Four-Day Special Forces Hiking Adventure in Kubuqi Desert, Inner Mongolia

🌞 In April, our company organized a four-day special forces training trip to Inner Mongolia. I contributed some suggestions and thought they were pretty good, so I’m sharing them with everyone～

🚗 Itinerary:

1️⃣ Day 1: Depart at 6:30 AM to catch an 8:45 AM flight from Hongqiao Airport, arriving in Hohhot after about three hours. After lunch, check into the hotel, which even arranged a welcome ceremony～

2️⃣ Day 2: Depart at 8 AM, arriving at Kubuqi Desert by car around 11 AM to start hiking. Plan to reach the camping site ⛺️ by 5 PM, with a bonfire party and fireworks show in the evening!

3️⃣ Day 3: Start hiking in the morning, pass through the fault canyon, and reach the flat beach endpoint 🏁. Take a car back to Hohhot and enjoy a celebratory feast in a Mongolian yurt at night!

4️⃣ Day 4: Free time in the morning—many went out to buy beef jerky and milk tea. The group ✈️ returned to Shanghai in the afternoon!

💗 Tips:

1️⃣ Our team-building trip lasted four days (partially paid by the company). If anyone wants to extend their stay for a deeper exploration of Inner Mongolia, they can use annual leave ❤️. The cost of changing the return flight is personal (the company booked China Eastern Airlines, not a budget airline, so tickets are changeable). Figure 9 shows the group activity schedule…

2️⃣ The route is in Figure 6—15 km over two days. For those of us who are often either on business trips or in workshops, it wasn’t too stressful. Office workers might need to push themselves a bit, but since it’s spread over two days and the process is fun, the challenge shouldn’t be too great!

3️⃣ Figure 7 shows personal gear suggestions. We decided to provide windbreakers but without the company logo—it feels odd to wear branded gear on personal trips. Plus, if anyone gets detained at customs again, it’s better not to have the company name visible…

4️⃣ The gear in Figure 8 was all provided by the company to save colleagues who aren’t into outdoor activities from rushing to buy everything last minute. Trekking poles need to be checked in, and handling them individually is a hassle, so the company took care of it all at once～

5️⃣ Why go in April? Shanghai and Guangzhou are already hot by then, but Inner Mongolia’s temperature is just right. May Day marks the start of peak season, and summer prices are even crazier, so April was our pick～

6️⃣ Most importantly, everyone’s been working so hard on projects lately, with the whole team pulling overtime last month. This trip is a great way to boost team cohesion! If hiking wears you out, you can always take a few extra days off to relax and herd some sheep 🐑 in Inner Mongolia～