Brent Hannon is delighted to discover that a China of clean air and sweeping vistas still exists.
China makes a whole lot of cheap stuff, as everyone knows. And almost everyone has seen the endless factories that dominate its lowlands. Having seen those factories, in all their sprawling vastness, it would be easy to conclude all of China is like that. But it would be wrong.
Because there is another China, a land of blue skies and sand dunes and clear starry nights: Inner Mongolia. I was lucky to visit Moon Lake, near Alashan Zuoqi town, and the nearby Helanshan Mountains. These two super-scenic sites created memories so warm that they dispelled the bleakness of yet another Shanghai winter.
Moon Lake is a strip of turquoise water surrounded by the golden sand dunes of the Teng Ge Desert. The lake had been visited by nomads for 6,000 years; in 2001, for the first time, its doors opened to tourism. It now features air-conditioned rooms, good food (especially lamb) and boat rides and boardwalks through the marshes. The combination of comfort and beauty has transformed it into an oasis for the soul.
It took two hours to drive to Moon Lake from Yinchuan in Ningxia Province. For the final 15 minutes we boarded a four-wheel-drive, and that’s when the fun started. “Hold on,” warned the driver, as we left the pavement and roared through the dunes, careening over the steep, sandy sea. A few green flags marked the path; beyond that, nothing existed except sand hills.
Soon, I saw Moon Lake, and a few minutes later we arrived. The next day we crawled out of bed at 4.30am and trekked into the dark desert. The rising sun brought a cinnamon glow to the dunes, and turned Moon Lake into a sheet of silvery water, just 3sqkm. The view was restful, and so quiet that we could hear the whispering grains blowing across the dunes.
But a trip to Moon Lake is more than a relaxing vacation: it is also a desert adventure, with camel rides, high-voltage jeep jaunts through the dunes, and sand skiing down near-vertical slopes. We spent the day tearing along the beaches in dune buggies, buzzing overhead in ultra-lights, and swimming in the cool embrace of the ancient salty lake.
The following day we left Moon Lake, arriving in dusty Alashan Zuoqi town. From there, we drove to Helanshan Mountain Hunting Ground, a pinewood lodge set high in the shining foothills of the stunning Helanshan Mountains. Tourists come here to hunt deer and mountain sheep, but this was the wrong season for hunting...so we drank booze. It was only 11am, but bottles of bai jiu (liquor) quickly appeared, and I soon found myself in a drinking contest with the proprietor, a friendly Mongolian named
Mr Dong. Noontime came and went, and then lunch and then more bottles of bai jiu.
Finally, old Dong grabbed a couple of 12-gauge shotguns, and we walked unsteadily to the shooting range, where we blasted away at the empties. Ah yes, drinking alcohol and shooting guns. That made me feel right at home – I did grow up in small-town America, after all. And sure enough, my aim drew praise from the assorted Mongolian spectators. But the real highlight was a late-afternoon walk up a nearby valley, through fields of alfalfa, grass and poplars and into the spruce woods that cloak the mountains.
After dinner, we climbed to the rooftop to drink more bai jiu and admire the night sky. In the clean mountain air, the Milky Way was a magnificent spray of stars covering half the sky, and the view framed by tall mountains. This is the flip side of China, the bright yang that balances the dark yin of the lowlands, and it is satisfying to know it exists.
FACT FILE
Both Helanshan Mountain Hunting Ground and Moon Lake (Yue Liang Hu) are in Alxa League, Inner Mongolia; Moon Lake is 70km southwest of Alashan Zuoqi. Helanshan Hunting Ground lies on the 43km milepost of the Bayanhaote – Bawu Highway. Organise a trip through a travel agency; some agencies specialise in “northwest” tours to Inner Mongolia. For more details visit www.mgnews.com.cn/eng or call the Moon Lake Lodge at tel 86 483 869 0076.
