One Steppe From Russia
By Pamela Tobey
The Matryoshka Hotel in Manzhouli, north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region
Upon my first sighting of the steppes of north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region near the China-Russia border, my mind began playing the refrain from the Broadway musical Oklahoma : “Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin’ down the plain.” Although the plains here were not as fl at, the wind was blowing strongly.
信息化教学手段在高职《客户关系管理》课堂教学中的应用探索——以客户投诉处理技巧为例 ………………… 陈小秀（6/72）
I was struck by the resemblance to the wide open windswept prairies of the western part of my home state of Texas and much of the adjoining state of Oklahoma. Instead of just seeing horses and cattle in the fields as I would back home, I noticed sheep added to the livestock mix in Inner Mongolia. The herdsmen looked similar to those in Texas, deftly riding their swift horses to round up the milling livestock and guide them to a new field.
After landing at Haila’er, my husband, a friend and I headed to the Hulun Buir Nationality Museum to learn more about the local culture. Viewing old photos of the nomadic Mongolians and displays of their traditional clothing and possessions, I was struck by their resemblance to Native Americans, down to the decorative styling and leather work.
And though the main housing structures used in this area have been round yurts for centuries, the Mongolians also had a more portable conical structure, called teepee in the U.S. They are very similar to those used by the nomadic tribes of the American Great Plains.
The hotel we chose was created around the Russian theme of traditional nesting dolls, so of course it was called the Matryoshka Hotel. You could see it from a distance, the main building being a 17-story Matryoshka. Inside our room, the nesting doll decor was on everything from the chair cushions and rugs to the Matryoshka-shaped tea set and light fixtures—a fun fantasy land.
Downtown, each sign was a combination of Mongolian, Chinese and Cyrillic lettering. Everywhere we went, we found that most of the Chinese residents could speak at least a little Russian.
2018东北亚语言学文学和教学国际论坛，于2018年6月23日至24日在内蒙古呼伦贝尔举行，由内蒙古高校外语教学研究会和呼伦贝尔学院承办，东师瑞普教育科技有限公司和华辰众星（北京）国际文化发展有限公司协办，70多位正式代表出席了本次会议，全国共有100多所高校的109位老师向大会递交了国际CPCI-SSH会议论文，7位中外专家做了主旨演讲。此外，还有20位代表专门向本次会议提交论文，并在会议进行了分组交流。
To get a more “authentic” experience, we then went to a Mongolian attraction. Sculptures of ancient Mongolian warriors and traditional mythic beasts lined the path to the yurt complex. We found a large aobao , a tall stacking of stones in a circle that is decorated with blue ribbons that match the sky above and small colorful banners. It is used in a traditional festive Buddhist ritual during the summer. We decided to experience a bit of Chinese history by traveling on one of the classic old green trains to get to our next stop of Manzhouli. Although China’s sleek high-speed trains get people to their destinations quickly and efficiently, there is something quite pleasant in riding more slowly and paying attention to the countryside.
Once there, I felt transported back to my early travels in the Soviet Union and later in Russia. The town combines the Baroque and neoclassical architecture that fills much of Odessa and St. Petersburg in Russia, those of rural wooden structures framed in colorful lacy wood trim, and clusters of colorful onion domes like those seen atop St. Basil’s Cathedral in Red Square in Moscow.
Our travels would not have been complete without a trip to the China-Russia border. Foreigners were not allowed to enter the actual border area, so we climbed to a secondfloor observation platform from where we could see the large gate marking China and a smaller one in the distance marking Russia. We could also see a small Russian village, and on the Chinese side, shops full of goods imported from Russia.
Manzhouli and Haila’er are an interesting melding of Chinese and Russian culture. The topography is the same, whether it is called the steppes of Siberia, the grasslands of Inner Mongolia or the plains of Oklahoma. To a native of the American Southwest, the wide open spaces and bright blue skies felt like home.
在备案审查过程方面，通过明确报备时限、受理时限、结果异议时限等审查时限，从形式审查、合法性审查、合理性审查等几个维度进一步细化审查标准，逐步形成一个统一、固定、细化、可量化的审查标准。
The author is an American living in Beijing
Copyedited by Sudeshna Sarkar
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