16-Jun-2005 -- 40N – 110E Inner Mongolia (Nei Mongol), China

Visit Date: June 16, 2005

This is the 5th point the group visited in Inner Mongolia with four first-time line hunters jointed us.

After a productive meeting at Hohot, the capital in the morning, we headed to Erdos city after lunch for a site visit. The entire drive was about 250 km, with the exception of a 20 km stretch near Baotou (2nd largest city in Inner Mongolia), it was expressway all the way.

This particular point located about 12 km north of Erdos city, and located very near the expressway connecting Baotou to Dong Shen. As luck has it, there was an expressway exit station right at the nearest point on the expressway to this confluence point – about 800 meters from the toll station.

The only minor complication in getting to the point was the expressway exit only went to the “ wrong side” of the expressway with no exit to the side where the confluence point located – one-sided expressway exit is very common in China.

We manage to find an underpass in a nearby village and got over to the “right side” of the expressway within 10 minutes. The dirt road after the underpass took us within 150 meters from the point before we abandoned the car. It was entirely feasible to drive to this confluence point.

The first-time hunters were impressed how easy line-hunting could be. One of them, Tao Bo who took part in the first line hunting trip in Inner Mongolia (41N 112E) last year did not do the 10 km death march with the group for lack of proper shoes ended up almost worried to death waiting in the car for 5 hours. This easy hunt made up for her long wait last time.

This particular point located on a grassy desert field, and the only limited agriculture value is for sheep grazing. We had a short visit with the gentleman living in the nearest house from the confluence point.

The entire detour for this ultra easy line hunting exercise took about 30 minutes. We made to Erdos city on time for our appointment.

The village near this confluence point is part of the Er Zi Hao township of Erdos city. Erdos used to be called Dong Shen is the third largest city of Inner Mongolia. The city is famous for the Erdos brand of cashmere – the largest producer of cashmere sweater in the world .

Rating of this hunt:

Degree of Challenge: 1– a short drive off the expressway with 130 meters of walking (1= very easy - drive to the point; to 5= a death march – glad it is over)

Scenery: 2– sandy grass land (Scale: 1= not interesting at all; 5= take your breath away)

Culture-social factors: 2– rural agriculture community of northern China (Scale: 1=dull; 5= most stimulating)