Ar Horqin Banner 阿鲁科尔沁旗

Setting and nomadic grassland

The banner covers 14,277 square kilometres of mountain forest, grassland, wetland and sandy land, and has two national nature reserves: Gegesitai Hanwula (高格斯台罕乌拉) and the Ar Horqin wetland. In the far north, Bayan Wendu Sumu (巴彦温都苏木) spans both slopes of the Greater Khingan foothills. There herders still move between separate winter-spring and summer-autumn camps, a way of life the banner government calls rare in China; the northern nomadic grassland was designated a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in May 2022.

What to see

Chagan Haote (查干浩特), "White City" in Mongolian, lies on the southern slopes of Abaga Han Mountain (阿巴嘎罕山) and was the capital of Ligdan Khan (林丹汗), the last Mongol great khan. The site holds three walled towns and two cemeteries; the square inner city, 255 metres a side, was built around a central palace ringed by seven side halls. It became a major national heritage site in 2006.

The Baoshan Liao tombs (宝山辽壁画墓群) are an early Liao cemetery; Tomb 1 was buried in 923, making it the earliest dated Khitan noble tomb known. Murals totalling nearly 150 square metres are painted inside and outside the tomb and stone chambers, and the tombs were named one of China's ten major archaeological discoveries of 1993. Genpi Temple (根丕庙), also called Guangyou Temple (广佑寺), stands in the north of the banner in Bayan Wendu Sumu, 120 kilometres from the banner seat at Tianshan (天山镇). Built from 1804, it is the best-preserved temple in the banner and keeps 326 volumes of the Kangyur and Tengyur.

Food and local products

In the nomadic area, households live mainly on meat, dairy foods, roasted millet and buckwheat. Ar Horqin beef, mutton, millet and alfalfa hold geographical-indication trademarks, and the banner names deer antler, bracken, daylily buds and wood ear fungus as the "four treasures" of the Han Mountains (罕山). Fifteen old Mongol songs found at Genpi Temple in 1984 were identified in 2009 as the court music of Ligdan Khan, which joined the Inner Mongolia intangible-heritage list in 2011, and Lele cart (勒勒车) making is one of the banner's three national intangible-heritage items.

Highlights

• Chagan Haote 查干浩特: Ligdan Khan's capital; major national heritage site since 2006.
• Baoshan Liao tombs 宝山辽壁画墓群: Earliest dated Khitan noble tomb (923), with nearly 150 sq m of murals.
• Genpi Temple 根丕庙: Built from 1804; the banner's best-preserved temple.
• Bayan Wendu Sumu nomadic area 巴彦温都苏木: Herders still keep separate winter-spring and summer-autumn camps here.