Experience the best of Hohhot

Hohhot, whose Mongolian name is usually translated as Blue City, lies on a plain beneath the Daqing Mountains, not far from the northern bend of the Yellow River. The old quarter has Tibetan Buddhist temples: Dazhao Temple, founded in the sixteenth century and also called the Silver Buddha Temple, and the Wuta, or Five Pagoda, Temple, of the eighteenth century, whose main pagoda has a Mongolian star chart carved on its rear wall.

South of the city, the Zhaojun Tomb is a large mound said to hold Wang Zhaojun, a Han dynasty court lady who married a Xiongnu ruler. The Xilamuren grassland to the north offers yurt camps, horse riding and demonstrations of wrestling and archery on open pasture.

Roast and boiled mutton, milk tea, dairy snacks and Hohhot's own shaomai, a thin-skinned dumpling stuffed with lamb, are everyday food. The Naadam festival of wrestling, horse racing and archery takes place on the grasslands in summer. Winters are very cold and dry, and the grasslands are at their best in the warm months.