Erenhot

Erenhot, Wade-Giles romanization Erh-lien-hao-t’e, city, north-central Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China. It is located in the Gobi (desert) near the border with Mongolia, on the Trans-Mongolian railway.

A railway was built southward in 1954 from a location called Eren Station. Around this was constructed a complex of buildings that developed into the border town of Erenhot, situated about 435 miles (700 km) southeast of Ulaanbaatar, Mong. The town was elevated to city status in 1966 following the transfer of railroad wheel-change operations (necessary because of the different gauges used in Mongolia and China) from Jining on the Beijing-Baotou railway line to the south. It is the only railway border entrance between the two countries, and it provides a shorter line connecting Beijing with Moscow than the one through Northeast China (Manchuria). The transnational rail traffic between China, Russia, Mongolia, and North Korea has been the economic mainstay of Erenhot, and various administrative departments serving foreign trade have become an important part of the city.

To the northeast of Erenhot is a salt lake, Dabusan Nur, rich with salt and mirabilite (hydrated sodium sulfate), enabling it to develop, to some extent, a chemical industry; however, a shortage of water has limited further development. Fossils of various kinds of dinosaurs have been found around the salt lake, and these are on display in a museum established in the city in 1989. An oilfield in the Eren Basin, southwest of the city, has been in operation since the early 1990s. Pop. (2000) 15,793.