Hohhot

Hohhot is not pronounced as it looks the actual pronunciation is Huhehaote.??? The population of Hohhot is 1.4M. It was founded by Altan Khan in the 16th Century. Hohhot is the capital of Inner Mongolia. It is a prosperous and a cosmopolitan city. Visitors would normally go to Hohhot to start a tour of the grasslands. In summer they also have the Naadam Festival.

We were hoping to see the Naadam Festival whilst we were in Hohhot, however we couldn't find anything about it on the internet. We asked at the hostel and were told that the government had banned it this year because it coincided with the Olympics and they didn't want that many Mongolians in one area.

The Naadam festival is a week long summer festival that features traditional Mongolian sports such as archery, wrestling and horse racing. It is held at the horse racing track.

This is the first time in history that the festival has not been on. I think it is very sad that they Government are scared that by having all the Mongolians in one area they might upset their Olympics!

In Hohhot what we hoped to do was sleep in a yurt, explore the Mongolian culture on the grasslands, hang out with some Russians, sample some Russian food, ride a Mongolian horse across the grasslands, watch the Naadam festivities and ride a camel in the desert. Wow this was a lot to do. We thought 6 night should be enough but if it wasn't we could extend our stay.

We were deeply disappointed in Hohhot.