Pinyin  Erenhot,  city, Inner Mongolia autonomous ch'ü (region), China, in the Gobi (desert) near the border with Mongolia. Erh-lien-hao-t'e is located on the Trans-Mongolian railway. 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 Chi-ning on the Peking–Pao-t'ou railway line to the south. The city is a frontier settlement and a transshipment centre about 400 miles (640 km) southeast of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Pop. (mid-1980s est.) 50,000–100,000.