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 probably doesn't get a lot of foreign foot traffic. And thus began a week of feeling like a VIP and an alien all at once, from the moment we stepped on the plane!

Our plane ride left from the small former military airport in Beijing and fortunately found another lovely foreign pair traveling to do the race. The four of us got a bunch of stares as we boarded the tiny plane. Of course, the woman in my row was shocked as Rebekah and I squished into our seats. She immediately called her friend and I could hear her saying “I’m sitting next to americans!”. We decided to befriend her and before we knew it, it was selfie time!

She spoke in Chinse to us the entire time and, while I maybe understood about 1/3 of it, it was adorable. She kept grabbing my arm and trying to tell us things to do in Bayannur but I still had mostly no idea. Fortunately, a student in the row behind us began to translate. Turns out he was super fluent in English and also from Bayannur. We exchanged wechat with him and he proved super useful throughout our stay. Here’s to airplane friends!!

Next stop: hotel. So we had been told by the agency (people who get the foreigners to take part in the races) that we only had 3 nights free at the fancy race hotel. Rebekah had booked us another hotel in the city. We arrived at the hotel and immediately had some issues because I didn’t have my passport, only a temporary yellow paper, as I’m in the process of getting my residence permit. Well this hotel had never seen this yellow paper before, and there was lots of cellphone translation services being used. All of a sudden, our friends at the fancy race hotel tell us we can come for a fourth night free! So then we had to spend time explaining that we were leaving and needed our passports back. Was somewhat disastrous but eventually figured out, and we hopped in a taxi to go to the better hotel. At first, the taxi driver seemed to ignore us- he was on his phone- but then, he hands us his phone. “Hello?” “oh hi, I am friend of driver. He wants to ask if you will take a photo with him.” The driver had called his only English speaking friend who lives in Shanghai, just to be polite enough to ask for a photo! What a sweetie!

Of course we took one:

When I tried to pay him the 10 rmb for the trip (1.50 usd), he wouldn’t accept it! These inner Mongolians were turning out nicer and nicer!

Two days off before the race: On our first full day, Rebekah and I decided to explore the city in an attempt to figure out how to book a trip to the grasslands or the desert for the following day. We ended up going on an epic walk around the Yellow River, being stopped for photographs and gawks alone the way. Picture this: we literally stopped traffic on the main street when were were walking- cars slowed to a stop, just to look at us! I thought a guy on his motorbike was going to crash! Normally I’d be annoyed but the people here were just lovely. We even had a great new friend walk by us, walk for a few blocks, then come running back for a photo: We obviously needed one too.

Needless to say, everyone was just the greatest. We also bonded with the student race volunteers who all wanted to practice their English and take snapchat photos with us. I now am somewhere in Chinese cyberspace with antlers on my head. However, we still hadn’t figured out our trip for the next day….oh well.

After all our walking, we were starving and came upon a Japanese restaurant. Fortunately, there was an ipad to order from. How convenient. The waitstaff mostly left us alone until the end of our meal, when the manager came over so excited to see us. She wanted photos of course. So photos we took. And had a nice Chinglish chat. Then, she decided to give us free ice cream dessert, just because! Wow!

We decided to check out the pool attached to the hotel. We walked in and immediately the 7 people working there were totally confused. No you need a membership card to swim. Oh but can we pay for a day? No, only membership card. And so on… all done by phone apps and minimal Chinese/English words. Finally, one worker called his boss, who spoke in English on the phone to us: oh you are invited athletes? Sure you can use the pool for free however many times you want. And there you go. More free things. Pool time!!!

Pool photo

Our new pool friend:

So while we were relaxing at the pool, a young woman started talking to us in English. Turned out she’s a local English teacher and the nicest person ever. We started asking her all our Bayannur questions: we wanted to know where to get a massage and how to get to the desert. She immediately calls a spa for us and tells us we can go there. Wow! Then, she decides that the bus wont work for us tomorrow. She will take us with her husband and daughter in a van to see some sights! What!!!!!! We met this woman for 15 minutes and then she takes us on a day tour of the area!! Wow!!!!!

Race day:

Woke up bright and early for the race (I had almost forgot that’s why were went here in the first place!). Long story short, the race was fine. I did my own thing, slow and steady. Made some lovely friends along the way and had lots of photos with lots of strangers. There was entertainment every few kilometers, children doing kungfu, old ladies dancing. It was great! Best way to spend a birthday!! And I even got to hang out with the elite runners- so cool. Needless to say, my few short days in Bayannur were surprisingly wonderful full of kind eager excited people! It’s places like this that really make me love China. Now back to real life!

Race day morning photo with the elite runners