Agten Aile Folk Custom Camp is one of the largest herdsman-homestays in Xilinguole.

Meng Ke is a millionaire but despite his wealth and high status, still insists on wearing his traditional Mongolian outfit and boots to see off a group of tourists in the 35-degree heat.

He runs one of more than 140 herdsman-homestays in Xilinguole in northern Inner Mongolia autonomous region - and his is one of the biggest.

His Agten Aile Folk Custom Camp (AAFCC) only opened a year ago but already has 46 Mongolian yurts (tents), of which the largest can hold 260 people to dine together.

Meng, 46, jokes that his lifestyle is like that of a migratory bird: In winter, he takes care of his four restaurants in Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia, while in summer, he returns to the countryside to manage his tourism business.

"The link to your hometown is much stronger than people realize," Mend says in his broken Mandarin.

"When I was tied to my hometown in the past, I wanted to be out. Now life has changed so much that, finding myself being away from the grasslands, I wanted to go back again."

Meng grew up in a poor family. He was forced to leave middle school to lighten the family load and started grazing cattle at the age of 14.

"All my childhood memories are about starvation. I was so hungry and had no idea what to do, except to cry," he recalls bitterly.

Life got no better after he got married. In the early 1990s, his wife had a terrible stomach ache and the poor herdsman had to borrow money to send her to a city hospital.