Grasslands & the Gobi: Inner Mongolia

Inner Mongolia is one of those places that sounds remote until you arrive and realise it has been here all along — a vast autonomous region stretching 2,400 kilometres across northern China, where the grasslands run to the horizon and the Gobi Desert begins without ceremony. Most visitors to China never make it here. That is part of the point. This 9-day itinerary moves through four distinct landscapes: the canyon geology of Yulin, the Ordos Plateau where Genghis Khan's mausoleum stands in a setting that is genuinely ceremonial rather than touristic, the Yellow River bend at Jungar Banner where Old Ox Bay carves one of the river's most photographed meanders, and the volcanic fields of Ulan Hada — an ancient lava landscape that the park lets you walk across in an astronaut suit. It is an unusual idea that works exactly as well as it sounds. Day six takes you onto the Xilamuren Grassland, where you stay overnight in a yurt, eat with a Mongolian family, try archery, and watch a bonfire and fireworks after dark. Day seven brings you into Hohhot, the regional capital, for the Great Mosque and Kuanxiangzi Muslim Food Street. The tour ends with a morning in the Gobi at Resonant Sand Bay — named for the sound the dunes make when the wind moves across them — before the night flight home. Halal meals and mosque visits are built into every day of this itinerary. This tour is for you if you want China that feels nothing like the China you have already seen.

• ◆Mausoleum of Genghis Khan — Ordos, on the Mongolian plateau
• ◆Ulan Hada Volcano Geopark — walk ancient lava fields in an astronaut suit
• ◆Yellow River cruise at Old Ox Bay, Jungar Banner
• ◆Wave Valley & Glass Bridge — canyon geology in Yulin
• ◆Overnight in a yurt on Xilamuren Grassland — bonfire and archery included
• ◆Resonant Sand Bay — camel riding and Desert Cableway in the Gobi
• ◆Charter flight by Batik Air direct from Kuala Lumpur

Day-by-Day