Open Mondays in Hohhot

Grace in front of the museum

We got ourselves into another one of those hospitality situations today, although the outcome was much smoother than the time in Helin. Last Friday at the Security Bureau Dave innocently asked Athena about a huge museum he saw on his morning bike ride. She didn’t know, so she called her uncle. One thing led to another and this morning at nine o’clock Athena, Athena’s uncle and mother, and another gentleman who drove the Ford minivan, picked us up to take us to the museum. We must be careful about the questions we pose, for we never know where they may lead us. In this instance, we are very happy with the whole day, and certainly grateful for the incredible hospitality extended to us, we just can’t believe how friendly people are here.

The museum is in the north of Hohhot and we learned that it was only recently built as a commemoration of the 60^th anniversary of the founding of the autonomous region of Inner Mongolia. It replaces the museum that is in the center of town, near the train station, listed in our guide books. This museum is enormous, with a great sweeping movement of metal and glass, the ultimate in modern.

It's too big to even fit into the camera frame.

Inside, the rooms are cavernous, with marble floors and walls, and beautiful women decked out in traditional Mongolian dress escorting groups around.

In keeping with the whole hospitality “situation”, Athena’s uncle insisted on paying our way. I have no idea how much tickets cost, but my suspicion is that it isn’t terribly cheap, by Chinese standards anyway.

[Here comes a big aside: We are not rich by any measure in America. History professors and stay-at-home moms are not generally known to be rolling in dough, so to speak. Here, however, we feel uncomfortably cast in the role of rich American. We've heard the average pay of a teacher in the International Exchange College is between 2000-5000 yuan/month—between $264-$660. That’s per month! Of course, costs are pretty low. Dave just got a haircut along with the kids, and for all three he paid 15 yuan, about $2. Like I said before, Pizza Hut is one of the most expensive restaurant in town, and we stuff ourselves for about $26. So there you are. The lady who takes care of the building, Mrs. He (pronounced Huh), goes through everyone’s garbage and so today on the way out, she asked me if I was going to Weiduoli, a very expensive mall, which also has a big supermarket in the basement, where we shop. From this question I learned two things: first, that she does indeed go through the garbage (I see this everywhere, people spend a lot of time sorting trash.), and second, that Weiduoli is not the normal place for normal people to shop. Our bikes, our food, our trash, everything points to our “wealth”. It’s a big clash of whom we really are at home, and who we are perceived to be here, and who we are, actually, here: rich, by Hohhot standards. It’s weird.]

So there we are, having our way paid into the museum. One entire side of the museum houses many many dinosaur artifacts. There are lots of full skeletons, but since we can’t read Chinese, we aren’t sure if they are actually real or replicas of fossils. They’re really amazing, anyway. The cool thing about Chinese museums (say I, who has only been to two so far) is that you can touch anything that you can reach and that isn’t under glass. The other side of the museum has three floors of Mongolian artifacts from earliest time to the present. I won’t describe it all, just put in some pictures, because there is just too much to even know where to begin.

One of many dioramas, this one of a traditional ger (tent) and
Mongolian family.

Athena's uncle on left, the driver on the right.

The whole thing is so big, so impressive, so incredible. We spent about 2 ½ hours there (trying to get Athena’s uncle’s money’s worth—that’s a lot of apostrophes in a row!) and felt overwhelmed, as one generally does after that much time in a museum with children in tow.

While Dave and I are earnestly trying to learn how not to unwittingly solicit money being spent on us, the children haven’t caught on yet. Samuel turned to me within hearing of Athena and her mother and said to me, “I’m hungry!” Athena quickly translated this to her mother, who promptly invited us to lunch, at her expense. They took us to a lovely seafood restaurant where all the fare met us at the door, happily swimming in tanks and buckets. I successfully learned how to peel a shrimp that still has his head and feelers. They were delicious and Grace tried her hardest to eat them all by herself (with me peeling, of course).

Athena's mother on left, Athena next to her.

And now the day is finally coming to a hot and sticky close. It’s 8 p.m. and already dark. The heat isn’t subsiding but the shift in the coming of dusk makes me hope for cooler days in the near future. Today is our 13^th wedding anniversary and I have to say, it is the most unique place we have ever spent it.

The kids brought us breakfast in bed.