Naadam Cultural Experience Tour

After arriving in Hohhot, local staff will be waiting for you at the airport and will take you to the hotel to check in and rest. Along the way, the tour guide will provide you with a detailed introduction of the itinerary planning. If you have any questions, please communicate with the tour guide and our travel consultant in a timely manner.

In the morning, depart from Hohhot, cross the Daqing Mountains and head to Xilamuren Grassland. Upon arrival, visit the Flower Sea Butterfly Valley at the Grassland Mongolian Ranch. A tour guide will explain the cultural background of the Mongolian annual grand event — the Naadam Festival, help you understand what the "Three Manly Skills" are, and provide in-depth insights into the Naadam Festival and grassland culture. After gaining this understanding, you can start experiencing the competitive events of the Naadam Festival, such as archery and Mongolian shooting. Later, you can also try activities like grass sliding, Mongolian costume photography, and UTV off-road driving.

Inner Mongolia archery

For lunch, we will arrange the Zhama Banquet, a grand Mongolian royal feast. You will wear traditional Mongolian costumes while dining and enjoy Mongolian song and dance performances. After lunch, you will start the grassland horse-riding experience, with professional equestrians teaching you basic horse-riding skills. Later, head to Honggeer Aobao, the largest aobao on Xilamuren Grassland, to watch the spectacular large-scale live-action equestrian drama performance. Even if it is not the season for the Naadam Festival, you can still enjoy the exciting horse-racing performances here, and imagine riders competing for the lead and performing thrilling moves on horseback during the Naadam Festival.

Inner Mongolia horse-racing

After the activity, proceed to the grassland yurt camp and experience the "Xiamajiu" welcome ceremony (a ritual where guests are offered wine upon arrival). After dinner, join the grassland bonfire party and fully enjoy the grassland bonfire culture.

Your Journey's Rewards:

Visit Xilamuren Grassland and Flower Sea Butterfly Valley, learn about Nadam culture and the "Three Manly Skills"; experience Nadam competitions and grassland activities, enjoy Zhama Banquet and equestrian drama; feel the "Xiamajiu" ceremony and join the bonfire party.

Educational Focus

What are the Three Manly Skills? Why does Naadam choose the Three Manly Arts as its core competition events?

Takeaway

The "Three Manly Skills" of Naadam are Mongolian wrestling (Bökh), horse racing, and archery. Mongolians used to be nomads. They rode horses to move around and herd animals. They used arrows to hunt and fought to show strength and settle fights between tribes. Wrestling means being brave and determined, horse racing means being free and fast, and archery means being smart and accurate. These three skills are part of what it means to be Mongolian. Strength, skill, and character are the main themes of the Naadam Festival, which is what they all mean in Mongolian culture.

Thoughts Challenge

How can we keep "the Three Manly Skills" from being just entertainment when they go from competitive events in traditional Naadam to experiential activities in grassland tourism? We want to keep the cultural and ethnic meanings that they have.

In the morning, we will get up early to watch the beautiful grassland sunrise. After breakfast, we'll take a bus to the Kubuqi Desert, China's seventh largest desert. Upon arrival at Yinken Whistling Dune Bay, known as the "Desert Disneyland", we'll enjoy free leisure activities at Xiansha Island, such as sand sea yachting, rail biking, Polaris all-terrain vehicle rides, high-altitude zip-lining, and camel riding.

Exciting desert Flying Tower

After the desert activities, we'll take a bus to Ordos, known as "China's Cashmere Capital". Ordos lies at the "zigzag bend" of the Yellow River. As "China's Cashmere Capital", its Albas white cashmere goats produce world-renowned cashmere, with cashmere products accounting for a quarter of the global market. Here, there are cultural landmarks like Genghis Khan Mausoleum. Kangbashi, the first 4A-level urban scenic area, combines grassland charm with modern vitality. It was named "China's Happiest City" by Xinhua News Agency in 2023.

Your Journey's Rewards

Watch the grassland sunrise to enjoy natural scenery, play diverse desert activities to release energy, and head to Ordos.

Educational Focus：

What's the adaptive logic between the cultural and tourism project development of Kubuqi Desert's Xiangsha Bay (called "Desert Disneyland") and the desert's unique natural landform features?

Takeaway：

The tourism projects at Whistling Dune Bay fit in well with the natural landforms of the desert. They follow the simple rule "use landforms to match experiences."There are no obstacles on the ground in the big, flat sand sea, so it's great for driving all-terrain vehicles and sand yachting. One of the best ways to see the desert's 3D landscape, which includes rolling sand dunes, is to zip-line from a high place. The ground is soft and sandy, which makes it hard to get around, but it's great for camel rides and sliding on the sand, which is what makes the desert so special. The shapes of the land don't change much when developers work on it. Instead, they use natural scenes like dunes and seas of sand as backdrops. This makes things for tourists fit in with the area.

Thoughts Challenge：

As tourist numbers and activity frequency rise, how can desert cultural and tourism projects— which use unique landforms to create special experiences— keep fragile sandy landforms from irreversible damage while keeping their experiences unique?

After breakfast, we will take a bus to the Genghis Khan Mausoleum. This tourist area is among China's Top 40 Tourist Attractions, a national intangible cultural heritage site, and the world's largest tourist area themed on Genghis Khan culture and Mongolian culture. Here, you will learn about the legendary life of the first Great Khan of the Mongol Empire through the Mongolian historical scroll. After the visit, we will take a bus back to Hohhot. Upon arrival, we will head to Altan Khan Square, visit Dazhao Temple (the family temple of Emperor Kangxi of China's Qing Dynasty), and tour the popular online spots—Tongshun Alley and Saishang Old Street.

Genghis Khan Mausoleum

Dazhao Temple

The itinerary will end in the afternoon. We will send you to the airport or high-speed rail station for your return trip according to your plan.

Your Journey's Rewards

Explore the Mausoleum of Genghis Khan to learn about Mongolian history; visit Dazhao Temple to feel the religious architectural culture of the Qing Dynasty.

Educational Focus

As a core carrier of Mongolian culture, how does the content presented through the "Mongolian Historical Scroll" at the Mausoleum of Genghis Khan reflect the inheritance value of Genghis Khan's culture in the contemporary era?

Takeaway

Through vivid historical scene reproductions, the "Mongolian Historical Scroll" at Genghis Khan's Mausoleum shows the modern value of inheriting Genghis Khan's culture in three ways. It first traces the Mongol Empire's rise chronologically, laying out Genghis Khan's military tactics and governing smarts. Traditional Mongolian painting skills and symbols are woven into the scroll too, mixing historical stories with ethnic art to make the culture more recognizable and engaging. Third, as a showcase for national intangible heritage, it uses modern display ways—letting visitors, via immersive experiences, see how Genghis Khan's culture centrally shapes Mongolian identity and unity.

Thoughts Challenge

When Genghis Khan Mausoleum uses modern exhibition forms like the "Mongolian Historical Scroll" to share traditional history, how to keep the authenticity of historical details from being weakened by fun or simplified expressions?