5 Days in Chifeng

The museum sets out the Hongshan culture of some 5,000-6,000 years ago, named for this city's own hill; Erdaojingzi's 4,000-year-old mud-brick town, excavated in 2009-2010, sits under a protective hall south of town.

1. chifeng museum
2. chifeng hongshan site
3. chifeng erdaojingzi site

Dunes and water about 100 km north, named for the C-shaped jade dragon unearthed here in 1971 — 26 cm of dark green jade now in Beijing's National Museum; after the lake, continue three hours west to Jingpeng town for the night.

1. chifeng yulong sand lake

The Re-A road climbs from the hot-spring town of Reshui to Huanggangliang, at 2,029 m the high point of the Greater Khingan range, then on to Asihatu's granite pinnacles at about 1,700 m — part of the Hexigten geopark listed by UNESCO in 2005.

1. chifeng rea scenic road
2. chifeng huanggangliang
3. chifeng asihatu stone forest

The Dada road rolls some 90 km of grassland to Dali Nur, a lake of roughly 230 square kilometres where swans rest in spring and autumn and the local fish runs support winter net fishing; stay lakeside or back in Jingpeng.

1. chifeng dada scenic road
2. chifeng gongger grassland
3. chifeng dali lake

On the lake's south shore, the earth walls of Yingchanglu mark a Yuan-era town founded in the 1200s where the last Yuan court retreated in 1369; then the three-hour drive back for evening markets and the train.

1. chifeng yingchanglu ruins
2. chifeng city markets