Boardwalks
Through the reeds.
白云悠悠 — CC BY-SA 3.0 · rheins — CC BY 3.0 · rheins — CC BY 3.0 · 白云悠悠 — CC BY-SA 3.0 · rheins — CC BY 3.0 · rheins — CC BY 3.0 · 白云悠悠 — CC BY-SA 3.0 · rheins — CC BY 3.0
A wide salt lake on the Inner Mongolian plateau, formed when ancient lava flows dammed its waters and left a closed lake with no outlet, ringed by the Gongger grassland to the east, the Xilingol grassland to the west and the Hunshandake sands to the south; its water covers some two hundred square kilometres. In summer the lake and its shores fill with birds: wild ducks, geese, gulls and swans, white-naped and red-crowned cranes, and the best times to see flocks of swans are early May and late September to early October, during migration. Visitors walk long boardwalks through reeds and meadows to the water and look out over the rocky hills nearby. In winter the surface freezes from mid-November to early April under ice more than seventy centimetres thick. Tickets cost about CNY 80, or 120 with Mantuo Mountain and the beach area, per visitor guides. The lake is far from Chifeng city, so it is best to stay a night nearby.
Through the reeds.
In May and October.
Around the lake.
Hexigten Banner, about 300 km by road north-west of central Chifeng, Inner Mongolia
Lamb is the heart of Mongolian cooking here, and the area's towns and Chifeng have restaurants run by Hui Muslims under the halal sign; at the camps, ask about slaughter and ingredients.