Welcome to Mongolia, my 136th Visit and 131st Run UN Country out of a total of 193. As usual, after the last lot of photos below is a brief summary of the country of Mongolia and ten interesting facts that set this country apart.
I was so looking forward to Mongolia that I woke 30min before my alarm. By 8am I was cruising the 29km towards Beijing International Airport and just as well because I got there by 9am for 130CNY (28AUD) instead of double that if I had left 30min later !!! Beijing International (PEK) is huge. It was the busiest airport in the world at one stage. Check-in is anytime you want – no such thing as it opening up 2 or 3hrs before the flight. No wonder this country will crap on the rest of the world in everything that it does. No debates. It just gets things done. I spent the 4hrs before my flight completing my China post. My Air China B737 MAX8 flight departed on time and featured Beef noodles and white wine !!! Not a bad farewell gift from China and a nice welcome for Mongolia. The other major feature of this 2hr flight was the yellow-brown Gobi Desert beneath me. It dominated most of the flight and it was hard to believe that I would be traversing its surface just days from now…
Landed on time at 3pm local time and my trusted driver, Tom, was there to greet me – Golfin sign in hand !!! The airport is located 49km from the city and cuts across gentle rolling hills with splashes of green and dotted with colourful cottages much like Iceland or parts of Norway. Tom informed me that the Emperor and Empress of Japan had landed just before me and were visiting Mongolia to attend the famous annual Naadam Festival which I will later. Thanks to road blocks to accommodate the Imperial Couple, it took a meg 3hrs to drive the 49km to the hotel. Lucky for me I had my laptop in the cabin and was able to complete and send my last China post. The traffic in Ulaanbaatar is horrendous since the city was designed for 200,000 people and now half the country lives (1.6 million) people live there, most with cars. The city centre was quite modern and there are many older buildings influenced by the old USSR that are being replaced. My hotel was an older soviet building with huge rooms and daggy carpet. I was lucky to be upgraded to a room with lounge since my original room had a faulty toilet. It was big enough to set up my wet tent and dry it out !!! It was 630pm when I arrived so I dumped everything and visited a nearby supermarket where I recreated my kitchen. The supermarket was great – no hot food but I found 3L cast white wine from Spain !!! Terrific find since it will make it easy stocking up for my 10-day journey into the Gobi Desert where there is unlikely to be any wine. I also bought my first Mongolian food which is almost entirely centred on meat and potatoes. The only veggies are cabbage. This is because Mongolians are descended from nomads who had no time to grow anything so based their diet on the animals they kept. Beef and mutton dominate but they also eat horse. It was 9pm by the time I ate so I kept it short and slept early to be ready for my first run the next day…
At 1,350m with cloud, my first run in Mongolia was in very cool and comfortable conditions at 22C. I ran at 830am given this and that my solo walk of the city was smaller than usual. Some observations from my run: 1) Cars drive on the right but approx half are right-hand drive, 2) There heaps of Korean restaurants everywhere – will explain later, 3) Tall apartment buildings limited to the inner city with mainly little houses in the suburbs with colourful pitched iron roofs and fibro or rendered brick walls. It started to sprinkle just as I arrived back so lucky for me I completed my 131st UN Country run in dry conditions and at a record pace for this whole trip.
I headed into the city at 11am under very light rain filming from under my portable orange umbrella. When I reached the central square I realised my good fortune. Thousands of local people of all ages dressed up in national costume marching to traditional music – this was the Opening Ceremony of the Annual Naadam Festival !!! And I filmed it !!! How on earth did I time this so well. Very happy. Lots of children, older folk and even military personal, all dressed up and marching with holding banners of the organisations they represented. There were even wrestlers in the parade. I shall explain the significance of The Naadam Festival at the end of the next post.
The other attractions I visited in the capital were: National University of Mongolia, Humanities University, Parliament Park, Genghis Khan Museum, National Museum & Political Prisoners Monument, Government Palace (Parliament), Ulaanbaatar Central Square (Naadam Festival Opening Ceremony), World Peace Bell, Central Square Fountain, Art Gallery, National Library, Shangri-La Shopping Mall, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Marco Polo Statue, Central Tower Shopping Mall, National Academy of Opera, Mongolian Theatre Museum. The opening ceremony easily topped the lot.
Ulaanbaatar (Pop 1,699,000. Elev 1,350m) is the capital and most populous city of Mongolia which now contains half the population of the entire country. It is the coldest capital city in the world by average yearly temperature. The city was founded in 1639 as a nomadic Buddhist monastic centre, changing location 29 times, and was permanently settled at its modern location in 1778. During its early years it became Mongolia's preeminent religious centre and head of Tibetan Buddhism in Mongolia. In 1727, a caravan route between Beijing and Kyakhta opened up, along which the city was eventually settled. With the collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1911, the city was a focal point for independence efforts, leading to the proclamation of the Mongolian People's Republic in 1924, when the city was officially renamed Ulaanbaatar and declared the country's capital. In 1990, Ulaanbaatar was the site of large demonstrations that led to Mongolia's transition to democracy and a market economy.
I returned to the hotel around 2pm, wet but satisfied !!! Spent the rest of the arvo planning my next Caribbean adventure. Another trip to the supermarket to keep building supplies for my 10-day trip and pickup hot food for tonight. Last night beef and tonight mutton. The meat is actually quite tender and tasty. Tom told me this is because nomadic animals are constantly on the move and free to eat anything making them very happy and so “happy animals” means “happy meat” !!! I hope my images of Ulaanbaatar make you happy too…
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It was good to see Tom again for today’s day trip to attractions outside Ulaanbaatar. We picked up Henry, who organised today’s day trip and tomorrow’s 10-day trip and talked tours over a great flat white coffee. Then it was time to head toward a famous monolith shaped like a Turtle called, you guessed it, “Turtle Rock”. It was 56km out of the city at an elevation of 1,505m and simple to photograph. From here it was a short 3km drive to the Aryapala Tibetan Buddhist Temple which was built in 1810. It is a simple 1km hike from the car park up to an elevation of 1,686m. The views of the Gorkhi-Terelj National Park are exceptional from this temple. There are literally hundreds of Yurts and even hotels that locals flock to during summer. We drove half the length of the National Park and then headed towards the famous Genghis Khan Complex some 40km away. This is an impressive site. A huge 44m high statue of Genghis Khan on his horse made entirely of stainless-steel plates on a concrete frame. It was completed in 2008 and is officially the world’s largest “equestrian statue”. You can climb to the top of his horse head and look back at that imposing Genghis frown !!! I was up there by myself, a miracle according to Tom given that it is high season for tourism now. I shall explain the life and significance of Genghis Khan in a nutshell in the next post. We left Genghis at 145pm and travelled the 55km back to the city. We stopped along the way for roadside BBQ beef skewers. The traffic into the city was as bad as ever and I arrived at 430pm – only 3hrs to drive 55km !!! Ridiculous if you consider that this is the 4th least dense country in the world !!! Not in the capital it isn’t !!! I relaxed to lovely skewers, white wine and a movie before a very early rise tomorrow to see the inner Mongolia !!!
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MONGOLIA IN A NUTSHELL
Mongolia is the world's largest landlocked country that does not border a closed sea and much of its area is covered by grassy steppe with mountains to the north and west and the Gobi Desert to the south. The territory of modern-day Mongolia has been ruled by various nomadic empires, including the Xiongnu, the Xianbei, the Rouran, the First Turkic Khaganate, the Second Turkic Khaganate, the Uyghur Khaganate and others. In 1206, Genghis Khan founded the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous land empire in history. His grandson Kublai Khan conquered China proper and established the Yuan dynasty. After the collapse of the Yuan, the Mongols retreated to Mongolia and resumed their earlier pattern of factional conflict, except during the era of Dayan Khan and Tumen Zasagt Khan. In the 16th century, Tibetan Buddhism spread to Mongolia, being further led by the Manchu-founded Qing dynasty, which absorbed the country in the 17th century. By the early 20th century, almost one-third of the adult male population were Buddhist monks. After the collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1911, Mongolia declared independence, and achieved actual independence from the Republic of China in 1921. Shortly thereafter, the country became a satellite state of the Soviet Union. In 1924, the Mongolian People's Republic was founded as a socialist state. After the anti-communist revolutions of 1989, Mongolia conducted its own peaceful democratic revolution in early 1990. This led to a multi-party system, a new constitution of 1992, and transition to a market economy. Mongolia has the 4th lowest population density in the world after Greenland, Falkland Islands and Pitcairn Islands with Australia sitting at No 6.
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT MONGOLIA:
1. 19th largest country in the world.
2. Almost as many people as horses. The statue of Genghis Khan on a horse in the Capital is the largest equestrian statue globally at 40m (130ft) high. The Mongol Derby is the longest horse race globally at 1,000km.
3. Sun shines average 250 days/year but does not warm you much given higher average altitude.
4. Ulaanbaatar is officially the coldest Capital City in the world with average winter temps of -25C & record of -63C.
5. Monguls invented ice cream and eat it only in winter, not summer.
6. 27% of the population are nomads & live in tents called YURTS which you can enter at any time & expect hospitality (food & fermented horse milk).
7. The Mongol Empire founded in 1206 by Genghis Khan was the 2ndlargest globally after British & no one knows where he is buried.
8. Few places on Earth with Snow Leopards & two-humped Bactrian Camels.
9. Famous for the annual Naadam Festival: a sporting event often called “The Mongolian Olympics”.
10. Famous for the GOBI DESERT: 2nd largest in Asia, 6th largest globally covering 30% of Mongolia & is the largest site of dinosaur fossils globally. Mongolia also has the world’s oldest National Park (Bogd Khan Uul) established 1778.
MONGOLIA SUMMARY
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