Come face to face with wild horses in Inner Mongolia

To escape the grey skies, noise and pollution of much of the rest of China, try heading to remote Inner Mongolia where winters drag and summers are brief.

This is the Chinese part of the former kingdom that gained international notoriety 700 years ago, when Mongol hordes under Genghis Khan burst its borders and terrorized much of Asia.

Though totally placid today, some elements of that romanticized way of life - yurt-dwelling, nomadic shepherding and horse rearing on immense grassland plains - can still be glimpsed by determined independent travellers willing to get off the beaten track. The towns of Xilinhot and Hilar are good places to start.