Hulunbuir
— — the grass that runs to the edge of the sky.
Not only on a wall.
“One of the largest grasslands left in the world, up against the Russian and Mongolian borders. In summer the meadow runs unbroken to the horizon and the herds move through it the old way, on horseback, between white gers. By February it is forty below and the same field reads as nothing but wind. Two seasons, two places.
Hulunbuir, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Hulunbuir is a prefecture-level city in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, named for Hulun Lake and Buir Lake, that administers roughly two hundred and sixty thousand square kilometres on the steppe shared with Russia and Mongolia. Most of the population of about two and a half million lives in or near Hailar, the old railway town that serves as the regional hub. The grassland is one of the largest contiguous prairies left in the world and is still grazed by Mongol, Daur and Evenki herders.
The window for the green grassland is short. The meadow reads brown into late May, turns full green through June, July and August when the wildflowers come, then yellows by mid-September. From November to March the steppe is held by snow and temperatures that routinely drop below minus thirty Celsius. The Naadam summer fairs, with horse racing, wrestling and archery, are held in midsummer; the few weeks around them are the ones the photographs are taken in and the ones the herders work hardest.
Visitors usually fly into Hailar Dongshan Airport from Beijing or Hohhot, then drive out to ger camps in the grassland. The camps open in June and shut by early September, and the short summer is the only time the meadow is green. Trains from Harbin reach Hailar in roughly twelve hours. Manzhouli, on the Russian border, is the other common base and a four-hour drive across open prairie from Hailar. From there the route continues into the steppe along the Erguna River.