Saturday was spent exploring two of the key cultural sites near Dongsheng, the Genghis Khan Museum and Mausoleum. The sites provided a sense of the importance of Genghis Khan to the the Inner Mongolians and to China, as well as providing more insight into the development of the cultural industries in China.

On Saturday evening, we took our only internal flight, on China Southern to Xian.

After our tour of Kangbashi we when to Ordos University, the second time Overseas Project students have visited.

After a warm welcome, the first activity was some group discussions, where students from Nottingham and Ordos Universities shared views and asked questions of each other. Here we see Ordos students asking questions of one of the Nottingham students.

We were then treated to a performance by the Ordos University students, which included calligraphy demonstration (and required participation by our students) and traditional dancing (as well as individual and group singing.

The calligraphy demonstration was excellent, with the Ordos students producing a touching friendship message. The Ordos students were also great teachers, taking two Nottingham students and showing them how to write ‘China’ and ‘England’.

The traditional dancing was a treat, the highlight of which was the Ordos students balancing bowls on their heads while performing the danse.

The day concluded with a group photograph, campus tour and dinner in the student canteen.

As with last year we were treated wonderfully during an afternoon organised by Kate, one of the English teachers at the University. She’s seen in this photo watching the students’ performance.

After one of our few relaxed mornings we headed to Kangbash, a new district in Ordos about 30km from the centre of Dongsheng.

Kangbashi has been built as a city housing about 1 million people, though as yet almost nobody lives there. We all noticed how quiet and peaceful the place was, with almost no cars and very few people.

At the heart of the city are government offices which overlook a magnificent statue of Genghis Khan and his advisors. Genghis Khan is the most famous Mongol, having created the largest empire in human history and setting the foundation for the Yuan dynasty.

The central part of Kangbashi is host to a number of impressive civic buildings, including a new library and museum.

Like Las Vagas, the city rises from land that for much of the year looks like desert, though in summer is grassland.

The last day in Beijing finished at Beijing West station, where once again a large group of foreigners playing cards and writing their diaries provoked interest from the locals.

We arrived in Dongsheng around midday after a 15 hour journey on the overnight train from Beijing and spent the afternoon exploring the city a little, getting a sense of how small (though a little atypical) cities in China feel, visiting the Bronze age museum and dining on traditional Mongolian food.

So far we have travelled from Shanghai to Yiwu, Hangzhou, Erdos (Inner Mongolia) and now Beijing.
Below are some photos, I’ll keep adding to this set as I get time to choose and edit.

We have had two really wonderful welcomes from students at Zhejiang University and Erdos College (part of the University of Inner Mongolia). Quite different events at both places, but but great insight for the students (and we hope for the Zhejiang and Erdos students too).

Updated photos to include more from visit to Erdos College.
Updated photos to include some from Beijing and surounds.

Its been a very, very busy trip through China so far, without a single full day off.
We had a great trip to greater Ordos, and especially the Dongsheng District, in Inner Mongolia.
Ordos is on a plateau, over a thousand metres above sea level, most flat glassland in summer, and dry grass in winter. The northern sun make for great bright light. From indoors its looks warm. However, outdoors it ranges between -20 and -10 degrees C.
We received a wonderful, warm welcome from education and business officials–who kept us very busy and were extraordinarily generous with their hospitality. There seem to be many opportunities here and we will be busy following up on them in the weeks after we return to the UK.
We visited a number of historical, cultural and economic importance and met many wonderful people. We saw and discussed primary, secondary, vocational and college education, visited two museums, a cashmire factory, the Genghis Khan Mausolium, an oil refinery and coal mine.
It didn’t manage to get any really good photos (with my little camera and freezing fingers) but these should give some idea.

The photographs show a selection of places we have visited, including the new government district, the site of two new colleges, the Genghis Kahn museum and mausoleum, the coal to oil plant and a Mongolian traditional home.