China Guide
The Northwest
Arrival
Hohhot's Baita airport is 35km east of the city, and the airport bus (30min; ¥5) drops arriving passengers at the CAAC office on Xilin Guole Lu. A taxi will cost ¥20. MIAT (Meng Hang, the national airline of the Mongolian Republic) has flights from here to Ulan Baatur.
Hohhot is linked by train to Lanzhou to the west, Beijing to the east and Hailar (a 38hr journey via Beijing) to the northeast. There are daily trains to the town of Erlianhot on the border with the Republic of Mongolia. Train #4602/3 departs Hohhot at 10.30pm, arriving at 7.18am the next day. Alternatively, train #5712/13 leaves Hohhot at 8.10am, pulling in at 7.32pm after rolling through the grasslands. – a far more relaxing, quiet and comfortable way of viewing the pastures than joining one of many group tours.
Frequent buses run to and from Baotou(every 10min; 1hr 30min; ¥30) from the long-distance bus station next to the train station. There are also buses to Dongsheng (every 30min; 3hr; ¥55) for connections and tours to Genghis Khan's Mausoleum, and to Erlianhot (9hr).
Crossing the border into The Reublic of Mongolia at Erlianhot is something of a hassle if you are not on a through train. Assuming you arrive in the evening you'll certainly have to spend one night here. In the morning there's one local bus that does the seven-kilometre trip across to the Mongolian town of Zamen Uud, though you may wait hours for it to leave. From there to Ulaan Baatur it's an eighteen-hour train journey.