Fascinating adventures within and around Baotou

Oasis in desert south of Baotou 1997 [Photo by Bruce Connolly/chinadaily.com.cn]

Back in Baotou, the city’s main hotel would again offer a comfortable night before a totally different residential experience the following evening. Just south of the city, a busy road crossed the Yellow river before striking towards what at first looked an almost forbidding landscape. Shimmering great dunes were reaching for the cloudless sky. We were heading in the direction of a real sand desert! From the road that would lead ultimately to Dongsheng, an unpaved track diverted westwards, seemingly towards the sand hills. This led across a wide, mostly dry river bed when suddenly, ahead trees and even grass appeared. This was an oasis, an area where there was water, allowing life to take hold. Set amidst the trees were a group of circular yurts, I would stay in one overnight. Carpets covered the floor on which stood a small tea table. The ‘bed’ was a slightly raised platform covered by a warm quilt.

On the grass outside my little desert ‘home’ a camel stared at me as I headed towards the edge of the oasis. Climbing small dunes the view was out across amazing water cut patterns left over within a mostly dry river bed. As a geographer, I was totally transfixed, indeed spellbound as I stared across the wide, empty spaces.Back in the compound a large yurt functioned as a dining room where great piles of mutton were served up along with fried potatoes, corn, mapo dofu and copious quantities of baijiu accompanied by lots of traditional singing! Darkness had fallen, but the overhead sky was bright with so many stars. Across the valley the sound of a steam-hauled train heading to Dongsheng resonated as I walked back out of the oasis to again climb a star-lit dune. For those moments I was an explorer!