7 Days in Ordos

The 2011 museum in its rippled steel shell frames grassland history; a lakeside walk closes the evening in this district of 2016.

1. eerduosi kangbashi square
2. eerduosi ordos museum
3. eerduosi wulanmulun lake

About 45 kilometres south: a memorial shrine — the burial place is unrecorded — with caretaker families serving since 1227, nearly 800 years, and halls rebuilt in 1954.

1. eerduosi genghis khan mausoleum

Cable car and humming sled runs in the 5A desert area 55 kilometres north of Dongsheng; overnight near Dalad for an early start.

1. eerduosi xiangshawan

Seven lakes strung through the Kubuqi, China's seventh-largest desert at about 18,600 square kilometres; bird hides by day, a dark sky by night.

1. eerduosi qixing lake

Yurt camps, horse shows and summer Nadam-style games at the Hanggin grassland area; cool evenings even in July.

1. eerduosi ordos grassland

An honest neighbouring-city day about 100 kilometres north: the lamasery founded in 1749 climbs a wooded slope, and Baotou's Saihantala keeps a working grassland inside the city grid.

1. eerduosi wudang monastery
2. eerduosi saihantala grassland

Sections of the Qin Direct Road survive near Dongsheng — a military highway begun in 212 BC that once ran some 700 kilometres south to the capital region — then the train or flight out.

1. eerduosi qin zhidao ruins