Huhehaote

I live in China, as everyone reading this blog knows. That I live in Hohhot, whoever took the time to read the "Who Writes Here?" there on the side also knows. But now, really, what the hell is Hohhot?

Hohhot or Huhhot are the western names of Huhehaote, the capital of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. For those of you who might not know, China is made up of provinces - exactly how many is always a topic for discussion. Some of these provinces, however, have some (or many) different laws and customs, and are officially called Autonomous Regions.

According to Wikipedia, the population in Hohhot was around 1,4 million people in 2000, but truth is I've noticed census' results diverge a lot around here, and the current count shows between 3 and 6 million people, depending on if you count the neighbouring areas or not.

In any case, it's a city that in my homecountry of Brazil and in practically any other country in the world would be considered a large one. However, it's China we're talking about, the country with over 1,3 billion inhabitants, where a city with 6 million people is just a medium-sized one.

In fact, since a large percentage of the population in most cities around here still live in the rural areas, the urban zone really isn't all that impressive. On a day of regular traffic a taxi will take around 40 minutes and an hour to cross the city from East to West. 

Inner Mongolia does not carry this name out of pure coincidence. Although it's nowadays a Chinese province, in the past this region was part of Genghis Khan's Empire. That had a huge influence in the area, whose culture, cuisine and architecture are very different from other places I've been to in China.

Starting off from the language. The official and most widely spoken language here is Mandarin Chinese, as well as in most parts of China. However, they also have their own regional dialect, which is a somewhat mix of Mandarin and a little bit of Mongolian. John, my husband, who speaks Mandarin, finds it very difficult to fully understand people when they use this dialect.

Besides that, many people around here are direct descendants of the Mongolians, and their mother tongue is actually - yes, you guessed - Mongolian and not Mandarin. That is the same language that is spoken in the country Mongolia, and it's so present here that most stores and some products that are produced here use the Mongolian characters right above or below the Chinese on their names and labels.

Hohhot also counts with a large muslim population. The muslim influence can be clearly seen in the architecture around the city. I owe you some pictures I haven't yet taken - shame on me. The buildings in the western and oldest area of the city are extremely beautiful, with all the arches and domes that are typical from muslim countries.

Just like in the rest of China, Hohhot is expanding. New buildings are being built all over town - especially in the eastern region, where I live. The changes happen so fast that John has said 3 years ago - when he last came to visit the city - there was nothing in this side of town. Now it's a forest of tall buildings, shopping malls and parks.

And just like in any large city - especially in China -, the air here is quite polluted. The general mentality of the government seems to be changing, though, since Hohhot has many open squares, parks and a reasonable amount of trees.

The final conclusion is that I find Hohhot a very charming and receptive city. We are still exploring some obscure areas around here - and of course they exist. As this post has become much longer than I first planned, I'll leave food and traffic to be discussed in the future. Because they deserve to be discussed. Oh, do they deserve it…