Today was easily my favorite day to date in China. We went to a battleground between the Manchurians and Mongolians. The rest of the day was unplanned until dinner, so, Brendon, Alan, Bechson, Ben, and I decided to hike to the top of a hill on the other side of town. So we walked through the town that from a distance looks clean and tourity and in person is a coule steps below the class of ramshackle backwater. (Though there were some delicious mooncakes.) The hike was reasonably strenuous mostly because of the time constraint of dinner at 6, but the views were spectacular. It is always windy here. This is the ideal climate for a flag or windmills. We walked
through fields with friendly farmers. People here are not as aggressively friendly as they were in Beijing. But it only takes a few smiles and a couple horribly butchered words in Chinese for all the Mongolians I’ve met to become incredibly friendly, warm, and generous. I feel that fundamentally I am somewhat Mogolian (besides being considered barbaric by the Chinese.) Brenden and I took a somewhat more circuitous route back and ended up slipping under a barbed wire fence to walk along the freeway. Along the way we came to the decision that we would try to hitchhike back. After getting no response by holding out our thumbs, or shouting ting, ting,
ting! (stop, stop, stop!) A Jeep driven, I think, by a farmer, randomly stopped, more out of curiosity, I suspect, than anything else , and we caught a ride into town. Also, while walking along the highway we passed some farmers who were loading trucks full of freshly harvested carrots. We had a brief conversation and both of us were gifted carrots the size of my forearm. (Honestly after eating that I expect to get X-ray vision.) We then went into town to buy some water for the walk back to our yurts and I had a nice trans-cultural game of peek-a-boo with the little son of one of the shopkeepers. Peek-a-boo is apparently universal, high fives, and patty cake are not. Oh well.
We are currently staying in yerts out in the middle of the Inner Mongolian Steppe. Yesterday we went horse back riding. Again, I like the lack of safety laws in China. They put me on a horse, and at some point I asked the horse owner if I could ride the horse independently and the guy laughed, said I could, and left. I did manage to get the horse to canter a couple times in the 2 hour ride through the steppe. This place is kind of like a cross between the southwest (cowboy hats, ranches) and China (chinese people speaking chinese.) Last night we had a party that involved watcing a goat get chosen from the flock, having its throat slit, being butchered, and slowly roasted over a fire. We also sang Karaoke and people who wanted to tried the local liquor which is made out of fermented milk. (To the best of my knowledge it is the most foul substance ever invented.)
I would like to apologize for grammatical errors. As the son of English teachers, they offend me as well, but I'm constantly behind with these posts and end up writing them when I am exhausted. The first picture is Zach going down a slide. The second picture is John and David cruising in tubs ontop of a hill surveying the grassland. The third picture is where we hiked taken from our we hiked you can see our yert camp distantly in the back behind the town, the penultimate picture is of an Aobo or Mongolian shamanistic temple, the third picture is Tianjinners enjoying Mongolia, Ok. 再见.
Today was easily my favorite day to date in China. We went to a battleground between the Manchurians and Mongolians. The rest of the day was unplanned until dinner, so, Brendon, Alan, Bechson, Ben, and I decided to hike to the top of a hill on the other side of town. So we walked through the town that from a distance looks clean and tourity and in person is a coule steps below the class of ramshackle backwater. (Though there were some delicious mooncakes.) The hike was reasonably strenuous mostly because of the time constraint of dinner at 6, but the views were spectacular. It is always windy here. This is the ideal climate for a flag or windmills. We walked 
through fields with friendly farmers. People here are not as aggressively friendly as they were in Beijing. But it only takes a few smiles and a couple horribly butchered words in Chinese for all the Mongolians I’ve met to become incredibly friendly, warm, and generous. I feel that fundamentally I am somewhat Mogolian (besides being considered barbaric by the Chinese.) Brenden and I took a somewhat more circuitous route back and ended up slipping under a barbed wire fence to walk along the freeway. Along the way we came to the decision that we would try to hitchhike back. After getting no response by holding out our thumbs, or shouting ting, ting, 
ting! (stop, stop, stop!) A Jeep driven, I think, by a farmer, randomly stopped, more out of curiosity, I suspect, than anything else , and we caught a ride into town. Also, while walking along the highway we passed some farmers who were loading trucks full of freshly harvested carrots. We had a brief conversation and both of us were gifted carrots the size of my forearm. (Honestly after eating that I expect to get X-ray vision.) We then went into town to buy some water for the walk back to our yurts and I had a nice trans-cultural game of peek-a-boo with the little son of one of the shopkeepers. Peek-a-boo is apparently universal, high fives, and patty cake are not. Oh well.
We are currently staying in yerts out in the middle of the Inner Mongolian Steppe. Yesterday we went horse back riding. Again, I like the lack of safety laws in China. They put me on a horse, and at some point I asked the horse owner if I could ride the horse independently and the guy laughed, said I could, and left. I did manage to get the horse to canter a couple times in the 2 hour ride through the steppe. This place is kind of like a cross between the southwest (cowboy hats, ranches) and China (chinese people speaking chinese.) Last night we had a party that involved watcing a goat get chosen from the flock, having its throat slit, being butchered, and slowly roasted over a fire. We also sang Karaoke and people who wanted to tried the local liquor which is made out of fermented milk. (To the best of my knowledge it is the most foul substance ever invented.)
I would like to apologize for grammatical errors. As the son of English teachers, they offend me as well, but I'm constantly behind with these posts and end up writing them when I am exhausted. The first picture is Zach going down a slide. The second picture is John and David cruising in tubs ontop of a hill surveying the grassland. The third picture is where we hiked taken from our we hiked you can see our yert camp distantly in the back behind the town, the penultimate picture is of an Aobo or Mongolian shamanistic temple, the third picture is Tianjinners enjoying Mongolia, Ok. 再见.
1 comment:
Noah! I finally read your whole blog so far after meaning to for a while. China sounds absolutely amazing! Now I'm regretting not going. Say hi (or I guess ni hao) to everyone for me! Don't get yourself killed!
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