The places you CAN'T go anymore...
Added 2018-10-23 17:21:28 +0000 UTCHey Laowinners!
I just had a fun chat with a buddy of mine up in Inner Mongolia, and he wanted to track down one of our old friends to relive some of the good old days. We all reconnected, and had a fun group chat.
Some things have changed, however.
My local buddy, Liu, made quite a bit of money in the rare earth trade after he bought a bunch of construction equipment and got leases on some land for cultivation. Unfortunately, he's had to leave. The areas are all dug up now, and his village has been moved. Yes, a village... moved. Turns out the government decided to renege on some deals, and figured the easiest way to deal with everyone would be to put them in crappy flats about 20 miles down the road. Now everyone has a small stipend, but their meager farms are gone, and no one has anything to do. Drugs and theft are an issue now.
My foreign friend wanted to roll through another friends area, and was stopped at police tape about 35 miles outside of the city. They lost their minds when they saw a foreigner in the car, and said the area was totally off limits. We are talking about a city that has a population of 100,000, not just banned from foreigners, but anyone that doesn't live there. I assume the local 40% Mongolian population is causing the paranoia. It's just a shame that no one is allowed in or out...
This reminds me of the time I was allowed to tour the weapons factory of Norheinco, and check out all of the weapons that China was producing for their military. Foreigner? Who cares! That was the lax attitude back then.
I can assure you that you wouldn't be allowed in here any more...
Some of my favorite places were the old stomping grounds of Ghengis Khan himself. Although, we don't know exactly where he started off, many think it was in current day western Inner Mongolia. Unfortunately, much of this has been removed in favor of pro-CCP historical monuments. It's now illegal to show or promote Mongolian history, true or not. Many of the Mongolian schools have changed to Chinese only, and history is quickly being erased.
Sometimes it's better not to be heartbroken over this stuff, and enjoy the photos and videos as awesome memories.
Thank you all for your support.
Comments
The 3 Gorges dam destroyed so much culture drowning it forever. I understand the “payoff” but a project of that size, doing that much damage could only have been pulled of in a developing totalitarian regime. Can you imagine that kind of thing beomf
2018-11-09 13:33:01 +0000 UTCEvery time I have visited back there are places that just don't exist anymore, even when they were absolutely very popular, and this is in Beijing! I can't imagine how much has changed in other parts of the country. What whereabouts are you referring to?
Matthew Duhon
2018-10-25 12:38:47 +0000 UTCSo much has changed in the years that we've been in China, it's actually very unsettling that whole areas of the city where I used to spend my evenings eating BBQ and chatting to the locals are now no longer there and rules have changed so drastically that things that we could do are no longer an option... I miss the old days
SerpentZA
2018-10-24 02:13:48 +0000 UTC
