Call them grasslands, plains, prairies, or steppes, they’re wide open spaces like those some people dream about. The Hulunbuir Grasslands of northeastern Inner Mongolia consist of flat steppes and gently rolling hills, as well as a few forests and flowing rivers. Cattle, donkeys, goats, horses, and sheep can be found roaming throughout the region. Hulunbuir is peopled mostly by Han Chinese, but also by Mongols and various other tribes, such as Daur (a Mongolic-speaking ethnic group), Hui (an East Asian ethnoreligious group that mostly practice Islam), Evenks (a Tungusic people of Northern Asia, including China, Russia, and Mongolia), and Oroqen (a Tungusic people of Northeastern China whose language is very similar to that of the Evenks), there are also ethnic Russians living in the area, mainly in the cities of Hailar and Manzhouli.
In planning my trip (I went during China’s National Day holiday), I decided I wanted to experience staying in a yurt. There are lots of yurts available to book like booking hotel rooms and many of these are on working ranches. I booked a yurt about a three-hour drive northwest of Hailar (the primary city in the region). The yurt was on a working ranch the owner called 563 Ranch. As I booked the yurt for six nights, I also arranged with the owner transportation from and to the airport in Hailar. The yurt cost me 612 RMB for the six nights (102 RMB per night). Transportation and meals were separate from this.
So, my driver picked me up at the airport. The owner of the place where I was going to be staying asked me if I was in a hurry to get to my accommodation or if it was okay for my driver to run some errands in Hailar. Well, I wasn't in a hurry and allowing the driver to run his errands gave me a chance to see parts of the city.
The drive from Hailar to where I was going to be staying took close to three hours, but it was a pleasantly scenic drive once we got out of the city.
We finally started getting close to our destination, but it was a really nice drive along the way.
So, we finally reached our destination at a place called 563 Ranch, which was not just a place for tourists to stay in yurts, but a real working ranch.
After getting checked in, I was shown to my yurt, which I would be calling home for the next six nights.
I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised that there was a bathroom in the yurt. Since there was nothing said about it in the Trip.com listing, I was a little concerned I might have to walk to a separate building to use the toilet and take a shower (not all that different from what my students experience on our university campus).
My first evening there, after I had supper, this little kitten decided she wanted my attention. She spent a lot of time during my stay hanging out with me.
As this was a working ranch, one shouldn't be surprised to see ranch work being done. One morning, a goat was slaughtered. It was roasted that evening and, oh, the meat was soooooooooo good!
So, why would anyone want to go to the Hulunbuir Grasslands? Well, people go to see and experience the wide open spaces, the amazingly clean air (which one comes to appreciate after living in cities like Beijing, Shanghai, or even somewhat less-polluted cities like Harbin, where I live), and a bit of the Inner Mongolian cultures. I also went for these reasons, but I especially wanted to experience staying in a yurt - nothing says “Inner Mongolian culture” like staying in a yurt.
I spent most of my time exploring my surroundings and taking pictures. I went into the nearby town of Heishantou (which is where I had to have my stay registered with the police) and then further east to the city of Erguna, about an hour or so drive from Heishantou. Heishantou is small enough to walk from one end to the other. Erguna is bigger, but still you could see the outskirts of the city from anywhere on the main street and on many of the side streets. Erguna has Mongolian-Russian architecture similar to what you'd also see in Manzhouli and Hailar.
But I mostly spent my time near the ranch where I was staying. During one of the days of exploring the area, I ended up at the Russian border a few kilometers to the west. A bit south of the border I also encountered a sign warning that beyond it (in Mongolian, Russian, and Chinese) was a “military forbidden zone” (which was how Google Translate translated the Russian writing on the sign - I can read most of the Russian alphabet, but I needed to translate the words because I know almost no Russian vocabulary). Well, not wanting to get myself into trouble with the Chinese military, I made sure not to go beyond the sign.
The sunsets here are quite beautiful.
Nestled among the yurts and working ranches was a small village with a river behind it and, at one end, a small mountain.
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