Where culture and climate collide

By Yang Feiyue and Yuan Hui (China Daily)

Updated: 2015-12-09

Winter nadam in Xilin Gol League, the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, features a variety of folk sports like horse racing, wrestling and rodeos.

The emphasis will be on winter sports like archery, horseracing and wrestling that have evolved over centuries of nomadic life.

Visitors can try their hand at traditional pursuits, such as camel riding, or enjoy more conventional activities, such as hockey, skiing and perusing ice sculptures.

Inner Mongolia's winter offerings complement adjacent Northeast China's, says the region's tourism administration head, Wei Guonan.

"Inner Mongolia blends natural winter landscapes with folk culture," Wei says.

Individual visitors can spend a day in an ethnic Mongolian herdsman's shoes.

Literally. As you wear ethnic attire while mixing milk tea and herding sheep－one of which you later boil and eat, Wei says.

Outsiders enjoy herders' overwhelmingly carnivorous feasts, Inner Mongolia Caesar International Travel tour guide Liu Jiang says.

The sources of his guests have expanded over his 11 years. They're no longer almost all from Beijing, Guangdong province's capital, Guangzhou, and Shanghai. More are coming from warm second-tier cities like Hunan's provincial capital, Changsha, and Jiangsu's provincial capital Nanjing.