Although not entirely planned, this part of our journey brought us to the Genghis (Chinghiz) Khan Mausoleum, located in Ejin Horo Banner in Inner Mongolia. Although it is possible that Maroo Polo's account of where Genghis Khan and his descendants are buried is true, no evidence of this has ever been discovered, nor have their tombs ever been found. The mausoleum we visited, therefore, did not contain the remains of the emperor, but was rather a memorial hall.

Genghis Khan is perhaps buried somewhere on the vast Ordos Plateau.

Marco Polo devoted a fair amount of space in his book in praise of Genghis Khan, although by today's standards he would hardly be considered a benevolent leader. For example, Marco Polo tells us that when Genghis Khan or one of his successors died and was being taken for burial, "all those who are encountered along the route...are put to the sword by the attendants who are escorting it." This was because it was believed that all these people would be there to serve the emperor after death.When Genghis Khan's grandson Mongu Khan died in 1259, over 20,000 people were put to death in this way.

We left the beautiful oasis of Ejin Banner and continued our journey eastward. We planned to cover 6O0 kilometres in a day in order to reach Linhe, a town north of Yinchuan along the Yellow River. On the way, we came across a lone courtyard surrounded on all sides by the vast desert. On its outer wall was a slogan in big Chinese characters reading "Highway 401 Maintenance Crew, a Forgotten Paradise," Well, perhaps it was a paradise once, but no longer. Looking around, one sees no greenery, no lakes or rivers and very few birds or animals. The road past it was like a single reef in an immense ocean. Only two or three workers in charge of maintaining the dirt highway stay here all year round, no doubt a hard and lonely life.

We soon reached Oiji, a small town on the border with Mongolia. From here, we turned south and headed for Linhe. The scenery changed as grass, yurts and elm trees on both sides of the road came into sight.Horses, camels and flocks of sheep freely roamed on the grassland.