7 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; then three hours west to Jingpeng for the night.

1. chifeng yulong sand lake

The Re-A road climbs from the springs of Reshui to Huanggangliang, 2,029 m and the high point of the Greater Khingan, then to Asihatu's granite pinnacles at about 1,700 m, part of the geopark UNESCO listed in 2005.

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

Some 90 km of grassland road to Dali Nur, a lake of roughly 230 square kilometres with swans in migration; the earth walls of Yingchanglu on the south shore mark a Yuan-era town where the last Yuan court retreated in 1369.

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

Two hours of rolling steppe brings the Hexigten grasslands of Ulan Butong, a film location ringed by birch and larch; sunset at the General's Pond wetland is the classic first stop.

1. chifeng wulanbutong

A morning around Princess Lake's reed shallows and the open ridges, then the four-hour drive back across the grasslands to Chifeng.

1. chifeng wulanbutong

An hour southwest, the Qing-era prince's mansion begun in 1679 fills the morning with halls and stone inscriptions; the forested Meilin Valley cools the afternoon before the evening train.

1. chifeng kalaqin princes mansion
2. chifeng meilin valley