There’s not a whole lot to do on the grasslands, so to plump up our itinerary Amy and Kristen’s travel agent in Beijing said we would wake up to watch the sunrise over the grass surrounding our yurts. When we asked our guide about this she stared back at us, clueless. After Kristen explained that it was on our schedule, the guide told us we could wake up around 5:30 a.m. and reminded us to “look east.”
Well, I woke up – more like I was up at 5:30 a.m. anyway cause it was too cold in the fake yurts to get any sleep – but when I stepped outside it was cloudy out and appeared the sun was already up. A few hours later we (excitedly) packed up our stuff and headed to Huhehaote for the day.
When just driving through, Huhehao te seems kind of dull: a place one would stay because the were stuck more than out of choice. As with many places, however, Huhehaote seemed exponentially better after taking the time to wander and explore.
We went to a mosque in the Muslim Quarter of town, tucked away behind food stands run by Hui (one of China's 56 nationalities, distinguished for their practice of Islam) people. The mosque was unique in how much its architecture took after East Asian temples, with four building forming a courtyard in the center of the complex. Fun fact: In 1949 when the PRC was founded, this mosque's minaret was the tallest building in Huhehaote.
Later, Becky and I found a temple with beautifully painted designs and a building on the north side with multi-tiered pagodas on each corner, well worth the 35 元 to get in. On our walk back, we passed a park that looked like it would be pretty if enough rain would fall to turn the grass green. We bought colorful hammocks from a woman also in charge of collecting fairs for the parking lot outside.
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