Tumed Right Banner 土默特右旗

Setting and landscape

The banner government sums up its land as one mountain, one plain and one river: the Daqing Mountains run for 60 kilometres along the north and hold coal and marble, the Yellow River flows for 108 kilometres along the south, and the plain in between covers about 2,000 square kilometres. The Jiufeng Mountain (九峰山) forest covers 12,500 hectares of secondary natural forest, which the banner describes as rare in central and western Inner Mongolia. The Beijing–Lanzhou railway, National Highway 110 and the G6 expressway cross the banner.

What to see

Meidaizhao began in 1572, when Altan Khan started building Lingjue Temple (灵觉寺) inside his walled town of Da Bansheng (大板升城), creating a place that was town and monastery at once. The earthen wall, faced with stone and 681 metres round, has corner towers; its main gate, Taihe Gate (泰和门), dates from 1606 and carries a plaque signed "Great Ming Golden Kingdom" (大明金国). Inside, the three-storey Liuli Hall (琉璃殿) is said to be where Altan Khan and his wife Sanniangzi (三娘子) received homage, and the Taihou Temple (太后庙) is said to be her memorial hall. The complex was listed as a major national heritage site in 1996, and the banner government notes 1,650 square metres of murals showing Ming–Mongol border trade.

The Chilechuan Museum (敕勒川博物馆) is rated a national second-class museum.

Culture, food and local products

The banner calls itself the home of Errentai (二人台), a local folk opera on the national intangible-heritage list that began in the Guangxu reign in the old Salaqi sub-prefecture (萨拉齐厅); it hosts the Inner Mongolia Errentai Arts Festival every two years. Tumochuan weddings mix Mongol and Han customs shaped by the westward "Zouxikou" (走西口) migration. The banner's golden apricot (金杏) festival opened for the eighteenth time at Meidaizhao in June 2026, with a food market of tofu banquets from Shuanglong town (双龙镇).

Highlights

• Meidaizhao 美岱召: Walled town and monastery begun by Altan Khan in 1572; major national heritage site since 1996.
• Jiufeng Mountain forest 九峰山: 12,500 hectares of secondary natural forest, which the banner calls rare in central and western Inner Mongolia.
• Errentai 二人台: National intangible heritage that began in Salaqi in the Guangxu reign.
• Golden apricots 金杏: Celebrated with a festival at Meidaizhao, held for the eighteenth time in 2026.