Practical Travel Guide to Baotou, China’s Most Hardcore City with the Softest Heart Hidden Inside

When I set foot in Baotou, the steel city on the grasslands, the morning sun was gilding the reeds of Saihan Tala Ecological Park. Known for its steel industry, this city’s core flows with a love that transcends blood ties. Let me take you into a warm-hearted Baotou—where the steel symphony of industrial civilization and the life anthem of ethnic unity compose a moving northern frontier poem.

🔸 The Industrial Romance of Baogang

In the early morning at the Baogang steel plant, the silhouette of blast furnaces stands against the deep blue sky, molten iron flowing like the lifeblood of the earth. When the glowing steel billets wind through the rolling mill, you understand what hardcore tenderness means. The iron cavalry of Genghis Khan a thousand years ago and the steel rails on the assembly line today are the deepest expressions of this land.

🔸 Pomegranate Blossom Theme Park

In the afternoon, walking into the Pomegranate Blossom Theme Park, my gaze was deeply drawn to the “Three Thousand Orphans Entering Inner Mongolia” exhibition. In the late 1950s, over three thousand orphans from the south were relocated to Inner Mongolia, where the grassland mothers embraced these young lives with their robes.

🔸 The Grassland Heart on the Tank

At dusk, at the tank test ride base, the vibration of steel tracks crushing the grass slopes reminds one of the trains that once transported orphans northward. Looking out from the periscope, the boundless grasslands seem to say—if this land can gently embrace even tanks, what life cannot it protect?

🔸 Drama: Mongolian and Tibetan Schools

Watching “Mongolian and Tibetan Schools” at the grand theater, I suddenly understood the spiritual thread of the play—from the great love of grassland mothers to the awakening of young people from all ethnic groups in pursuit of truth, it is the continuation of the same power: cherishing life and believing in the future.

💁🏻‍♀️【Travel Tips】
👉 Recommended to spend 2 hours at the Pomegranate Blossom Theme Park to carefully view the historical footage of the “Three Thousand Orphans”
👉 Baotou’s scenery changes with the seasons; autumn is especially beautiful

As the train left Baotou Station, the lights of the steel plant and the starry grasslands flashed outside the window. This city taught me: true inclusiveness means letting steel and flowers coexist, letting tanks and song and dance live side by side. On this ancient yet young land, the Chinese national community is not an abstract concept but a vivid reality happening every day—like the northern frontier wind blowing through the poplar forest, through the steel furnace, finally becoming the eternal spring in everyone’s heart.