A performance by the National Art Troupe in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, June 26, 2015. （Photo/chinadaily.com.cn）
The giant manufactures more than 1,000 products ranging from milk and ice cream to yogurt, earning Hohhot the title Dairy Capital of China. The company's revenues were nearly $10 billion in 2014.
On the other hand, you can drive down to grassland, less than a two-hour journey, and taste fresh horse milk or homemade cheese prepared by Mongol women in their yurt. A piece of advice: Go slow on the horse milk or you will be bolting faster than the animal to the toilet.
If Yili is the economic crown of Hohhot, then the National Art Troupe is its cultural mecca.
This should be on your must-visit list even if you are on a short trip.
Mongolians have a particular style of singing called Khoomei, or throat-singing. In it the singer produces two distinct tones simultaneously: One low pitch and the other high.
The National Orchestra, based at the Troupe, has some of the masters of the art among its 70 singers and performers.
This balance of tradition and modernity is not limited to Hohhot. Ordos, a city with a population of two million, is another place that manages to pull this off.
Although it's a three-hour drive from the capital, the Yinshan Mountain range that runs along the expressway makes the trip worthwhile.
The first stop for most tourists in Ordos is the Genghis Khan mausoleum, a huge complex in the middle of which is the Memorial Hall flanked by East and West halls.
In the center stands a 13-feet-tall white statute of Genghis Khan. It's only when you are in front of the great emperor with his eyes staring down at you that you realize what a monumental feat it must have been to capture such a large swath of land so many centuries ago and then rule over it.
Although his body is not there as it has never been found, there are enough relics, including armaments, to better understand the man, his empire and that period of history.
If after walking at the huge complex you start feeling hungry then just head to any restaurant to fill your stomach with a whole roasted lamb, a Mongolian delicacy, and top it off with yogurt and milk tea.
