Sonid Left Banner 苏尼特左旗

Setting and landscape

The banner stretches 335 kilometres from north to south and 160 kilometres from east to west. It borders Erenhot (二连浩特) and Sonid Right Banner (苏尼特右旗) to the west, Abag Banner (阿巴嘎旗) to the east and Zhenglan Banner (正蓝旗) to the south. The banner government counts it among Inner Mongolia's 19 border banners. The name Sonid comes from an old Mongol clan whose settlement here gave the steppe its name, and stone tools, old graves, stone figures and rock carvings found in the area show much earlier habitation.

What to see

The Honggor rock art (洪格尔岩画群) runs for several li near the Mongolian border in Honggor sum (洪格尔苏木). At the Biqigetu (毕其格图) site in Shurichangtu gacha (舒日昌图嘎查), carvings cut into rocks and rock slabs on rolling hills show the sun and moon, stars, animals, symbols and scenes of hunting and herding, the herding and hunting scenes cut in the finest detail.

The Baoder stone forest (宝德尔石林) in Dalai sum (达来苏木) is an autonomous-region geopark: a field of weathered granite about 8 kilometres from east to west and 5 kilometres from north to south, split along vertical and horizontal joints into layered rocks. The banner government points to stone 'mushrooms', rocking stones and wall-like stacks resembling book pages, and says the site is known as the 'stone forest of the north' or 'stone forest of the steppe'. Ancient rock art and inscriptions there are well preserved, and it is listed as a heritage site protected at autonomous-region level.

Food and local products

Sonid mutton (苏尼特羊肉) became a national geographical-indication product in 2007. The banner government describes it as tender and free of the muttony smell, well suited to instant-boiled mutton (涮羊肉), and says it was sent as tribute to the Yuan, Ming and Qing courts. The Sonid sheep breed was added to the national list of protected livestock genetic resources in 2014, and Sonid camels are the banner's other well-known breed.

Highlights

• Honggor rock art 洪格尔岩画群: Carvings of hunting, herding, animals and celestial bodies near the Mongolian border.
• Baoder stone forest 宝德尔石林: Weathered granite field about 8 by 5 km in Dalai sum, an autonomous-region geopark.
• Sonid mutton 苏尼特羊肉: National geographical-indication product since 2007, suited to instant-boiled mutton.