The grasslands are greener

We reached Jinzhanghan quickly and were delighted - mostly. It turned out that the main place to stay was a kitschy, overdone tourist trap that had dressed up their Han Chinese staff in Mongolian outfits and put on all manner of ridiculous shows. We tried to come up with a plan B for somewhere to stay, but drew a blank. So we dumped our bags and quickly made for the grasslands.

And it was heavenly. Within 15 minutes, we were over a hill from the schlocky camp and amidst the lovely grasslands.

This was big sky country, halfway around the world from Montana. The sky was clear with a couple of clouds (incidentally, one of the very few days in which we've seen the sun in China). The grasslands just went on and on. We were in a small valley with a winding river running through it. On either side there were gently rolling hills. We began to walk in one direction. We came across horses.

We came across sheep.

We came across dead sheep.

And, every once in a while, there would be some kind of livestock fence. Sometimes we could walk for a bit and get around it, other times the only way through was over or under.

It was a great walk, in the broad sunlight and with a slight breeze in the air. The hills in the distance appeared to shimmer with happiness.

We saw a small group of yurts off in the distance and made our way towards them...