Lonely Planet Mongolia

In summer, there is a vast stretch of scorching desert, lush green meadows in spring, but in winter, Inner Mongolia is a white kingdom few travelers, tours nomadic Mongolian occasional brave to enter.

Indeed, the traditional lifestyle of indigenous nomadic Mongolian reflects the unforgiving climate of the region. To quote the general chapter intrepid Lonely Planet guide to Inner Mongolia, "... December to March - forget it! "

Occupying 12% of the landmass of China in a majestic cliff arch of more than one million kilometers, Inner Mongolia borders 8 other Chinese provinces, and more countries colossal Mongolia and Russia to the north.

Today, Mongolians make up only 17% of the provincial population. And while the warriors leather-skinned horse armor can no longer be a threat to China, the mainland is now seeing one second Mongol invasion, this time in the form of sand.

The vast Gobi Desert, which already uses the border northwest of Inner Mongolia, is significantly expanding at a rate of 10,000 square kilometers per year and is calculated to turn 40% of the People's Republic in a true desert manifested by the apocalyptic sandstorms of North aggression Beijing during the summer months

But vacationers to Inner Mongolia (Nei Menggu in Putonghua) need not worry about such things as environmental catastrophes in the winter, the golden sands of the Gobi slowly giving way to white sails slowly at first frost north, then across the province.

Arriving in the capital of Inner Mongolia in Hohhot (pronounced Ho ta ha eh), we see that it really is a "Blue City", as its name implies Mongolia, but with a comparatively modern ambiance nonetheless.

The urban landscape falls behind the horizon of our journey by steam train progresses across the frozen plateau to the northeast is more rustic. Following electrical lines from village to village by train ice trimmed windows reveal an otherwise arid landscape dotted with red brick houses stacked with chimneys continuously exhaling their coal smoke.

This is the pastoral life of Mongolian miners, farmers and shepherds hibernating for the winter, nary an inch apart to the caravan of camels sometimes leads through the waste of snow by men as furry and distinguish their dependents.

The plains give way to hills of white birch and sinuous rivers of blue ice. Veering to the north, the train burrows, and in the mountain range of the Greater Khingan, which forms a natural border between the province of Inner Mongolia from the plains of Manchuria to the east.

Turning frozen Hulan Hu, China's fifth largest lake and meadows Hulunbuir (now covered with snow), it comes as a pleasant shock to discover that the port's busiest land ports of entry on the continent is at the borders of Inner Mongolia. Crossroads Manzhouli, situated on the borders of China, Mongolia and Russia and the Trans-Siberian is a fascinating blend of cultures north-east.

Shops, hotels and restaurants are of distinct Russian personality and advertising in Chinese and Russian script while the streets teem hats ushanka robust import-exporters and big blonde Russian tourists extravagantly dressed in plush fur coats, fur scarves omnipresent.

But the final destination and the farthest is during the return trip south through tundra as vast as the sky above, the Snowscape spotted with resilient brush, wind-swept fences and villages on Adobe ice glazed roofs until ... Xanadu, the summer palace of Kublai Khan.

While the name Xanadu invokes an air of mystery to those who have never been, in fact there is no mares white snow with sacred milk, rich and b.