Qahar Right Front Banner 察哈尔右翼前旗

Setting and landscape

The banner government describes a basin averaging 1,600 metres above sea level, higher in the west and north, with the open alluvial plain of the Huangqi Hai basin in the middle and hilly upland in the south. The climate is semi-arid and continental: an annual mean of 6.3 °C, about 120 frost-free days and 360.8 millimetres of rain. Most of its drainage is inland, to the Huangqi Hai and Chagan Nur (察汗淖尔) systems; the Bawang River (霸王河) is one of the rivers that feed Huangqi Hai.

Chinese Wikipedia describes Huangqi Hai as a roughly triangular lake about 20 kilometres long, with its surface at 1,266 metres, lying in a fault basin formed in the Tertiary; its water is alkaline. Crucian carp from the lake were once shipped by rail from Guancun station, now Tuguiwula (土贵乌拉), to Beijing and Tianjin, until freshwater fish disappeared in 1973 as the water shrank and grew saltier. The Huangqi Hai Nature Reserve (黄旗海自然保护区) is a wetland reserve at autonomous-region level.

History

Under the Yuan, a county called Pingdi (平地县) was set up here in 1288. Chahar is Mongolian for "edge", the name of a Mongol tribe living beyond the frontier. In 1954 the Plain Yellow Banner (正黄旗) became Qahar Right Front Banner, with its government moved from Yinshang (印上) to Guancun, today's Tuguiwula town.

What to see

The banner government names three archaeological attractions. The Miaozigou site (庙子沟遗址) is a late Yangshao settlement of about 5,500 years ago; Chinese Wikipedia records it as a national key cultural relic protection site listed in 2001. The Khitan woman's mummy (契丹女尸) is known as the "thousand-year sleeping beauty". The ruins of the Yuan-dynasty city of Jining Road (集宁路古城遗址) were among the ten major archaeological discoveries of 2003. Other sights the banner lists are Huangqi Hai, the Guli Naobao stone forest (谷力脑包石林) and the Night of Ulanqab (乌兰察布之夜).

Food and local products

The banner government calls Ulanqab naked oats (莜麦) one of Inner Mongolia's "three treasures", grown mainly in Ulanqab and sold to Beijing, Shanxi and Hebei.

Getting oriented

Ulanqab high-speed railway station stands within the banner. The banner government puts Beijing 320 kilometres to the east, Hohhot 138 kilometres to the west and Datong 90 kilometres to the south.

Highlights

• Huangqi Hai 黄旗海: Alkaline lake in a Tertiary fault basin at the heart of the banner; a regional wetland reserve.
• Miaozigou site 庙子沟遗址: Late Yangshao settlement of about 5,500 years ago; national key cultural relic protection site listed in 2001.
• Jining Road ancient city site 集宁路古城遗址: Yuan-dynasty city ruins, one of the ten major archaeological discoveries of 2003.
• Ulanqab naked oats 莜麦: Called one of Inner Mongolia's three treasures; grown mainly in Ulanqab.