Foreign literature classics are always hot sellers.	Wind power generation in Ulanqad City.	Herdsmen in Xin Barag Right Banner Performing aobao worship on Baodong Mountain.

INNER Mongolia Autonomous Region, which covers an area of 1.18 million sq km, has recently emerged as a major player in China’s burgeoning economy. Its GDP growth has ranked first among China's 32 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities for five successive years. Since 2000, its GDP has risen from national 24th to 17th.

Rapid Economic Development

The Inner Mongolian economy is thriving. The region’s crude coal output, at 300 million tons, ranks a national second. Part of it is used for electricity that is transmitted to Beijing, where seven out of every ten light bulbs are powered from Inner Mongolia. Yili and Mengniu, the two Inner Mongolian dairy giants, have become national leaders of the industry. Inner Mongolia’s milk output value of RMB 40 billion, as generated by the two groups, equals that of its coal. KFC and McDonald's also buy potatoes grown in Ulanqab.

Bayan Nur produces 500,000 tons of tomato ketchup every year that it exports to Italy, and the rare earth rails developed by the Baogang Group are exported to Brazil. The Xiaofeiyang (Fat Lamb) restaurant chain specializing in mutton hotpot was named the enterprise with the greatest growth potential in 2006 by an authoritative business magazine; it ranks second among China's top 100 catering enterprises. Erdos, famous brand cashmere producer whose slogan is to “warm the entire world,” exports its products to Canada. The foreign trade of Manzhouli, a port city neighboring Russia, amount to 20 million tons annually. Every day about 6,000-7,000 Russians pass through this port.

All this demonstrates the development potential of Inner Mongolia, its rich energy and mineral resources, solid foundation in agriculture and animal husbandry, and flexible border trade. The region’s economic vitality has also begun to attract investors. Domestic and foreign investments introduced in 2006 amounted to half that of the previous five years.

Zhou Jian is a PH. D. in his early 30s. He returned from the United States to manage a subsidiary of the Oregon Materials Technologies Inc., a company that produces high-quality monocrystalline silicon, used in the manufacture of chips for solar cells and computers, for export. Although it is located in a remote area of Inner Mongolia, its good reputation has won favor among many international firms. The company supplies many well-known enterprises in the United States, Germany and Japan.

Zhou Jian, a Shanghai native, had never previously been to Inner Mongolia. “Living conditions here are inferior to those in the United States and Shanghai, but the air is much fresher, the climate more pleasant and the local people warm-hearted. It seems more like home every day,” says Zhou Jian. He appreciates the attention that leaders of the autonomous region pay to this project, and the preferential treatment they have awarded it. As he says, “Local leaders are eager to attract hi-tech, pollution-free enterprises to Inner Mongolia.”

Pollution-free, green and environmentally friendly have become the buzzwords in Inner Mongolia in recent years. “We seek development, but not without choices. We are not prepared to accept backward productive forces or low-level repetition. We seek rational and scientific development that will lead to a new-type industrialization that accords with Inner Mongolia’s realities,” stresses Yang Jing, chairman of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Baotou City is famous for its industrial economy. It is known as the “Steel City on the Grassland” and the “Capital of Rare Earth.” The Baotou Iron and Steel Works, and the Inner Mongolia No. 1 Machine Building Plant are well known enterprises. In 2006, Baotou was named by Forbes magazine as one of China’s top 20 cities most suitable for developing industry.

“In recent years, Baotou’s enterprises have seen rapid development, not simply in terms of expansion of the number and output of enterprises, but in their number of new first-rate products nationwide and worldwide,” says Zhang Shuguang, a veteran economic development research fellow with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The 360-ton electric mine automobile, which is under installation at the Inner Mongolia North Hauler Joint Stock Co., Ltd. (NHL), is the largest hauler in the world. The 6,000-ton refined aluminum project, a joint venture between the Baotou Aluminum Industry Company and a French enterprise, produces China’s best electrolytic aluminum products. The glass-ceramics made by the Jingniu Glass Company is a unique product whose intellectual property rights are owned by a Chinese enterprise.

Green gardens are to be seen every 500 meters when strolling through Baotou. This is more the type of scenery one would expect of southern China, where the rainfall is so much higher than Baotou’s annual 300 mm. Even so, the per capita public green area stands at 10 sq m in urban areas, and green coverage has reached 34 percent. This has won Baotou the United Nations Habitat Scroll of Honor Award, an honor shared by no other northern Chinese city.

Returning Grazing land to Pasture

In Sanggendalai Township, Xilin Gol League, a herder named Namhai is making a grass-mower at his new home in a new village built for relocated herders. “In the past, one hectare of grassland (around his old village, Gacha) could produce 500 kilograms of grass, but this later dropped to less than 100 kilograms. After grazing for a whole day, the cattle and sheep could eat only half their fill. More than 90 percent of the pastures had degenerated, and 90 percent of the families in Gacha Village were poverty-stricken," recalls Namhai, aged 56. In January 2001, Namhai sold his 130 head of cattle and 500 head of sheep and moved from Gacha Village 20 kilometers away to the new village in the town.

In the past few years, global warming, decreasing rainfall, and overgrazing has seriously damaged the grasslands of Inner Mongolia; and desertification is becoming more serious. Although Inner Mongolia occupies one eighth of the Chinese territory, its deserts and sandy land also make up a quarter of the country’s total.

“We are implementing the policy of returning grazing and farming land to pasture. Grazing in certain areas is prohibited and rotation grazing has been substituted. Eco-relocation also inhibits the desertification caused by overgrazing. Meanwhile, we have ecological experimental units to reduce damage to the environment in agricultural areas,” confirms an official with the forestry bureau of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

“According to government policy, each relocated family gets an RMB 5,000 subsidy per capita, which buys the family a two-room house and a two-room shed, in which we are encouraged to raise cattle and sheep. We are given a loan of RMB 12,000 for each pedigree cow we buy. The income generated from one such cow equals that of 50 heads of sheep; its milk output equals that of 15 local dairy cows. My household keeps more than 20 Frisian dairy cows. Although our livestock is smaller, our incomes have increased,” says Namhai.

Mr. Hou, a section chief of the Forestry Bureau of Xilin Gol League, explains, “Eco-relocation is a low-investment way of solving grassland ecological degeneration that yields fast results."

According to Mr. Hou, relocating one herder alleviates the ecological pressure on one square kilometer of grassland, and planting one hectare of grass can restore 50 to 100 hectares of degenerated grassland. In the past few years, Xilin Gol League has relocated more than 50,000 farmers and herders to towns and to the secondary and tertiary industries. This measure has curbed the degeneration of grassland in Xilin Gol, the second largest grassland in China.

Namhai still owns the 56-hectare pasture; he is responsible for its management and construction, but he hires other people to work on it. The grass mower he has developed has aroused much interest among people in nearby villages, and presents distinct commercial opportunities.

Preserving Traditional Culture

Certain people believe that these changes in mode of production and lifestyle clash with the traditional Mongolian nomadic culture.

Wangchaolumen, aged 17, is a grade-two senior-high student at the Tongliao City Mongolian Middle School. Dressed in basketball sportswear printed with the words Tracy McGrady and a pair of Nike shoes, he tells me “I like Mongolian songs best.” He speaks and writes Mongolian, and excels in the “three skills of Mongolian men” - horse-riding, archery and wrestling. The Mongolians are an ethnic group particularly skilled in martial arts. Genghis Khan was admiring of the qualities of bravery, wisdom and staunchness, which he nurtured in his soldiers and in the entire populace. Tongliao City is the largest Mongolian community of Inner Mongolia. Its 1.3 million Mongolians make up one-third of the total number of Mongolians in the autonomous region, and one-fourth of the total nationwide. The Tongliao Mongolian Middle School, therefore, has the largest number of Mongolian students in the region. It currently has 2,750 students in 47 classes, and all lessons are taught in Mongolian. Wangchaolumen plans to enter a prestigious medical school in the interior. As Inner Mongolia needs good doctors, he wants to come back and serve the local people after graduation.

In recent years the autonomous region has promoted bilingual Chinese/Mongolian education, and has invested more manpower and materials in preserving the Mongolian culture. Even so, certain Mongolian students who have majored in the Mongolian language experience difficulty in finding work.

Aobao worship - prayers for good weather and the health and safety of humans and livestock -- is integral to the Mongolian way of life. It is a custom, as Mongolian villagers say, that they will “never give up.” In the past, each household would donate cattle and sheep to the sacrificial ceremony, but today, they can only offer cash. This makes for less a grand ceremony than that traditionally held. “Our new home is far away from our original village. And we are busy. When the sacrificial time comes, one member of each family attends. But if we are too busy, no-one goes,” says Neli, aged 43.

Young Wangchaolumen rarely rides a horse. Since many herders in Inner Mongolia have now settled in fixed accommodation, it is rare to see herders galloping over the grassland. Mongolian horses are seldom seen in Inner Mongolia.

“But in Korqin Left Rear Banner, you see many horses, and horse stud farming still goes on,” says one Tongliao City official. Tongliao was once famous for warriors and horses, and today there are more than 60,000 horses in the whole banner. Villagers compete enthusiastically in the autonomous region’s horse-races and other equestrian events.