Inner Mongolia, China's northern border autonomous region, features a long, narrow strip of land sloping from northeast to southwest. It stretches 2,400 km from west to east and 1,700 km from north to south. Inner Mongolia traverses between northeast, north, and northwest China. The third largest among China's provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions, It neighbors eight provinces and regions in its south, east and west and Mongolia and Russia in the north, with a borderline of 4,200 km.
Inner Mongolia Area
The region covers an area of 1.18 million square km, or 12.3 percent of the country's territory.
Inner Mongolia Population
Inner Mongolia Ethnicity
Forty-nine ethnic groups live in Inner Mongolia including the Mongolian, Han, Manchu, Hui, Daur, Ewenki, Oroqen, and Korean. The region is inhabited by 3.97 million Mongolians, 18.75 million Hans, and 900,010 of other groups. The rural population hits 13.78 million, with 11.87 million in villages and 1.91 million in pastoral area.
Inner Mongolia Climate
Inner Mongolia has a temperate continental climate. There, spring is warm and windy; summer is short and hot with many rainy days; autumn usually sees early frost and plummeting temperature; winter is long, bitter cold with frequent polar outbreaks. The region has an annual precipitation of 100-500 mm, 80-150 frost-free days, and 2,700 hours of sunshine. The Greater Hinggan Mountains and the Yinshan Mountains divide the regions into areas with different climate. The area east of the Greater Hinggan Mountains and north of the Yinshan Mountains has lower temperature and less precipitation than the opposite area.
Inner Mongolia Geography
Besides hills, plains, deserts, rivers and lakes, Inner Mongolia has plateau landforms, mostly over 1,000 meters (about 13,780 feet) above sea level, including the Inner Mongolia Plateau, the second largest among the four major plateaus in the country.
Inner Mongolia Economy
Principal crops are wheat, sorghum, millet, oats, corn, linseed, soybeans, sugar beets, and rice. There are valuable mineral deposits (coal, lignite, iron ore, lead, zinc, and gold), as yet only partially exploited. The region's industries, centered at Baotou, include iron and steel mills and plants producing fertilizer, cement, textiles, and machinery. A railway built in 1958, linking Russia (through Mongolia) with Lanzhou in Gansu prov., passes through Hohhot and Baotou. The Beijing-Ulaanbaatar road traverses the region. Considerable additional road and rail improvements have been made with the vigorous industrialization of Baotou.
What to see
Inner Mongolia has a peculiar natural scenery, long history and brilliant culture. There are many historic sites in this area. Some of the key historic sites are: • Wudangzhao Monastery in Baotou is a vast complex and used to be the residence of the highest ranking lama in Inner Mongolia and now it is the only intact Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Inner Mongolia. • Inner Mongolia is the hometown of Genghis Khan (1162-1227), the great leader of Mongolians. His Mausoleum, located 185 kilometers (about 71 miles) south of Baotou, holds his clothing buried in his memory. • Dazhao Temple is one of the biggest and best-preserved temples in Hohhot. Xilituzhao Palace is the largest surviving Lama temple in Hohhot. • Zhaojun Tomb, six miles to the south of Hohhot, is located on one of the most beautiful scenes of ancient times. A legend says that each year, when it turned cold and grass became yellow, only this tomb remained green and so it got the name Green Tomb (Qing Zhong). • Wanbu Huayanjin Pagoda, also called White Pagoda, used to be a place where nearly ten thousand volumes of Huayan Scripture were preserved. It is an exquisite and magnificent brick-wood structure about one hundred and fifty feet tall. But what is most attractive about Inner Mongolia is its natural beauty. Vast grasslands, including the Xilamuren Grassland, Gegentala Grassland and Huitengxile Grassland are all good places for a grassland experience. The best time to visit the grassland is definitely during the traditional Mongolian Nadam Festival period when there is a better chance to both participate and feel the lively atmosphere of the grassland life. The deserts are located in the western part of the province: the most famous and visited ones are the Badain Jaran Desert, Tengger Desert and Kubuqi Desert.