Travel to Inner Mongolia

Dear All,

Here is a recap of the past few days in a photo collection of our travels. Up at 5:30 AM on March 11th we were on the bus by 6:45 AM and off to Terminal 1 airport. This was built for the Olympics and is the largest airport in the world which is definitely the Chinese way  to go BIG in their approach. A massive structure which had us envisioning athletes from all over the world entering just as we did filled with anticipation for their competitions! It was fun to discuss what sport we'd compete in if we could choose to be the best in something.

We then flew Air China to Inner Mongolia which northeast and took us over the Gobi Dessert. This was amazing to view from the plane.  We arrived in Yinchuan which is a Muslim province on Inner Mongolia. I had the opportunity to teach in North Africa years ago so the food reminded me of Morocco which was a treat to be combined with Chinese food on this trek. We then got on a bus and drove 4 hours to Haong-Hu. Along the way, I was thrilled as a geographer to have the opportunity to observe the flats of wheat, open pit clay mining along with the basic manufacturing of these bricks, barren grasslands, rocky semi-arid flats, mountainous terrain and then man-made mineral mountains that had been created from the minerals mined from the region, too many coal mines, quarries of stone and sand. So much manufacturing was spread out along this highway in a more primitive fashion with this vast terrain seemly unending to have copious amounts of resources that are now being extracted. Small villages of 300,000 people have been developed in remote areas to remove the manufacturing away from the urban regions. These islands of manufacturing are found amongst this vast open terrain which become bubbles of development in the middle of nowhere. (It is bizarre to think of 300,000 people as a VILLAGE seeing as we define a village as 0 -100 people. There is sooooooooo much more to add on this but I'll continue with our itinerary.

We were welcomed in Haong-Hou, to a traditional Mongolian Yurt for a welcoming celebration! A formal evening dinner of too much food, Mongolian entertainment and speeches by our hosts. Many pictures were taken, the event was filmed, speeches made and the Mongolian performers were authentic in attire, music & instruments.  From here we drove 1/2 further to Bayanneor where we checked into the best accommodations yet!!! We were exhausted but took time for contemplation together. The challenge set in place is HOW we'll use this piece of the puzzle of our lives that has been created by going on this trek to not only our present day life but our future.

The next day began the adventure of our welcome to Bayannoer School #1 which reminded us of a university campus in it's size and set up. Over 3,300 students attend this school with approx. 2,000 living on campus so we had our welcome, tour and day filled going to different classrooms and being entertained. There is so much to say about this too but I've now written so much and it's getting late once again so I'll sign off for now.

Thanks again for your responses. Here are some photos unfortunately not all the attachments I attached worked but many did so watch for more tomorrow.

Blessings,

Mrs. VV