Yearning for glimpse of nomadic life丨CD Voice
The sun was about to set over the grasslands of Ordos.
It was the right setting for my first experience of a traditional Mongolian tent house, except that the yurt I entered was far from the real deal.
It was a fancy commercial establishment that had large banquet tables and delicate chandeliers, not a weather-beaten dwelling made of bamboo or wood and felt, the way it used to be when nomads roamed the steppes with their portable homes and livestock.
During my recent visit to the Inner Mongolia autonomous region for a report, I had sought to interview some nomads, but local officials in Ordos, which is in the region's south, told me that most such groups have settled down over the years and the handful remaining at best lead semi-nomadic lives in the northeast, along the Russian border.
Back to the modern yurt: Its round base was a concrete structure on which a wooden frame had been inserted and its outer top was covered by a white cloth-like material, with printed blue horse motifs, seemingly for an authentic effect. Air-dried (rather wind-dried) salted mutton, Mongolian tea (salted), flour snacks and walnuts were on offer.
Anywhere I looked I saw sheep — grazing on fields outside and as meat on plates indoor.
The yurt is no longer emblematic of grassland life in the region, at least not in its southern part. In today's version, it usually serves as a hotel or homestay for tourists.
Two herders, who also manage such accommodations in their villages, told me that tourists, including Japanese, experience Mongolian culture in summer.
The grasslands dry up in winter and the frigid air then is unlikely to make horseback riding fun either. Although the region had many more horses in the 1970s than it does now, visitors still pay for such thrills, unavailable readily in many other places both in China and abroad. Equestrian shows on average cost 100 yuan ($16) in rural Ordos.
"I want to protect the tradition and present it to tourists," a local, who started to rent out the new yurts last April, said.
Another pastoral herder, who is also in his early 40s, said he missed traditional Mongolian clothing. He only wears them for festivals or weddings these days. His grandparents were nomads, he added, but his childhood memory was too faint to recall stories of the time before they settled down.
The 51-year-old Party chief of a village, while speaking in Mongolian through a translator, said she spent her teens herding sheep. Her son, who is 30, has a different life that is supported by machines and cellphones. Many ethnic Mongolians speak Mandarin but some still use their mother tongue.
Tourism would become more important if Inner Mongolia's reliance on coal declines in future owing to China's stated desire to move toward cleaner fuel.
A local official estimated that vast reserves under the grasslands, which cover an area of 80 million hectares, have yet to be mined.
About the author & broadcaster
Satarupa Bhattacharjya is a senior editor at China Daily. A longtime news reporter in India and Sri Lanka, she now writes stories of transition in China, mostly in the smaller towns.
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