Ulaan Baatar

Ulaan Baatar is pretty small for a capital city. Its population is between 1-1.5 million people. There are many apartment buildings and also many ger camps. People come into the city looking for work, but find none. . Apparently the city sewers at one time housed about 6,000 people, mostly children. I was also scared walking by the open man holes-none of the manholes have covers. I hate the idea of people living down there.
The influx of people is hurting the city. Hillsides are being covered with yurts and trees are disappearing. Of all the internal migrants to UB in 2006, only 2.5% found steady employment. Air pollution is also very bad. There is a lot of traffic, and most of the vehicles puff out black smoke. In the winter everyone burns coal. The city is in a valley, so the smoke just sits there.

I was surprised by the number of expats, from every country, in Ulaan Baatar. There were many Americans, French, Dutch, Koreans, and Cubans. It was great because there were lots of nice foreign food restaurants for cheap. There were also plenty of nice coffee shops.




I liked how the logo for Mongolian Air had a horse. There are 11 horse to each person in Mongolia.


There were really heavy rains the week before we arrived. Many yurts were destroyed and many people died.


Our first view of the city.


Chinggis Khan Internatioal Airport. We made it!


My bed at the hostel. i liked the sheets for privacy. It felt like an old hospital.


This was our first meal. Mutton dumplings. At first I liked the food. Then after having mutton three times a day everyday, I was sick of it.


Mongolian soda.



This is the Parliment Building in Sukhbaatar Square. This is the place where in 1921, Damdin Sukhbaatar declared independence from China. The square is named in his honor. There is a statue of him with the inscription,"If we, the whole people, unite in our common effort and common will, there will be nothing in the world that we cannot achieve, that we will not have learnt or failed to do." On that note, the square is also where all of the anti-communist protests were held in 1990, leading to the fall of communism in Mongolia. There is a huge statue of Chinggis Khan at the enterance to the Parilment Building. Parliment also has an official yurt for meeting foriegn dignitaries.


A statue of Lenin and some Mongolian teenager who wanted to pose with me.


Some buildings in the city. Ellen and I enjoyed poking around the empty buildings. Not as scary as the empty tower blocks in Chicago...


We found a resturant and this is the yurt they cooked in.


yes, there were cows and horses in the middle of the city. None of the animals had fences, even in the country.


Street lights at Sukhbaatar Square.


Strange Huggies ad. I thought this was disturbing.



Mongolian advertisment.



On our last day we went to the Winter Palace of Bogd Khan. This is where Mongolias last king and eighth living buddha spent his winters. The Russians destoryed most things, including the summer palade, but this one survived. There were six Buddhist temples inside. There were also many gifts and political items. Mongolias declatation of independence from China is inside. These are the enterance gates. It cost $10 to take photos inside, so this is all I have. There was a yurt inside that was made of 150 leporad skins.


This is a photo of Bogd Khan, or Jebtzun Damba Hutagt VII, and his wife.