The highlight of eating in Hohhot, however, is the chance to eat Mongolian food , which is by no means as dreadful as reports would have it. Mongolian hotpot , or shuan yangrou, is a perfectly respectable dinner that even the Chinese enjoy. It's similar to Korean food, in that you cook it yourself: piles of thinly sliced mutton, ordered by the jin (half kilo), are cooked by being dropped into a cauldron of boiling water at the table, then quickly removed and dipped into a spicy sauce. Tofu, glass-noodles, cabbage and mushrooms are common accompaniments which all go into the pot, too. Many restaurants in Hohhot serve shuan yangrou - try the Malaqin Restaurant on Xincheng Xi Jie, a few blocks east of Hulunbei'er Lu. Dinner here with plenty of beer shouldn't cost more than A?35 per head.

For an even more exotic meal, however, with the focus on Mongolian dairy products, head for the Mongolian quarter in the southeast of town. Bus #4 comes down here - get off at Daxue Lu just south of the university. During term time, this area is packed with students, and restaurants stay open late. Any restaurant with Mongolian letters above the door is worth trying; one in particular is just 200m down the small street leading south from beside the Daxue Lu Shangchang (University Street Market). For an excellent breakfast or lunch, order a large bowl of milk tea, with sugar, and chaomi (buckwheat), huangyou (butter), nailao (hard white cheese), and naipi (a sweetish, biscuit-like substance formed from the skin of boiled milk). Toss everything into the tea, and eat it with chopsticks - it's surprisingly delicious. To make this into a substantial meal, eat it with mengu baozi and xianbing - dough stuffed with ground mutton, steamed or fried respectively.