page_title: Baotou
section_title: Prominent locations
hierarchical_section_title: Baotou / Prominent locations
caption_attribution_description: English: Saihantalah Grasslands Park, central Baotou. Reputedly one of the largest urban parks in China and home to 30 bird and animal species.
context_page_description: Baotou is the largest city by urban population in Inner Mongolia, China. Governed as a prefecture-level city, its built-up area made up of 5 urban districts is home to 2,070,801 people with a total population of over 2.65 million accounting for counties under its jurisdiction. The city's namesake, literally translated to "place with deer", is of Mongolic origin or "Lucheng", meaning "City of Deer". Alternatively Baotou is known as the "City of Steel in Gobi".
context_section_description: The 39,000 capacity Baotou Olympic Sports Centre Stadium(包头奥林匹克体育中心) is the main sports venue in the city and is used mostly for football matches.
  Saihantalah Grasslands Park (赛汗塔拉城中草原) or Ecological Reserve is a large urban park in central Baotou, in the Qingshan district. The 5.5 km square park is home to thirty wild animals and birds species and is reputedly one of the largest urban parks in China. It is a popular recreational location and attracts 2 million visitors a year.
  The largest Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Inner Mongolia, Badekar Monastery is located in Shiguai District.
  The Baotou Tailings Dam or Weikuang Dam is a tailings dam about 20 kilometres outside the main city of Baotou. It is owned by Baotou Steel and contains the waste from rare earth mineral refineries. In 2015, BBC journalist Tim Maughan wrote that the dam was a "toxic lake" and the area like "hell on earth." He said he was unable to tell where the refineries ended and the city began. He compared the city to images in the movie Tron, where "the side streets are filled with drunk, vomiting refinery workers that spill from bars and barbecue joints." In 2016, serious contamination of farming land in the dam's immediate vicinity was formally identified by Chinese researchers. The rare earth minerals are mined in Bayan Obo Mining District, about 120 kilometres from Baotou and are used in the manufacture of smartphones, TVs and wind turbines.
caption: Saihantalah Grasslands Park, central Baotou
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