unpaved roads, mostly going over the mountains, with a cliff going up on our right side and a steep cliff going down on our left, through a rock quarry, fording a stream, over mud roads and gravel and extremely bumpy, uneven, rocky patches of "road." Our driver was cheerful the whole way, despite the fact that he was not driving an SUV but rather a fancy Chinese-made car called a "Red Flag." That car will need a tune-up very soon. The scenery along the way was gorgeous: lush green mountains, corn-planted valleys, up and up and up, over several mountain ranges, then to a high plateau, the rolling grasslands of Mongolia.
On the map, Duolun looks like a tiny town, but it now has THREE stoplights and many new buildings and many wide streets lined with shops and restaurants, as well as fancy street lights and a big town square with a roller skating rink, paddle boats on a small lake, and live music at night - right outside our hotel window! We ate spicy mutton kebabs and cheese sticks for dinner. We stayed at the fanciest hotel in Duolun, a two-star hotel, and our room was, well, um, spacious.
The next morning, we drove half an hour due west of town to "Yuan Shangdu," Xanadu. I had to keep pinching myself to believe I was really there. I had been told there was not much to see there, and this is true, but there was more than I expected. A number of stone walls are still standing, crumbling, in the green grasslands. Our guide, Miss Dong, told us where the original palace and palace walls stood, where the garden was, where guests stayed, where the hunting grounds were and the forest. She even told us where, exactly, Marco Polo met Kublai Khan. I had described Xanadu as in a valley, but that is not exactly right. It is in a flat grassy plain, and you can see mountains all around, but in the distance. In July, the grasses are covered with a profusion of wildflowers of all colors, including many kinds that are used in Chinese medicine, especially "jinlianhua" - a golden flower that is dried and used in tea to cure throat and respiratory ailments. We later bought some. I wish I could send some to Paul right away - he's got a killer sore throat and cough.
I learned many facts about Xanadu that I didn't know. Kublai Khan insisted that the floors be earthen, because he did not want to lose his Mongolian connection to the earth. The gates were lined up perfectly North-South, in a straight axis with the palace in Beijing, except off by two degrees, by design, because nothing is perfect, even in nature. The garden was smaller than I thought, and the surrounding land bigger. And the palace was surrounded by thick walls and protected with a moat. I will definitely need to make some revisions in my book.
Overall - it was a thrill to visit Xanadu.
Monday, July 16, 2007
Marco Polo
Here is a picture of Marco Polo, who lived from 1254 to 1324. Of course, no one knows what he really looked like. But this is a picture often published.
And here is a route map that shows, roughly, the route he took when he traveled overland from his home in Venice to the capital of the Mongol Empire, Cambaluc (Beijing) and by sea back home. He left home at the age of 17 and arrived in China at the age of 21. He stayed till the age of 38 and returned home at 41.
And her
e is the Marco Polo bridge, outside of Beijing. Marco described it in detail, and you can visit it today, although it was rebuilt.
This is a picture of Kublai Khan, more properly spelled Khubilai Khan, who lived from 1215 to 1294 and built a magnificent summer palace at Xanadu. He moved the capital of the Mongol Empire to a city called Cambaluc, or Khan-balik "Khan's capital" - now called Beijing.
Marco Polo met him and called him Cublay Kaan, describing him as "the most potent man, as regards forces and lands and treasure, that existeth in the world, or ever hath existed from the time of our First Father Adam until this day."
Set to go
Tomorrow I fly to Beijing to begin this adventure. Jeanne is already in Beijing, getting more excited by the minute. She woke me up with a phone call at 7 a.m. this morning, unable to contain her enthusiasm for our journey.
Here's a brief outline of where we'll be going and when:
Trip One, July 19-21: Xanadu. Xanadu is a one-day drive from Beijing. Nothing is left but ruins of the sumptuous summer palace of Kublai Khan, visited and described by Marco Polo. Marco called it Chandu, and said "There is at this place a very fine marble Palace, the rooms of which are all gilt and painted with figures of men and beasts and birds, and with a variety of trees and flowers, all executed with such exquisite art that you regard them with delight and astonishment." The Chinese called it "Shangdu," meaning upper capital, and it was the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge who referred to it as Xanadu. The palace and magnificent gardens were destroyed by the Chinese when they overthrew the Mongols in 1368, and now it is so obscure that most Chinese tour guides don't even know where it is.
Trip Two, July 22 - 24: Inner Mongolia. We will fly to the ugly industrial city of Baotou and hire a car to take us to the Chinggis Khan Mausoleum near Tongsheng in the Ordos Desert. A special tribe of Mongols was assigned to care for this mausoleum, which has a fascinating history. Chinggis (Genghis) Khan, who died in 1227, is not buried there, but the site is sacred to the Mongols.
Trip Three, July 25-31: Outer Mongolia. We will fly to the capital city, Ulaan Baatar, then go on a five-day road trip to the ancient capital of the Mongol Empire, Karakorum. It is in ruins, too, but many of its bricks and tiles were used to build the nearby Buddhist monastery of Erdene Zuu. We will also visit a wild horse preserve, where Mongolia's truly wild horses were rescued from near-extinction. We expect to stay in yurts, known in Mongolia as gers, and drink plenty of airag, the national drink of fermented mare's milk.
I'm getting more excited by the minute, too. It's 7 a.m. in Beijing - maybe I'll call Jeanne!
Here's a brief outline of where we'll be going and when:
Trip One, July 19-21: Xanadu. Xanadu is a one-day drive from Beijing. Nothing is left but ruins of the sumptuous summer palace of Kublai Khan, visited and described by Marco Polo. Marco called it Chandu, and said "There is at this place a very fine marble Palace, the rooms of which are all gilt and painted with figures of men and beasts and birds, and with a variety of trees and flowers, all executed with such exquisite art that you regard them with delight and astonishment." The Chinese called it "Shangdu," meaning upper capital, and it was the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge who referred to it as Xanadu. The palace and magnificent gardens were destroyed by the Chinese when they overthrew the Mongols in 1368, and now it is so obscure that most Chinese tour guides don't even know where it is.
Trip Two, July 22 - 24: Inner Mongolia. We will fly to the ugly industrial city of Baotou and hire a car to take us to the Chinggis Khan Mausoleum near Tongsheng in the Ordos Desert. A special tribe of Mongols was assigned to care for this mausoleum, which has a fascinating history. Chinggis (Genghis) Khan, who died in 1227, is not buried there, but the site is sacred to the Mongols.
Trip Three, July 25-31: Outer Mongolia. We will fly to the capital city, Ulaan Baatar, then go on a five-day road trip to the ancient capital of the Mongol Empire, Karakorum. It is in ruins, too, but many of its bricks and tiles were used to build the nearby Buddhist monastery of Erdene Zuu. We will also visit a wild horse preserve, where Mongolia's truly wild horses were rescued from near-extinction. We expect to stay in yurts, known in Mongolia as gers, and drink plenty of airag, the national drink of fermented mare's milk.
I'm getting more excited by the minute, too. It's 7 a.m. in Beijing - maybe I'll call Jeanne!
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Background
I've been fascinated with the Mongol Empire for six years, and now I'm about to set off on a journey in search of whatever remains of that long-ago, distant empire.
The Mongols conquered and ruled most of the known world, beginning in 1206 with Chinggis Khan, better known in the West as Genghis Khan. By the time his grandson Khubilai (Kubla) Khan died in 1292, the Mongols ruled the largest contiguous empire in world history, stretching from Korea to the Black Sea, including China, Central Asia, Persia, and Russia. When Marco Polo arrived in Beijing, then known as Cambaluc, in 1275, Khubilai Khan was the most powerful man in the world. The Mongols ruled China and Persia for 100 years, and they held sway over Russia for 250 years. Yet history has been written by the people they conquered, so most of us think of them as ruthless barbarians. Originally a nomadic people, they left few traces of their vast empire.
From July 17 to 31, 2007, I will be traveling, with my friend Jeanne, to Inner and Outer Mongolia to scout out the few places where we can see evidence of their lost empire. We will visit Xanadu, Cambaluc, Karakorum, and the Chinggis Khan Memorial. Come along with us on our journey of adventure.
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