The 17th-century Temple of the Five Pagodas, part of the Dazhao Cultural Industry Cluster in Hohhot in Inner Mongolia. (Photo : Shanghai Elite Tours International Travel Service)
Local and foreign tourists wandering in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region have a new destination to add to their itinerary.
Now welcoming visitors is the Dashengkui Cultural Creativity Industrial Park in Yuquan District in Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia.
Named after the Dashengkui Trade Company, a huge China-Mongolia enterprise, the new place to see is a lifestyle center of its own. A string of cafes, restaurants and curio shops and an 800-seater theater are among the occupants of its 8-hectare lot, according to China Daily.
Without overlooking the word “cultural” on its long name, this massive tourist attraction shelters some 30 shops selling ethnic handicrafts. It is likewise home to some museums, including the Dashengkui Museum, which stands out from the rest and sits at the former site of the trade company.
Some elderly inhabitants of the region are capable of delivering a ballad that narrates the tea trading between China and Russia during the 17th century, reported the Global Times.
The ballad reveals that traders would travel approximately six months from Fujian Province in China to Russia and vice versa, passing in Mongolia with every trip. They worked for Dashengkui Trade Company.
Hohhot’s Dashengkui Cultural Creativity Industrial Park is only but a part of a conglomeration of attractions of gigantic proportion: the Dazhao Cultural Industry Cluster.
Nestled on a 43-hectare lot, Dazhao is composed of three sections, namely, the Dashengkui park, a commercial district with an architecture inspired from two dynasties (Ming and Qing), and cultural and religious attractions.
Included also in the cluster is the centuries-old Temple of the Five Pagodas (or “Precious Pagoda of the Buddhist Relics of the Diamond Throne”) built from 1727-1732.
Aside from taking souvenir shots of and selfies at the Genghis Khan Monument in Hohhot, which shows the founder of the Mongol Empire mounted on a horse, tourists may rejoice that there are now hectares of other attractions to explore in Inner Mongolia.
