Yili, the official sponsor of diary products of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, has now extended its business into liquid milk, ice cream, milk powder, yogurt and material milk. Since 2003, its sales revenue has been the country's largest. Together with Mengniu, another large milk producer in the autonomous region, the two diary giants of Inner Mongolia occupy 54 percent of China's diary market, according to Tang Aijun, Mayor of Hohhot.

With nearly 56 million sheep, Inner Mongolia features some famous cashmere producers, the most famous of which are made by Erdos Group from Ordos City. According to Yang Zhiyuan, Vice President of Erdos, the group's annual output of sweaters has reached 10 million. Of these, 4 million are exported. Erdos controls 40 percent of the cashmere sweater market in China and 30 percent in the world.

Located in the Hetao Plain along the Yellow River, Bayannaoer City is famous for its agriculture. Hetao Liquor has become the largest distilling base in north China for liquor, producing 80,000 tons every year from its 3,422 cellars. Hetao Flour is also a well-known brand from the area.

Throughout the Chinese mainland, people can find a hot pot chain restaurant named Little Sheep. Using mutton of the highest quality grown in the grassland in Inner Mongolia, its unique flavor has attracted millions of customers. It is not only famous on the mainland, it has also made its way into Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, the United States, Japan and Canada.

Modern industry

When the People's Republic of China was established in 1949, Baotou was positioned by the state as an important industrial city in north China. Now, the Baotou Iron and Steel (Group) Co. Ltd. has become an important iron and steel production base and the largest rare earth industrial base in China. According to Huercha, Mayor of Baotou, the deposit of rare earth in Baotou amounts to about 100 million tons, or 62 percent of the world's total and 87 percent of the country's total.

Inner Mongolia has a total of 223.9 billion tons of coal reserves, ranking second in China. Of the total coal reserves, 149.6 billion tons are in Ordos, where wealth is rolling in. However, the city used to see too many small coalmines, most of which only had an annual output of less than 100,000 tons. Since 1998, the city has closed and reorganized small coalmines, reducing the number of coalmines from 1,900 to 276 by 2006. In Shangwan Coalmine of the China Shenhua Shengdong Coal Branch, the 11.44 million tons of output created a new world record in 2006, yet the number of workers directly engaged in mining is only less than 50. Modernized production and transportation leave no trace of coal on the ground for people to see in the mining rea.

The abundant coal resources have brought a large electricity generation capacity to the autonomous region. According to Chu Bo, Secretary of the Inner Mongolia Committee of the Communist Party of China, every year the autonomous region supplies more than 10 million kw of electricity with preferential prices, reducing the cost of electricity in Beijing by 20 billion yaun. Besides thermal power, Inner Mongolia also has huge potential for wind power, with the capacity now accounting for one-third of the country's total. For example, Huitengxile Wind Power Plant in Wulanchabu City is the largest wind power plant in the country, with a total installed capacity of 68,500 kw.

About Inner Mongolia

·Geographical location

The third largest among China's provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, the region covers an area of 1.18 million square km, or 12.3 percent of the country's total land area. It stretches 2,400 km from west to east and 1,700 km from north to south. It neighbors eight provinces and regions in its south, east and west and Mongolia and Russia in the north, with a borderline of 4,200 km.

·Total population: 23.92 million by the end of 2006

·Natural resources

﹡Forests, grassland and cultivated land: The region has 7.22 million hectares of cultivated land, or 6.11 percent of the country's total, 86.67 million hectares of grasslands, or 73.3 percent of the country's total, and 18.67 million hectares of forests, 15.8 percent of the country's total.

﹡Minerals: More than 120 kinds of minerals of the 140 kinds found in the world have been verified in the region, five of which have the largest deposits in China and 65 of which rank among the top 10 in deposits in the country. The reserves of rare earth amount to 84.59 million tons, or 80 percent of the world's total and over 90 percent of the country's total. The proven deposits of coal are 223.9 billion tons, the second largest in the country. The region has large reserves of ferrous metals, non-ferrous metals, precious metals, industrial chemicals and non-metal minerals. It also has abundant oil and natural gas resources, and 13 large oil and gas fields have been discovered with expected oil and gas reserves hitting 2-3 billion tons and 1 trillion cubic meters respectively. (Source: www.china.org.cn)