Vast land, few people and reverence for Genghis Khan

After a 15-hour overnight journey from Beijing onboard an olden-day green train, when a colleague and I arrived at a station in Dongsheng district of Ordos city on a weekday morning in early March, the air outside the railway premises felt cooler than the Chinese capital but not as cold as I had expected Inner Mongolia to be at such a time of the year.

I was geared to meet winter in China's far north but as locals in rural Ordos informed us later, the season this year wasn't fierce at all, despite its reputation. Although during our travels through the Otog Front Banner, which is located in the autonomous region's southwest, we faced gusts of wind on the grasslands.

On our way to the banner - a four-hour road trip from Dongsheng - I spotted some houses, mostly painted white, as well as grave sites in the villages. Large swathes along the expressway appeared uninhabited. Later in Aolezhaoqi, the banner's main town where we spent a night, I realized how empty the streets were.