Zhangye - Badain Jaran

Today we entered into the Gobi desert which lies in the territory of the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region (内蒙古. With 1’295’000 km2, it’s the fifth biggest desert in the world. We entered the National Park and drove to Badain Jaran, where we have our hotel. It was unbearably hot and we didn’t go outside before 17:40. Philippe and I started to climb the dune next to the hotel but couldn’t make it further than to the first plateau. It was still too hot and the steep slope was tiring. The view from up there was beautiful. We also could see about 20 buses bringing Chinese families for spending a night in the desert. The kids are on school holidays. A few from our group made it to the top of the dune, which was really admirable.

After dinner I went with Philippe, André and Gérard to the small lake down the path where a Mongolian show was being performed for the families. There were dancers, singers and musicians in traditional costumes. I liked the choreographies and the men’s powerful base voices and throat singing with traditional instruments were an interesting  discovery. We walked back to the hotel with Claudia, who had a good torch. The sky was clear, we could see the stars and with the help of an app we could distinguish the Cygnus constellation.