Current Time in Tongliao, China

Tongliao lies in the eastern part of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China, on the West Liao River where the Mongolian grasslands give way to the plains of the north-east. The prefecture it administers covers a vast area of pasture, farmland, sand dunes and low hills, home to nearly three million people, of whom around a million live in the urban districts. Tongliao has the largest Mongol population of any city in China, and street signs, official documents and schooling appear in both Mongolian and Chinese.

This is the historic land of the Khorchin Mongols, and the connection runs deep into Chinese history. The Khorchin allied early with the rising Manchu state, and Bumbutai, the Khorchin noblewoman who became the formidable Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang and guided two Qing emperors, was born in these grasslands. Earlier still, the region belonged to the Khitan empire of the Liao dynasty, whose tombs have yielded some of the most spectacular treasures found in northern China, including the gold funerary masks and silver burial suits of a princess and her consort, now displayed in the museum at Naiman Banner.

The modern city dates from the early twentieth century, when the railway arrived and a trading post grew into a town. Today Tongliao is a major rail junction, with lines fanning out towards Beijing, Shenyang, Ulanhot and the Xilingol grasslands, a high-speed connection to Shenyang, an airport and expressways in several directions.

Its economy combines old and new. The plains along the Liao River form part of China's golden maize belt and produce enormous crops of corn, while Khorchin beef cattle are known nationwide. Coal, aluminium smelting, chemicals and one of the country's largest concentrations of wind power supply the industrial side, and Mongolian traditional medicine is manufactured and researched here.

Visitors come mainly for the landscape and the culture. The Daqinggou nature reserve protects a deep, humid ravine cut into the sands, filled with rare plants and ancient trees, a startling green gash in dry country. The Arukorqin grasslands offer riding, yurt stays and open horizons, while the Khorchin sandy land shows the effects of desertification and the huge afforestation programmes launched to reverse it. Summer brings the Nadam festival, with wrestling, horse racing and archery, and Tongliao is the home of the Andai dance, a whirling communal dance with silk scarves that has become a symbol of Mongol culture in China.

The Inner Mongolia University for Nationalities, based in the city, teaches in both languages and is a centre for Mongolian medicine, language and history.

Grassland traditions, Liao dynasty archaeology and a bilingual modern city make Tongliao one of the most interesting destinations in north-eastern China.