a little hohhot history today

It’s not the Smithsonian, but the Inner Mongolia Museum is a pretty neat place to check out the next time that you’re in this part of the world.  The outside of the building is absolutely stunning, with a simulated river separating the grasslands that have been home to all most of the Khans (Genghis, Kublai, but not The Wrath of…).  If you’re anything like the good folks of Team Sublett, you’ll want to skip the lower level exhibits (sort of mundane things like dinosaurs and rock formations–Hey look, it’s coal!) and head straight for the good stuff.

The weapons are on the second floor.

We spent a bunch of time walking around downstairs and only had 30 minutes to spend looking at the bows and arrows, knives and swords.  We never even got to the third floor.  But we did learn some of the local history, and got to see some of the creepiest taxidermy ever.  And we even got in on the exhibiting, as a group of Chinese girls wanted to take pictures with us.  That was pretty cool.

After a little lunch in our rooms (hello ramen noodles!) we decided to foot it over to the local park that we’d been searching for.  It was quite an adventure getting there.  Josie is much better at translating us to the Chinese than she is translating them to us.  We took a few wrong turns, but we had fun in the turning!  We were a little late getting to the park–by about 3 months.  Almost every ride (think Boalsburg Fireman’s Carnival) was closed down for the season.  The leaves are all falling off the trees, and the lily pads were a lovely brown.  But I’ll be that place is splendid in season.  It’s got a lake in the middle, and loads of trees.  The exercise equipment was busted up (probably the youth group, right?) and left unrepaired at the end of the summer.  We’re thinking the parks close to the hotel in Guangzhou might be a little better.

We walked back by the Victory Shopping Plaza, which is the huge mall that I mentioned before.  There’s about a zillion floors, and finding our way around in that place reminded me of the Minotaur’s labyrinth.  Kim wanted to buy some jeans for Isaac, and maybe some shoes.  But she couldn’t find any that she liked, and the prices were pretty much outrageous.  $30-$50 for a pair of jeans that he doesn’t even like?  Even in Chinese, I can say No.

We made up for things by finding the Golden Arches for some supper.  We were the main attraction, as all the folks stared at the big family with white people!  Kim said that her Big Mac might have been her favorite meal so far, but that’ll change when we get to Guangzhou.  Josie made some friends at McD’s, walking over to some friendly faces to ask about some of the music playing in the place.  That was right before Beyonce started kickin’ it.

As the day wound down, we faced rush hour traffic getting back to the hotel.  It’s pretty wild here in Hohhot.  The people are friendly, and bigger than we expected.  People have been very helpful and kind.  Our guide told us that it’s because of all the meat that they eat to stay strong through the rough winter.  My kind of folks, these Mongolians.

We fly out tomorrow, heading for the warmer climes of Guangzhou.  It’ll be in the 80’s there, sort of like Florida in the States.  We’ve got to get Isaac cleared through the US Consulate, complete with a medical check (read vaccinations!), a visa, and our oath to take good care of him before the officials at the Consulate.  We’ll keep you posted on how things go.