Setting Off for Inner Mongolia: Four Friends and Eighteen Days

On 12 September 2026, the four of us set off from Beijing in a rental car, for eighteen days, until 29 September. My three friends all had regular jobs and had been counting down to this break. What I remember most is that first feeling of finally being on the road.

Eighty kilometres in the dark

Before this trip, I couldn’t really drive. I’d squeezed in three driving practice sessions back home before we left. By the evening of our first day out of Beijing, I was behind the wheel.

One of my friends had been driving from morning until evening and was too tired to go on, so I was drafted in. I drove the last eighty kilometres to our hotel in the dark. Quite an introduction, and there would be plenty more practice before we got back to Beijing.

Rocks, grassland and a much bigger sky

On the second day, we visited Keshiketeng World Geopark (克什克腾世界地质公园), listed by UNESCO as Hexigten Global Geopark. It covers a broad landscape of grassland, mountains and distinctive rock formations.

Rocky ridges rose above the grassy slopes. Some stood in tall, separate shapes; elsewhere, the grass ran towards a whole hillside of exposed rock. There were flowers down at ground level too, small against all that open land.

More from Keshiketeng

Our early route also took us to Gegen Monastery (葛根庙). The temple buildings and their warm-coloured roofs led up the hillside; looking back down, the view opened towards the fields beyond.

Xu Wei on the road to Arxan

I grew up in Shanxi, and I have absolutely no resistance to grassland this wide. The land rolled away beneath an enormous sky. My mood opened up with it.

We had Xu Wei’s “像风一样自由” playing in the car as we drove on. Grassland outside, that song inside, and the road still ahead of us.

We put Arxan early in the itinerary because of the route and distances from Beijing. When we visited, the traffic was moving normally. Later in September, around the twenties, there were crowds and cars at a standstill. Looking back, I was glad we’d gone there first.

Arxan would bring colder mornings, autumn woodland and a sky full of stars.

Our eighteen-day road trip

1. Setting Off for Inner Mongolia: Four Friends and Eighteen Days
2. Arxan in Autumn: River Mist, Stars and a Very Good Stew
3. From Grassland to Golden Forest: Erguna and Mordaoga
4. With the Ergun River Beside Us: The Border Road and Heishantou
5. The Way Back: Barbecue, Harbin and the Road to Beijing