The Beizi Temple and the Sacred Heart of the Grasslands
Walk into the Hangai Residential District and you'll find yourself at Beizi Temple, an 18th century Buddhist temple that anchors Xilinhot's spiritual and cultural life. Built in 1743 under the Qianlong Emperor, it stands as one of the largest temples on the Xilin Gol grassland—a place where Mongolian reverence for the sacred landscape takes physical form. The temple itself is surrounded by Mongolia restaurants and handicraft shops, so you can move seamlessly from prayer halls into spaces where local artisans sell their work and cooks prepare regional specialities. This is where history, faith, and daily Mongolian life intersect.
Naadam Festival: Wrestling, Horses, and Colourful Tradition
Every year, Xilinhot fills with the energy of Naadam, the Mongolian summer festival. This is not a museum piece—it's a living gathering where wrestling competitions, horse racing, horse trading, and costume contests draw crowds in colourful traditional dress. Colorful yurts dot the festival grounds, serving food and trinkets alongside the main events. If you time your visit to coincide with Naadam, you'll see Mongolian culture not as something preserved, but as something actively celebrated and passed down.
Yurt Stays and Grassland Life
To understand the rhythm of life here, stay at one of the nearby yurt resorts. These compounds arrange large communal yurts for dining with smaller individual yurts for sleeping, placing you within the landscape that defines the region. The Xilinhot countryside spreads across rolling grasslands where Mongolians keep horses, sheep, goats, and cows—the very animals that sustain both the economy and the diet.
What to Eat: Meat, Milk, and Hands-On Tradition
- Grilled whole lamb (烤全羊)—a centrepiece dish where the animal is roasted intact
- Hand meat—meat traditionally served by hand to guests
- Beef and mutton string—preserved and portable
- Horse milk yogurt—a dairy staple that defines the local food culture
- Milk skin and milk tofu—by-products of the region's pastoral economy
The diet reflects what the grasslands produce: dairy and meat from herds, supplemented with cabbage and seasonal fruits and vegetables. Eating here means tasting the direct output of pastoral life.
When to Visit
Xilinhot experiences long, very dry winters with temperatures dropping to −18.8 °C (−1.8 °F) in January, and short, hot summers reaching 21.6 °C (70.9 °F) in July. Most annual rainfall arrives in July and August. Summer is the practical season for grassland travel and for catching Naadam. The city receives abundant sunshine year-round—2,970 hours annually—so even in colder months, clear skies reward clear days.
Plan your visit around a desire to sit in a yurt, taste mutton cooked over fire, and witness how Mongolian traditions persist in the daily life of a modern prefectural city. Xilinhot is reachable by air to Beijing, Hohhot, and other cities, or by train on the K7917 line to Hohhot and Baotou. Once there, you'll find yourself on grassland that has sheltered Mongolian peoples for centuries.