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Inner Mongolia, China's northern border autonomous region, features a long, narrow strip of land sloping from northeast to southwest. It stretches 2,400 km from west to east and 1,700 km from north to south. Inner Mongolia traverses between northeast, north, and northwest China. The third largest among China's provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions, the region covers an area of 1.18 million square km and with a population of 23.76 million.
The Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region is also called Inner Mongolia for short, with Hohhot as its capital city. Its origin can be traced back to the Ordos people who lived here 2,000 years ago.
With agriculture and stockbreeding as the main occupation, it also engages in forestry, coal mining and steel industries. Inner Mongolia abounds in natural resources especially mineral resources, and its reserves of rare earth and natural alkali rank first in China.
Inner Mongolia, with a temperate continental monsoonal climate, has a cold, long winter with frequent blizzards and a warm, short summer. Except for the relatively humid Greater Hinggan Mountain Area, the greater part of Inner Mongolia is arid, semi-arid and semi-humid from west to east. It has a mean annual temperature of -1℃-15℃ -- the hottest month, July, averaging 15-25℃ and the coldest month, January, -30-10℃ -- and a mean annual precipitation of 100-500 mm. The difference of temperature between day and night is great.
Inner Mongolia is a special economic zone renowned as "treasure basin". What is most attractive about Inner Mongolia is its natural beauty. Vast grasslands, mushroom-like yurts, bright sky, fresh air, rolling grass and the flocks and herds moving like white clouds on the remote grassland, all contribute to make the scenery a very relaxing one.
The Greater Hinggan Mountain, renowned as the green treasure, is the largest and well-preserved primitive forest and also the Kingdom of Wildlife, with over 300 species of birds and 100 species of animals, 40 of which are listed among the national rare species.
Inner Mongolia is rich in tourist attractions: Colorful ethnic culture, grassland scenery, the virgin forests in the Greater Hinggan Mountains, grand views along the Yellow River, the majestic Xiangsha Gulf, rivers and lakes, and springs. Inner Mongolia is home to the Mausoleum of Genghis Khan, the Zhaojun Tomb, ancient Great Wall, Wudang Monastery at the bottom of the Yinshan Mountains, Wuta Monastery, Bailing Temple, and tomb murals dating back to the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220).
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