Hohhot, Inner Mongolia’s 'blue Sky City'

Three years later with my geographical group, we visited a much drier area where farming appeared increasingly difficult. There I wondered how long people could live in such environments if they did not have tourism as an income. It was an experience to dine in a village restaurant looking outside at the horsemen, the traditional life while we, with large knives, cut off chunks of roast lamb from a much larger piece of meat on the table. However, the feeling I had was of people living "on the edge". There was always the threat of desertification but I did see several attempts at environmental stabilization to not only facilitate farming but also help alleviate the sandstorms that each spring could blow across northern China. Just looking at the maps and realizing the extent of the desert to the north, that task appeared challenging. I left the grasslands heading west to experience some of Inner Mongolia’s stunning environments, the sand deserts.