Birthday in Bayannur
Well, just so happens that the national week of China coincides with my birthday each year. If you remember, last year, I biked to the Great Wall amidst the smog. This year, I decided, why not keep up my athletic birthdays. Just so happened that a small city in Inner Mongolia was hosting a marathon/half marathon on the day of my birthday and needed foreign athletes to attend! In case you don't know, many small cities in China invite foreign athletes to races for free to help boost the city profile and encourage tourism and development. So I got my friend Rebekah on board: free race entry, free hotel, free meals, free flight... let's do it! Inner Mongolia is a vast northern region of China (obviously on the border with Mongolia the country). The capital is Hohhot, which sees quite a bit of tourists. The north east part is also quite popular, as it is nearer to Beijing and bigger cities. However, we were flying into the North/northwest. A part of Inner Mongolia which proba...