Wake-up call came extremely early that morning for those who wished to see the sun rise over the grasslands. And seeing how the sun rose later than we all expected, we had plenty of time to stand around in the biting morning cold and enjoy the entire spectacle. While many shivered violently, I for one actually enjoyed the miserable weather, as it brought back memories of almost every Boy Scout camp out I've been on, and also it reminded me of nearly every New England winter. 

Then after breakfast, everyone piled aboard the buses for the trek back to Hohhot, where we visited the Inner Mongolia Museum, constructed just last year to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. To my surprise, they weren't joking when they said this was one of the best museums in all of China; just look at the exquisite architecture. 
Inside one could find a fantastic display of exhibits, from prehistoric creatures to hall after hall about the history and lives of the nomads that have called the region their home for centuries upon centuries. Particularly amazing was their dinosaur exhibit, with a varied collection of fossils.

Pictured above is the largest complete dinosaur skeleton discovered in China, and just a few photos below you'll see the largest mastodon fossil found in Inner Mongolia.


These were actual animatronic dinosaurs that would roar and move around a bit every once in a while, to the surprise of the unsuspecting museum-goer.  

As you'll see (disregarding the English inscription on the bottom for museum visitors like myself), Inner Mongolia has two official languages - Mandarin and Mongolian, a vertically written language that one could find on every sign alongside Chinese characters in Hohhot.

Now, what I found most interesting of all as I explored the exhibits was that they were built by a people who definitely possess a world-view different from yours or mine, as can be seen in the map I saw there.




What particularly caught my eye was the exhibit that covered the history of the revolution on the Mongol Plains, where the bias is very evident.

(I apologize in advance for the sore neck some may get while reading the preface to the exhibit. Sorry, I don't know how to fix the pictures. Sorry!)

Once we were through with the museum, we were all allowed to eat lunch wherever we pleased, and while wandering the streets I happened to come across what I felt was an enjoyable sight - a family's pet chicken pecking around it's "house."  

Then, it was off to Five Pagoda Lamasery, a TIbetan Buddhist lamasery most famous for....well, the building with the five pagodas.

Everywhere on the pagodas you could find coins that pilgrims had placed for good luck.

Once we were finished, it was off to the largest lamasery in the city....whose name fails me as of now. I'm sorry.

While exploring the last hall, a few of us were given the unexpected opportunity to worship the monks at prayer, which was definitely unlike anything I've witnessed before as they chanted for a full half-hour in some unrecognizable tongue, and continued to do so even as we left. Then, after a quick dinner in downtown Hohhot, we made the short trip down to the massive train station, from where we were to make our final leg of the journal on an overnight ride to where it all began. Back to Beijing at last!