TTC Trip to Inner Mongolia day 1

Orginally posted October 20th, 2009

The Chinese always have time off for mid autumn festival but this year China also celebrated it's 60th anniversary of becoming the 'Peoples Republic of China'. To the Chinese it signified a big celebration of the last 60 years and yet for myself and the other teachers it gave us a few extra days holiday! TTC organised an optional trip to Inner Mongolia. I saw it as a chance to see an area of China that I would be unlikely to visit any other time and a great excuse to meet up with loads of the Beijing quarantine group!

First off we needed to get ourselves to Beijing to meet up with everyone and catch a train to Hohhot (the main city in Inner Mongolia). In China train tickets only come out 11 days before departure so there is not much pre-booking. We knew that trains would be busy around the holiday but we didn't expect it to be as busy as it was, our liaison at the school helped us get the ticket, well she helped us try. Unfortunately the tickets had sold out when we went 9 days before the departure. Talk about hot cakes! Our only option then was to fly from Shanghai to Beijing. We managed to get a ticket for about 75 pounds and the flight was only two hours rather than the 14 hour overnight train we would have had to get. We decided that with the difficulty in getting a train ticket at such a busy time we'd rather take the safe option back and booked a flight home also, though on the way back we'd fly straight from Hohhot rather than go back to Beijing first.

So we arrived in Beijing after a painless flight we went to the hostel we had booked. We were given a surprisingly nice room though despite the fact there were four of us there were only three proper beds and one camp bed. Naturally we played rock, paper, scissors to decide who would get the lesser bed and unluckily for Steve he lost. So at four in the morning we turn the lights out to get a good 7 hours kip to allow us one hour before check out, well that was the plan. After about 10 minutes there was a bang from the corner of the room shortly followed by Steve saying 'Er, Craig... can you turn on the lights, please?' I turned them on to find Steve on a very oddly shaped bed. It had collapsed to the floor and half of it was at 90 degrees making Steve sit up. Naturally everyone just sat there wetting themselves for a few mins before Steve went to find someone to sort out his bed.

Eventually after a great deal of messing about by the hostel, in which they tried to fit a double mattress into less space than a single bed, Steve got a new camp bed. It was however harder than the floor so he got the hostel workers to get a load of extra quilts to make it half decent. So at least an hour later we did actually get off to sleep!

The next day we had till 7 to get to the other side of Beijing so we could get on our train to Hohhot. We really wanted to see Tian'an Men Square but unfortunately after the previous days marches etc. meant it was shut to the public. So instead we just wandered around the main shopping area before getting to the station early and setting up camp at an outdoor restaurant with a few beers.

The train was a hard sleeper, though it was not as nice as the one I took from Beijing to get to Shanghai. It was noisier and the air con was not very good so it was hotter as well. The main benefit for us was it gave us the opportunity to catch up with everyone and find out what they'd been up to over the past few weeks and how they were finding their schools and all that jazz. By twelve though the lights went out so after about an hour most people went to bed. Despite getting into bed early I only managed to get about an hour or two of sleep as I'd developed a stupid cough a few days before the trip. Most of us woke up at about six, it was pretty bright outside at this point and we only had about an hour before we were due to arrive in Hohhot. Frankly though one hour was more than enough as I was starving and I knew the first thing we were doing was going for breakfast.

After breakfast, which would have been very disappointing if it had not been saved by some beany/porridgey thing that, with sugar, was actually quite nice, we got on a bus and set off for the days outing. It took about an hour and a half to get to our destination which was in the middle of nowhere on a grassy plane. We were to experience some traditional Mongolian customs such as horse riding, singing and wrestling. The first tradition was to drink some 80% proof shot as we got off the bus; it definitely wasn't the nicest of drinks...

We then went into a large tent which was laid out for lunch, which would start after the traditional singing. A Mongolian man and woman were in some really colourful dresses and they sang together which was pretty cool. Though how authentic the experience was I'm not sure. It was really surreal as they were accompanied by a keyboard pumping out some dodgy euro-pop style music, technology isn't always a plus...

The lunch itself was quite nice, especially a whole lamb that they had boiled which was delicious.

Next it was time for our first activity, horse riding. I'd really been looking forward to this as I've never ridden a horse and always wanted to. I opted for the longer three hour trek as most others did. We were told to get on and off our horses from the left and asked not to scream at any point... end of tuition. We hoped onto our horses and set off. Now it was a pretty cool experience being on a horse on a Mongolian grassland but I'd have much preferred to be given some tuition about how to sit on a horse properly rather than just winging it! It was impressive how the Mongolians controlled all the horses with just shouts and whistles though.

The main highlight for me though was to come after the ride. We got to see some Mongolian wrestling and were told we'd have the opportunity to have a go ourselves. The Mongolians fought each other first in a ring made by the crowd. In the middle was a large pile of horse poo as an added insult to anyone who lost. After watching the Mongolians go at it for a few minutes they asked if anyone wanted a go. I stepped up but was disappointed to find out that I was to fight another westerner who volunteered himself after me. We donned an overcoat that was the only thing we were allowed to grip and were told the other rule: no kicking but sweeping was allowed, the looser is the first person to have any part of his body above the knee hit the floor. We shook hands and the fight commenced. I immediately dropped my weight to my left and twisted my opponent at the same time, he was put off balance but didn’t fall. He regained his balance quickly but as soon as he had I had dropped to the other side and wrenched with a bit more force, this time he lost his balance and went right over falling onto his back. A cheer from the crowd and I helped him to his feet. He went back into the crowd and I was asked if I wanted to fight against a Mongolian. I jumped at the chance but in the back of my mind my strategy was very different. It was only a few weeks previously I had dislocated my ankle during a kickboxing class and seeing as how often the Mongolians swept each other I didn’t want to take a kick to my ankle. So I sacrificed a more balanced stance to protect my right ankle. The fight started and it was a wholly different affair to the previous one. His centre of balance was ridiculous and every time I attempted a throw he would just ride it out and tire me in the process. He tried a few sweeps to my left foot but I noticed them early and they were ineffective but so was everything I was trying. I’ve done a small amount of grappling in the past but not much and even less stand up wrestling, well unless you count play fighting as a kid! I was just up against a vastly superior opponent and after a minute he’d totally worn me out, eventually I succumbed to a sweep to my left leg that caught me off guard after he’d just tried a throw. I hit the floor though luckily I missed the main pile of poo and a large rock that was protruding from the floor. Still I was impressed to have lasted as long as I did!

After the wrestling it was back onto the bus to get back to the hotel, have a super quick shower and change before heading out to a restaurant for tea. The place we went was great because there were hot plates in the middle of the table and everyone could cook their own meat. After the meal a few people went out but after my days wrestling and riding, coupled with my lack of sleep over the past two nights I didn’t bother. I needed a good rest before getting up at 7 the next day to head out again to the dessert.

• TTC
• inner mongolia