<A>Tengri,I'm back!---Part 2

As Mongolian

It was very dark when we arrived Dagula’s house. She was preparing supper for us. We didn’t talk too much, and just waited for our delicious Mongolian food. Our driver played Matou Qin for us, too badly. There was no electric in the house, and we would have a “Candle Dinner”, haha! I really wanted to enjoy this with my girlfriend.

After half an hour, our wonderful and plentiful Mongolian food was served. Including “Handle Mutton”, “Grassland Mushroom”, “Milk Tea”, “yoghourt”, “Mongolian wine”, some food without English name, in fact, I didn’t know how to say them to you guys.

I cut the mutton skillfully to them, and Dagula was surprise for this,
then she asked me :”Are you Mongolian?”
“No, Manchurian!” I answered her with smile.
“Oh, I see! The same! Belongs to us!” she laughed loudly.
“The same? Belongs to you? Why?” I was confused.
“Mongolian and Manchurian are the same family, didn’t you know this?” she explained!
“Of course I know!” I satisfied her answer.

Yes, we usually said this, we are the same family. Mongolian was born in the wildly grassland, and our Manchurian started from forest and riverside. They are nomadic, and we are shooting and fishing. We are neighbors from the history. In Song dynasty, we defeated Han together sometimes. But at last, Mongolian defeated all the nations, of course including our Manchurian. So Yuan Dynasty is coming. Our Manchurian used Mongolian characters as our language. So the two nations were similar in some facets. But we aren’t belong to them, haha! When Manchurian established up Qing Dynasty, and the emperor usually married with Mongolian, and their girl would be as the queen. That is political marriage, and for appeased them, avoided battling in two lines. I though too much of the history. Dagula knew so much of her own history, though she didn’t study much time in the school.

I drunk with our driver, and the two girls drunk milk. So happy can drink in the Mongolian house, I had a very good memory to this. I missed my childhood very much. Usually, I’d like to drink with them, we can chat with each other openly, and we didn’t need to think about the life, the work or the study.

After this full supper, we came out for dancing and singing, Dagula and her daughter sung Mongolian songs to us, they are both singer in talent. I loved their heavenly voice, we looked up to the stars, so many stars. In fact, we didn’t see so many stars in the night in Beijing, because of the pollution. We can see the “Cowboy Star and Vega”, “Triones”, “Polaris” clearly. That’s wonderful for us, we didn’t seen this night sky for a long time.

My camera need to electricize, and we had to go to Dagula’s settle house. It was not too far away from our tent. We arrived their easily, but when we returned the tent, we lost on the grassland. There was no light, and we had no direction. How bad it is! But we saw some fox and rabbits, these are eidolons in grassland. We opened our car light, and Dagula found us from her house, and guide for us, after half an hour, we reached the tent finally.

I slept quickly, and can hear the girls voice from their tent.

Secret of Ashatu

We got up earlier for the sun rising, at 4:30! The driver was still in his dream. We put on all of our clothes, really cold in the early morning. When the sun getting up and up, we were excited to run toward the sun. The golden light on our body, we felt so warm. When the light covered the whole grassland, all the lives were wake up, cows, sheep and human.

We also ate very delicious breakfast, and then took pictures with Mongolian clothes. I put on a clothes which belongs to Dagula’s husband. It was really a memorable experience!

We started our trip again, and today, we would run 160km, our destination was called Ashatu. Taking the way with happiness, and our car was filled with our laugh! We were still on Gonger grassland, and this area was more green than yesterday. We usually loiters, and played in some parts. Even, we arrived Ashatu at 10:30.

In Mongolian, Ashatu means “Steepy rock”. It was a rock forest. That was amazing there were many rocks stood on the grassland. We had to take the bus in the park, if you want to see it carefully, I think you need a half day at least. We ran on this spiral road in the mountain, and the rock forest all stood on the top. They were like animals, human, castle……So lifelike.

We ran on the grassland on the top, and touched everything in there. The grass, flowers, tress and rocks. How wonderful of the world!

Lost in Keshiketeng

We spent more than two hours in Ashatu, and also met a small Nadam held in there. We decided to eat our lunch first, and then went to Huanglianggang National Forest Park. We ate in a small town called Baiyichagan, the food was just so so.

The way to Huangliangang was really bad, and full of little stones. Our driver was a little angry, but we stick to go there. We met many crows on the road, how much they are!! When they flew together, the sky would turn to black. We were jolting all the way, and sometimes, there was very big truck besides you, and then, the dust was all over the space. Our driver was worried about his poor car, it was nearly broken, I think. He advised we shouldn’t go there. It was nothing now, only green trees. We also felt too tired on this bad way. So when we met a small lake, we decided to stop there and enjoyed the quietly place.

However, this small lake was really beautiful, and the flowers were around it. Our driver met a friend in here, and his friend said he can take us to a place which was taken by the film “The Promise”. Really? I hope we can get there.

We steered on the narrow dust path, and nearly, there was no cars. When we arrived the place, it was really beautiful, and only a wood gloriette left at a small lake. The lake like a moon, and lay down at the edge of a forest, very quietly. Even, there were only 10 persons. We wanted to stay there until the sunset, but we had to return Jingpeng tonight, and then went to Daqing Mt in the next day.

Our trip was really surprising, and when we arrived Jingpeng, there was no rooms left, and a little expensive. We almost saw all the hotels in this small town, and finally, we found a 5 persons room, about 150RMB.

We went out for our last supper in this small place, and enjoyed Yang Rou Chuan.

Loiter in Daqing Mt

We got up earlier, and ate our breakfast near the hotel. This time, we ate a food called Mongolian Guozi, really nice! Our driver picked up us on time.

Daqing Mt was famous for Ice Mortar, and near the town, it was only 40 mins away. We arrived there at 7:30 in the morning, it was too earlier to get into the park. We had to wait for half an hour. We only have three hours in there, but as usual, we had to take the cable car first, about 17mins, and then walked in the Mt, nearly 7km, you can see the Ice Mortar. Our time was so limited.

We came into the park at 8:00 on time, and walked in the Mt. After 20mins, we arrived the cable car station. It was really comfortable and excited to take the cable car, I covered one myself. Someone can’t take this care in the high space. Yes, it was a little scaring! Only a chair was hang on a line, a little terrible!

Got off from the cable car, we climb 15min to get to the top. It was a heavenly place, there was a big and flat grassland on the top of the Mt. We can ride horse in here. Blue sky, white cloud in our sight, the soft wind was around our body. Girls loved to see some flowers, and I walked around the Mt, and also found some ice mortar in some place.

The time was flying, and we had no much time to stay there. We decided to come here again, and stayed in here the whole day.

How difficult to return “home”

Our bus to Beijing was at 15:20, and we had to arrive in Chifeng before 15:00. We got on our car and the driver was really didn’t want to go to Chifeng. The price was not cost-efficient. He thought he earned so less.

We were too tired, and slept in the car. I just heard the driver called somebody on the whole way. When we arrived a small town named Tuchengzi, he told us we have to change a car, he can’t go to Chifeng. Because he didn’t take his drive's license!!! His friend told him there was policemen during the road. Oh, my god! We had no much time to waste, and he helped us to find a new one. At last we got a new one. I didn’t want to blame the driver, at least, he was a responsible man.

We ate our lunch in a hurry, and got on our bus at 15:10, really busy! The bus was comfortable, and trough in the Mts, when we passed Chengde, and nearly at the border of Beijing, we met a jam. Too bad, that we stay in there 3 hours! We should arrived in Beijing at 22:00 in the night, but at last we arrived at 1:00 in the early morning in the next day.

Too tired, too dark, too quietly, and too excited!!!