# Yili Health Valley

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Yili Health Valley (Mandarin: 伊利健康谷; Mongolian: Йили эрүүл мэндийн хөндий) is a major tourist destination in Tumed Left Banner, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China. It contains the main production points for the Chinese dairy company Yili Group, two of which are open for the public to see the production line, liquid milk and milk powder. The Ministry of Tourism is still pending its decision making it a 5A-level tourist attraction.

## Understand

Yili Health Valley is a major, well-maintained industrial park and tourist attraction.

### History

The project was introduced in 2019 when the company presented it at a meeting with representatives of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region's government. By 2022, Yili’s industrial park, a dairy giant in China, had inaugurated its first four facilities.
On 22 July 2022, the first buildings in Yili Health Valley were commissioned. They included the Intelligent Manufacturing Experience Center, a liquid milk production plant, a milk powder production plant, and a cheese factory. The company also commissioned six national platforms, including the National Dairy Technology Innovation Center and the National Dairy Product Metrology and Testing Center. A few months later, the Yili Intelligent Manufacturing Experience Center opened the first 5D cinema for industrial tours of milk production processes. There is also a fully functioning ecological park completed during that time.
By June 2024, there were several new facilities that had been completed, including those built with external investments and national program support.

### Landscape

It is best to see the background of the valley from a hill, which is not very hard to find. The landscape of the valley is typical of the Inner Mongolian grasslands. However, the production plants somewhat interrupt the simplicity. One main feature of the landscape is a giant butterfly-shaped building. That is the Yili Intelligent Manufacturing Experience Center. Another landmark is the Global Intelligent Production Base of Milk Powder, which has both the exterior and interior designed by the German architectural company E+H. However, the landscape is not completely artificial, as there is also an ecological park and a pasture. The ecological park is a superlative background with a pristine water system and lush green vegetation. The landscape of the Global Green and Intelligent Demonstration Ranch is described in a book of songs from the Northern and Southern Dynasties Period:
"The sky is vast, the wild is boundless, and the wind blows low to see cows and sheep,"

### Flora and fauna

The park mainly consists of medium grasses, including (but not limited to) needle grasses (or the Stipa genus) like S. baicalensis, S. capillata and S. grandis, sheep's fescue (also known as Festuca ovina), and grasses like Aneurolepidium chinense, Filifolium sibiricuman, and Cleistogenes sqarrosa. The park has wild ass, camel and Mongolian Gazelle and its reindeer are endemic to the region. There are also many rodents on the Yili Health Valley. They make up more than half of the animals there.

### Climate

Yili Health Valley is inside a cold semidesert with a Bsk (cold semi-arid) climate. The best time to go there is in July. The temperature of the Valley fluctuates from 28 °C (83 °F) to 28 °C (64°F) in July. During that period, the average precipitation is 115 millimeters and the average precipitation days is 12.

## Get in

You can take the local bus, 116, from the city center, 新华西街 West Xinhua Street, and the fare is 1 RMB (Chinese yuan). Be aware that the bus goes long distances so arrives to each station infrequently.
Alternatively, you can take the Hohhot Metro Line 1 to "YILI Health Valley Station" and take a taxi which costs about 10 RMB.

## Get around

You can walk everywhere or take a mini tour bus on the second floor. I do feel they could improve on accessibility as there may be areas with steps only.

## See

The best thing about the Valley is not the Valley itself, but the factories inside. The facilities open to tourists are the Intelligent Manufacturing Experience Center, the Global Liquid Milk Intelligent Production Base, the Global Intelligent Production Base of Milk Powder, and the Global Green and Intelligent Demonstration Ranch.

### Yili Intelligent Manufacturing Experience Center

The Yili Intelligent Manufacturing Experience Center is the first building visitors enter after getting off the bus stop. It is not your typical reception service center. Instead, it is a modern, intelligent, multi-functional comprehensive space with, as one visitor described, "four hearts and one body". The four hearts are the Yili Smart Manufacturing Service Center, the Cultural Experience Center, the Dairy Nutrition Research and Study Center, and the Dairy Tourism Visitor Service Center. The Center is also a platform for distributing, guiding, promoting, recreation, and services while integrating humanistic care themes and and intelligent technology. This is more than a visitor center - it is an industrial tourism service platform that comprehensively experiences, as a tourist wrote, "sharing health with everyone in the world".
The Center has a blue-and-white lobby, and you can recognize it by the suspended river-shaped television that depicts a flowing milk source. Walking down the corridor, you can reach the world's first industrial 5D cinema, which audiovisually presents Yili Group's brand development in a cute, diverse, story-based, and youthful way. Later on, you will enter China's first immersive smart flagship store. It not only showcases products from Yili's five major business units but also a variety of Yili cultural and creative products, expressing Yili's pursuit of quality and a better life.

### Global Liquid Milk Intelligent Production Base

Used and occupied by companies such as Yili, AMBPOMIAL, and Satine, the Global Liquid Milk Intelligent Production Base is a sparkling milk galaxy with brand aggregation, which helped the aforementioned brands create more than 20 billion yuan. A tour bus will help you get to the world's largest standalone liquid milk base, which covers more than 950 acres (that's 89 FIFA Men's World Cup stadiums) and 12 standalone buildings.
Tourists coming to the Base will pass a room that showers them with wind that will effectively remove dust, hair, and dander particles adhering to their body and work clothing, ensuring a clean and sterile entry into the milk production workshop. Then, they will just HAVE to watch through glass windows showing sights of liquid milk production processes including separation, homogenization, membrane filtration, and ultra-high-temperature pasteurization, each of which plays a crucial role in quality of liquid milk.