By Robin Hsu 沁兒
All White in Wulan Butong, Inner Mongolia, China
Little Wolf, the protagonist of the movie titled Wolf Totem, was the main reason why I visited Wulan Butong in Inner Mongolia. I learned that Little Wolf did not follow a dozen other wolf actors who had been taken to a protected area in France after the filming. Instead, Little Wolf was detained by the locals. Later, some organizations included Little Wolf in their promotional films which fueled my desire to see Little Wolf in person.
However, my intention to see Little Wolf, or any wolf during this trip, was not fulfilled. Instead, I was totally immersed in the beautiful white world of Wulan Butong with unexpected experiences.
Most of the buses from Beijing to Wulan Butong in the Inner Metropolitan City change over to four-wheel-drive vehicles in Saihanba, Hebei Province. People ride on this type of vehicle over mountains, then they arrive in Wulan Butong.
Saihanba is a place worth mentioning. Its geographical location makes it an ideal place for planting trees to prevent sandstorms.
Located in Inner Mongolia, the Chinese name of Wulan Butong means “red mountain”, and it was once the royal Mulan paddock during the Qing Dynasty. To escape the heat of summer, to hunt in autumn, and to admire the snow in winter it is quite suitable for city people to come for a retreat.
The current Wulan Butong, according to my tour guide, Xiao Long, has begun to return farmland to grassland. If you visit there in another year or two Wulan Butong will be all green!
It took about seven hours for our bus to arrive in Saihanba, the transfer point to Wulan Butong.
We arrived in Saihanba around 1~2 pm. At first, our tour group was very excited to see the snow while waiting for the four-wheel-drive SUVs to pick us up. Everyone, including adults and children, one after another, all got out of the bus to play in the snow. After a few hours, there was no sight of the SUVs and everyone began to freeze so we went back to the bus. Our high mood began to sink.
The delay was purely caused by someone who rushed to get on the road without driving the proper vehicle nor putting on snow chains on the tires. The result was a fall in the ditch on the side of the road. Of course, all other vehicles were blocked by this accident, including the SUVs that were supposed to pick us up.
Here I want to spread a little knowledge to everyone. It is not guaranteed that a vehicle can drive on a snowy mountain road by installing snow chains, nor can any kind of car travel to any place around the world.
Mountain roads on snowy days are prone to skidding, and if not used to driving on snowy roads, snow blindness may even occur. Once it occurs, it is very easy for accidents to occur.
At about 6 pm that evening, I saw a red jeep flying by our convoy. I thought our pickup SUV had finally arrived. Unfortunately, it turned out it was just our tour guide, Xiao Long’s vehicle. Xiao Long relied on his car’s superior performance so he drove through the woods on the side of the mountain road, but the large fleet of SUVs was still not in sight.
I don’t know if it was caused by Xiao Long’s daring rush through the woods or if this journey was destined to be the “joy” for us. Right after our SUV hit the road, Xiao Long suddenly announced “It’s over, my car seems to be out of order.” Fu Hwa’s expression (the co-driver) must have had “oops” written on his face at that moment, and the other two team members and I suddenly were awake.
As expected, the car broke down beside the road sign in Shunxia Village.
Fortunately, the rest of the SUV team started driving at the time. One SUV passed by us and stopped. After checking our vehicle, the other driver confirmed that he could not fix it by himself, his car had to tow our jeep along a section of the road. Five people inside the SUV jokingly said that now we were only one inch away from the movie “People on the Road”.
Xiao Long said, “I found out, the passengers in my SUV have big-hearts!” This sentence was almost the mantra of Xiao Long for the rest of our trip.
A car repair shop was finally in sight after pleasant conversations took place inside the car. Fu Hwa was inside another car’s trunk. That’s right! He was in the trunk so the SUV he rode with could continue chasing the rest of the fleet which arrived at the accommodation later.
Xiao Long’s brother drove to the rescue at around 10 pm. Xiao Long felt that his brother was driving too slowly so he took over at the driver’s seat. He ran the engine really fast and finally sent three of us, the last of the tour group, to the farmhouse to rest at midnight.
The next morning, Fu Hwa urged us “Hurry up and eat breakfast, or you won’t be able to catch the sunrise, nor capture the scene of water turning into ice!” At his urging, everyone yawned, got up, embraced the shivering cold wind, and then quickly entered into their respective cars which they rode the day before. We were driven to the ditch and waited for the sunrise.
I forget why, but Fu Hwa still led the team in his “exclusive trunk”. I sighed again over the hard work of being the leader of the tour team.
This trip was really worthwhile. Being surrounded by the pure and quiet white snow, you could easily hear the gentle sounds of nature. You could also feel the insignificance of humans in the presence of nature’s greatness. In winter, Wulan Butong is said to be a photographer’s paradise. Any video shot by a cell phone can easily turn into a blockbuster film.
In fact, the method of how to shoot a blockbuster is based on the original words of our Buddhist and philosophical leader, Fu Hwa: “There is no shortage of beautiful scenery in this world. What is missing is the eye to discover beautiful scenery. As long as you have those [sorts of] eyes, there is beautiful scenery everywhere.”
A week prior to my trip to Wulan Butong, a friend visited there and told me that she saw a rare solar halo in Wulan Butong; the locals call this phenomenon “Double Ears”.
During the time I was in Wulan Butong, apart from the twists and turns on the road, I was lucky twice — I saw “Double Ears” on both days in Wulan Butong.
After climbing a small snow mountain in Toufenggou, watching the sunrise on the mountain, and seeing the physical phenomenon of splashing water into ice under the background of the sunrise, we got on the bus and went to the next scenic spot.
This was definitely a beautiful and unforgettable journey. Personally, I feel that in addition to being in a pleasant mood and having happy teammates, luck is also very important. After all, what kind of scenery nature wants to present to you, I think it is destined. As long as one could easily adopt and appreciate nature, no matter sunny or rainy days should affect you. Spring, summer, autumn, and winter have their own beauty. No matter what the environment, what season, and what time, I believe that you can find nature’s beauty in the beholder’s eyes.
The most important thing is that you don’t have to pursue celebrities on the internet, and sometimes you can make a satisfying camera shot with an unintentional stop.
It’s like we stopped and went to the bathroom and we discovered the nearby Panlong River. After each one of us took our own photos of the river scene, we boarded our vehicle and headed to the “real” second scenic spot, Princess Lake.
If anyone has seen the TV series “Kangxi Dynasty”, I believe they should remember Princess Lan Qier Gege whom Princess Lake was named after. Although Lan Qier was the most favored Gege by the emperor in the legend, in the face of politics, she still shed tears to bid farewell to her original sweetheart, Li Guangdi, and married the prince in Mongolia. According to the legend, Lan Qier Gege’s tears flowed into a lake, forming the present-day saltwater lake bearing the name Princess Lake.
According to Xiao Long, some movies and TV series come here to shoot the scenes near Princess Lake. In the shooting scenes, the local villagers were extras in the background. Xiao Long said that he himself participated in many TV series and movies, such as Kangxi Dynasty, Zhugege, etc. The fun was that when Xiaolong was participating in the performance, he still wore glasses. As long as the camera did not point at him it was ok.
Therefore, if you watch a cavalry scene in a historical movie in the future and you notice someone wearing glasses in the crowd, it is likely to be Xiao Long.
Maybe some people think that all around is white. Isn’t it the same? It’s boring, right? What’s worth seeing?
Only when you are at the scene can you really feel the shock of the tranquility and the blessing from the snow.
For visitors like us, the snowy scenery brings us joy. For Xia Long, the scenery brings forth a memory. When he was a child, around 4 o’clock in the morning his parents would wake and feed him. Then they would bring him to the doorstep of the house and ask him to “dig tunnels” in the snow which was higher than the average person for more than five hours in order to get to the main road. Then he would wait for the school bus to get picked up and go to school.
Learning at school is a matter of fact or even boredom for most of us, but the truth is that it is still a luxury for most people in the world.
In general, during Wulan Butong trips, various tour groups will ask tourists to pay extra to take photos of horses stepping in the snow and reining in the cliffs. My personal experience was that even if you don’t care whether you can take a good shot or not, it’s worthwhile to do it so you can feel the shock of galloping horses.
Viewers might notice that the horses we saw were shorter than what they might expect, but that is normal for they are genuine Mongolian horses.
Originally, it was a guarantee that we could get up late the next day to skip viewing the sunset. However, it turned out a group of us came to the Non-frozen River to watch the sunrise anyway.
When we arrived, several herders were already leading the horses to solicit customers. It was said that they rode over to meet tourists after 3 am.
The name of the Non-frozen River literally means the river without freezing. It is said that the river not only does not freeze, but the water is also (paradoxically) warm. In addition, there was a fun mushroom pile near the river, but this mushroom was not an ordinary mushroom, it was made from snow.
After watching the sunrise, we stopped at the source of the Luanhe River at the junction of Inner Mongolia and Hebei Province on the way back, where I gnawed natural frozen sea-buckthorn fruits.
That taste, how can I say it, was refreshing, because of cold teeth.
This unforgettable trip came to an end. In addition to the unusual itinerary and the stunning scenery, there were many great photographers in this group. Among them, my favorite works were from the lens of Si En. Here is one of the works by Si En.
I believe the grass-green season of Ulan Butter should also be quite unique and special.
For my next trip-journal, I will first write about my visit to Mount Song, home to the Shaolin Temple, that I took last November for your reference, and then I will let you know in the future.