Baotou, 3 hours to the west of Hohhot by train or bus, is a place that is visited mainly by people with more than just tourism in mind. 

The area where Baotou now lies was once fairly arid grassland that was populated by Mongolian nomads and grazers. Just to the north of the both the Yellow River and the Gobi Desert, the city was established in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911 AD) on a Neolithic site. It was named 'a land with deer' (Baotou) after the hundreds of these creatures that used to be found here. 

Baotou is a huge slab of urban area that runs for about 20km, being the largest city in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. It comprises three main areas: Donghe, the oldest part of town, to the east, and Qingshan and Kundulun to the west. Qingshan is a nondescript shopping and residential area, while Kundulun includes the iron and steel works on its western edge. The three parts of the city are well connected by frequent buses, which take thirty to forty minutes to travel between the Donghe and Kundulun districts.

Baotou is an important industrial base for metallurgy, machinery, chemicals and energy in China. It is also abundant in rare earth. The total area of Baotou covers 27,768 square kilometers, 160.6 square kilometers of which is urbanized. Baotou is a city with 37 nationalities, including the people of Mongolia, Han, Man, Hui, Dawuer and Ewenke. It has a population of 2,335,600, among whom 1,407,600 are city dwellers. 

Located in the southern part of the Mongolian Plateau with an average altitude of 1,000 meters, Baotou belongs to a semi-arid continental climate. The average highest temperatures here hit 21 degrees C., while the lowest hit -8. The optimum time to visit the city is from late spring through the summer, when the temperature is fairly warm. The city is little troubled by rain, with annual precipitation at 312mm.