This year The Hutong broke records for its Inner Mongolia programs, bringing four schools (BCIS, ISB, Utahloy Guangzhou, and Harrow Beijing) to the vanishing steppe. We created activities that incorporated UNESCO world heritage surveys, working with charities, homestays with local Mongolian families, full day school exchanges with Mongolian students, Mongolian language exchanges, mural painting, and a Nadam festival that included archery, cooking, whip making, history re-enactments, and Mongolian wrestling. Below are some snippets of adventure underneath the blue Mongolian sky:
“Everyone close your eyes, tilt your head back to the sky….breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth.”
Inhale
Cars pass along the roadside just outside of the Mongolian restaurant where the group of students has just filled their bellies with another hearty meal. The head teacher and the students have a few moments of respite before getting back onto the bus to go to the Xintai hotel in Chifeng. We are not in Beijing anymore. The sky is blue and clear, even in the city.
Exhale
It’s the first day of the program to Inner Mongolia and we have just left the Chifeng history and culture museum. We’re now in “Road to Genius”, an NGO devoted to giving extra care and educational opportunities to children in the area with autism. The children are currently out for their midday lunch break and the ISB students are hard at work, cleaning the small center that serves 30-40 students in tiny classrooms. Students take turns doing rotational activities of cleaning and creating a mural to surprise the “Road to Genius” students. One student scrubs a stubborn mark on the window, another mops the floor, a group of ten students paint a nature scene on the floor.
Forward
 |
 |
 |
SLAM! A puff of dust. Some horse manure in the face. A smile. Two students shake hands. The wrestling match is over. The winner helps the defeated up. The students start to crowd in closer together, making the wrestling circle tighter, generating warmth and body heat along the Mongolian steppe. In the background, local Mongolian cowboys serve as coaches for the students as they take out all of their youthful teen aggression on one another in bouts of Mongolian wrestling. The two competitors take off their wrestling harnesses, two sizes too large, and they search for the next two contestants.
Sun
RRRrrrrraaaarrrrr….! No one understands the camel’s roar in the heart of the Yulong desert, so named “Jade Dragon” for the mysterious dragon-shaped jade ornament found buried near here from the primitive yet advanced thousands of years old Hongshan Culture. Students split up into four separate groups to “rate” the Yulong Desert site according to UNESCO guidelines, completing water testing, answering questions about desertification, doing tourist surveys, and of course riding camels. They march up to the top of the dune to get a view of the entire area. The line of camels await them down below. Sandblown faces squint in the desert air. Heads tilt back to towards the sky. Eyes close. Breathe in.
Sun Down
