About Mongolia : general information.
Mongolia is a vast country, three time bigger than France. Mongolia is a landlocked country and the influence of its two powerful neighbours (Russia and China) is both politic and economic.
Located in the heart of the country, Ulaanbaatar (the capital city) is playing an central part :
First of all the city accounts for an half of total inhabitants (2.8 million in Mongolia, 1.1 million in UB). The city is organised as follows:
- City centre, ger districts in the North and East suburbs (60% of UB citizens lives in those disctricts)
- Residential districts located down South the railway road that crosses the city from East to West.
UB city centre is quite developed and modern. Here are located shops, among them the “State Department Store”, well-stocked, offices of international and national companies, banks and residential buildings from the soviet period. Embassies and ministries, official buildings (the Mongolian Parliament) and universities are also located in the city centre.
The city is the core of the national and international transport network. UB counts with an train station (where departures and arrival of both local and international trains take place) and an international airport. Local and international flights are performed toward Asia, Europe and the US. Direct flights are available to Beijing, Seoul, Moscow, Tokyo and Berlin.
Buses link up the main cities to UB.
UB remains an exception in the country. Cattle is far much more spread than inhabitants. Mongolia is the kingdom of steppe landscape and nomads, living as circumstances dictate, where the cattle is taking them. They live under the ger, as their parents and grand parents did before them. But due to climate changes (among other) they are less and less of them living in the countryside. A great number of them are leaving the steppe to come to cities.
