Inner Mongolia Museum

The basics

The Inner Mongolia Museum is free to enter, but you must show a passport to gain admission. Besides the wealth of ancient creatures, most excavated from Inner Mongolia’s Gobi Desert, there are fascinating displays on the culture and customs of the region’s eight ethnic groups, from shamanism to reindeer herding and, of course, the obligatory ger (yurt) tents.

Most travelers will find the sections on Mongolian history, starring Genghis Khan, the genius warlord whose grandson Kublai became emperor of China, more interesting than the revolutionary propaganda. If you’re short on time, visiting with a guide, perhaps as part of a Hohhot city tour, can help you find the highlights fast.

Things to know before you go

• The Inner Mongolia Museum is a must for families, history buffs, dinosaur nerds, and anyone with time to kill in Hohhot.

• This large museum has more than 160,000 square feet (15,000 square meters) of exhibition space—about as many as three football fields. Wear comfortable shoes.

• Most travelers spend 2–4 hours exploring the Inner Mongolia Museum.

How to get there

The Inner Mongolia Museum lies in the north of central Hohhot. The easiest way to get there is by subway to the eponymous Inner Mongolia Museum station on Line 1. Alternatively, you can hail a taxi or a rideshare using China’s DiDi app. You must first link your overseas card to the WeChat Pay or AliPay apps.

When to get there

The Inner Mongolia Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 9am to 5pm, with the last admission at 4pm. It’s closed on Mondays. Try to avoid visiting during the major Chinese Golden Week holidays at the start of May and October, when crowds can be an issue.

Dinosaurs of the Gobi

Inner Mongolia’s Gobi Desert is one of Earth’s best dinosaur hunting grounds: the landscapes are largely unchanged since the dinosaurs died, while it’s easier to find fossils in open, empty desert terrain than in urban or forested areas. If you’re crossing from Inner Mongolia into Outer Mongolia (the modern-day country of Mongolia), you’ll likely travel via Erenhot. The road journey brings you under a giant arch of kissing sauropods, while the Dinosaur Museum of Erenhot offers enormous models of dinosaurs, skeletal and otherwise.