Xilamuren, meaning "yellow river" in Mongolian, is located 90kilometers north of Hohhot, capital city of Inner Mongolia. Xilamuren Grassland is the first grassland tourist attraction opened in Hohhot and now become the No.1 highlight for Inner Mongolia trip. Because it is a plateau grasslands, so quite often it is be called: A Green Land in air. The best time to visit the grassland is in summer. At this time of year, the pleasant climate, the blue sky and white clouds, the rolling grass, the wandering flocks and herds, the passionate herdsmen and their Mongolian food will undoubtedly leave you with a deep impression. During the Nadam Festival held every summer, tourists can enjoy a series of different activities, including camel riding, horse racing, wrestling, archery, a camp fire party and singing and dancing. You can even take part in some of the competitions that you are interested in. A big surprise is probably waiting for you! You may try activities such as Mongolian wrestling, horse & camel riding, archery, visiting traditional families, and trips to the Aobao (rock mounds that are normally festooned with flags, meant for worship). We would strongly suggest that you pick up a time in Summer during Nadam Festival, in the second half of August, when the crowds are out in full and a fair- like atmosphere is created. In the evenings the camps provide many interesting funs on the grassland. Sometimes even a little taxing activities for you which would be including a Baijiu dinner and colorful performances of traditional dancing, singing and melodies from traditional Mongolian instruments, including the sawing charms of the horse head fiddle (Matou qin). Of course, the needfire is something could not be neglect and missed. Nadam is a traditional type of festival in Mongolian people in China. The festival is also locally termed "eriin gurvan naadam" ("the three games of men". The games are Mongolian wrestling, horse racing and archery and are held throughout the midsummer holidays. Women have started participating in the archery and girls in the horse-racing games, but not in Mongolian wrestling. Nadam is the most widely watched festival in the Inner Mongolia, and is believed to have existed for centuries in one fashion or another. Nadam has its origin in the activities, such as military parades and sporting competitions such as archery, horse riding and wrestling, that followed the celebration of various occasions. Origin of the Nadam Fair The forerunner of the Nadam Fair is the Mongolian stone heaps which can be traced back to the initial stage of the Mongol Empire. In order to pray for and celebrate a good harvest as well as inspect the army, Genghis Khan convened annual gathering of clan leaders and organized contests of shooting, horse racing or wrestling. By the late Qing Dynasty, the Nadam Fair had evolved into a recreational activity which was regularly held by the government. Archery, horse racing and wrestling are the fixed sports items in the Nadam Fair. Later the three sports items are shortened as "Nadam" by the Mongolians. Mongolian Wrestling Mongolian wrestling is a traditional sport for Mongolian ethnic group in China. Local people living in grassland regions call wrestling "Bökh" (meaning "strength, solidarity and durability" in Mongolian). Wrestling is the most important sport of Mongolian people's "Three Manly Skills" (along with horsemanship and archery). “Bökh” is an indispensable activity for important occasions like sacrificial rituals and the Nadam Festival. Bökh has a history of nearly 2,000 years. Originally, Bökh was very much focused on its nature as a military sport, mainly for strength, stamina and skills training. The Yuan-Dynasty Emperors were keen supporters of the wrestling sport. Whenever there were important feasts, wrestlers were invited to add to the fun. And wrestling was a key item for deciding the candidate rankings in imperial martial exams. Outstanding wrestlers were entitled to high distinctions. Horse Racing Horse racing is one of the three major competition activities of the Mongolian people. The Mongolians regard horses as their close friends. On festival and holidays, the herdsmen will host horse races. The distance can be up to dozens of kilometers. The contest can be divided into walking races and running races. The walking race is a competition of speed, steadiness and beauty, the running races is a competition of speed and resistance. The rectilinear distance for running on the grass is 20 to 30 kilometers, the champion and runner-up will determined without regard for their age. Before the race, the riders will select their horses and invite experience person to train them. Archery The bow was an important tool and weapon for hunting in ancient Mongolia. Archery is one of the major events of the “Nadam Fair”. Archery not only improves physical strength, but strengthens calmness and decisiveness. Mongolian archery is divided into archery on foot and archery on horseback. Each participant can fire nine arrows in three rounds, those who hit the most targets will be the winner. The archers wear colorful robes and riding boots during the contest. Archery on foot: All archers make preparations and fire at the bull’s eye at the same time. If the bull’s eye is hit, it will fall off and the audience will applaud. Archery on horseback: The participants are archers and riders at the same time. Each participant is allowed to take only 23 arrows. The run is 4 meters in width and 85 meters in length. Three targets will be set and the space between targets shall be 25 meters. At the time of competition, the archers draw arrows from their bag and winner will be granted according to the number of arrows that hit the target. Aobao Aobao is actually the Mongolian stone heaps for worship. If you have an opportunity to visit Inner Mongolia you will be impressed by the pillbox-shaped heaps that stand singularly or in clusters on the grassland. The local people call them "Aobao", and they are built of stone in areas where stone abounds, and sand and earth are encircled with willow branches where there is no stone. Buried inside an Aobao is a Buddhist statue or a metal weapon, and the top of it and the area around it are decorated with streamers and what resemble totem poles. In the beginning they were used as road signs or boundary marks; later, local herdsmen began to worship them as dwellings of a certain divine protector. Legend has it that every time Genghis Khan launched an expedition, the first thing he did was to offer sacrifices and libation to an Aobao and prayed for victory. Later, the Aobao sacrificial ceremony also included the citation of soldiers who had performed meritorious deeds or who had died a hero's death. Aobao worship can be organized by individuals or local governments. When passing by an Aobao, the Mongols make it a point to dismount from whatever they are riding. He may also pick up a few stones or lumps of earth and place them on it, or offer sacrifices and kowtow to it to ask for blessings for safety, a rich harvest and national stability. Hada Hada: a long piece of silk, used by the Tibetans and some Mongols as a gift when greeting people, worshiping celestial beings, and in daily person-to-person contacts. According to the book Tibetan Customs and Habits by the Tibetan scholar ChilaiQoizhag, hada was invented by the Han people before it found its way to Tibet. During the Yuan Dynasty, when Tibetan Sakya King, Phags-pa, returned to Tibet after meeting Hublai, the founding emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, he brought a piece of Hada that was inscribed with patterns of the Great Wall on both ends and the four Chinese characters that mean “good luck”. When worshiping Buddhist statues, greeting or bidding farewell to friends, or holding wedding or funerals, the Mongolians and Tibetans show their respects and affection to their friends or beloved ones with Hada. Whenever they are on a trip they make it a point to bring along several pieces of Hada to be given to friends or relatives. Engebei, meaning peace and auspiciousness in Mongol, was a place with plentiful water and lush grass in ancient times. It's where the Mongol people had lived in the time past one generation after another, where green grass thrived, livestock fed in herds, and incense from temples hung around. However, human activities such as aggressive reclamation, overuse of land for grazing, plus historical wars, were later inflicted on this weak ecosystem and eventually turned it into a sand land. People living on it were forced to migrate. Engebei Desert Tourist Spot is situated in Wulan Township, Dalate Banner on the bank of the Huanghe (Yellow River). It covers an area of 2000 hectares, including 180000-mu (a Chinese measurement) of desert and 120000-mu of grassland. As a famous central place of controlling sand, this tourist spot attracts many people from abroad, mainly to plant trees. Now more than one million trees have been planted and are growing well. A Japanese man named Mr. Toyama lived in China for the last twenty years of his life in Engebei planting trees in the surrounding desert. People followed him and now there are groups of them, mainly Japanese coming to China every week to help plant trees. The highlight here is not only you could have a really close look, touch and feel the grand desert, to enjoy another beauty of this geographic scenery on earth, to try traditional camel riding, to have great exciting fun on the rolling truck and to have multi - fun with the clean and pure sand, but more important is to have a further understanding of the local life. We will have the local expert come along with us to explain how the local people fight against with the problem of desertification. This will be a quite special class for people to have good view to know how important for Environmental Problem. Special arrangement also include that you will have the chance to plant you own tree in this area and make it to be an unforgettable memory.