Resonant Sand Gorge - Kubuqi Desert, Inner Mongolia

3 Days Bus Trip to Inner Mongolia (Nei Mengge)
4-6 August 2007

Early morning in 5th August, we left the Mongolian Grassland camp. It was another 5 or 6 hours journey in the Bus to the desert. We passed the Baotou city, the next big city close to the desert and crossed the yellow river.

2nd Destination - Resonant Sand Gorge (Xiangsha Wan)

The Resonant Sand Gorge (Xiangsha Wan) area is already well build for tourism purpose. It is located directly on the side of the Kubuqi dessert and has a good hotel, restaurant, shops and very clean public facility.   To go directly to the desert, we took the cable car and pay 80 RMB for the return ticket. Then paying another 10 RMB for the shoe cover before you really can walk in the desert. The main attraction there is riding the camel to the desert. With the 2 hours trip, you can go to see sand sculptures and a small oase in the middle of the desert.

The view of the desert itself was very magnificent for me, although u still can see the factories and the smog in the distance. Beside that, there are several more fun stuffs you can do in the there. Some of us paid 50 RMB to drive the MPV for less than 5 minutes up and down in the desert.

Another nice attraction is the sand sliding. For 15 RMB you get a board, where you can sit and slide down to the valley. In the valley, we got a special offer to ride and pacing the horse only for 20 RMB. The horses were really running at the full speed and even tried to overtake each other.

After the dinner, on special occasion you can watch ordos traditional wedding ceremony performance. But on that Sunday, the performance hall was closed. Later at night similar like in the grassland, there were musical, dancing and acrobatic performances. The played a very loud chinese disco music and later on the dancers asked the people to dance together around the bonfire.