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Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on China's northern border is a long, narrow strip of land sloping from northeast to southwest. The third largest among China's provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions, it covers an area of 1.18 million square km (about 455,598 square miles), or 12.3 percent of the country's territory. It shares a border with eight provinces and regions in its south, east and west and Mongolia and Russia in the north.
Inner Mongolia has a temperate continental climate; spring is warm and windy; summer is short and hot with many rainy days; autumn usually sees early frost and plummeting temperatures; winter is long and bitter cold. The Greater Hinggan Mountains and the Yinshan Mountains divide the region into areas with differing climates The area east of the Greater Hinggan Mountains and north of the Yinshan Mountains has lower temperatures and less precipitation than the western area.
Mongols in Inner Mongolia speak a variety of dialects of the Mongolian language. By law, all street signs, commercial outlets, and government documents must be bilingual, displaying both Mongolian and Chinese. There are three Mongolian TV channels in the Inner Mongolia Satellite TV network. Public transportation announcements are also bilingual. Many ethnic Mongols, especially those from the present generation, speak fluent Chinese, as Mongolian is beginning to be lost in everyday use in urban areas. Ethnic Mongols in rural areas, however, have kept their traditions and traditional language.
The vast grasslands have always been symbolic of Inner Mongolia. Mongolian art often depicts the grassland, emphasizing the nomadic traditions of the Mongol people. Inner Mongolian cuisine's main ingredients are dairy products and lamb. In recent years franchises featuring Mongolian hot pot have sprung up around the country, the most famous is Xiaofeiyang. Inner Mongolia is also known commercially for the brand names Mengniu and Yili, both of which began with the production of dairy products and ice cream.
A popular career in Inner Mongolia is circus acrobat. The famous Inner Mongolia Acrobatic Troupe travels and performs with the renowned Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus.
Forty-nine ethnic groups live in Inner Mongolia including Mongolian, Han, Manchu, Hui, Daur, Ewenki, Oroqen, and Korean. The region is inhabited by 3.97 million Mongolians, 18.75 million Hans, and 900,010 of other groups. About 23 per cent of the population in Inner Mongolia lives in urban areas and 77 per cent in rural areas.
Inner Mongolia is rich in tourist attractions: colorful ethnic festivals, grassland scenery, the virgin forests in the Greater Hinggan Mountains, grand views along the Yellow River, the majestic Xiangsha Gulf, rivers and lakes, and springs. Inner Mongolia is home to the mausoleum of Genghis Khan, the Zhaojun Tomb, part of the ancient Great Wall, Wudang Monastery at the bottom of the Yinshan Mountains, Wuta Monastery, Bailing Temple, and tomb murals dating back to the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220).
