Food, clothing and shelter for the people of Ulaanbaatar
Ulaanbaatar is built on hilly ground between mountains. The buildings on the main streets of Ulan Bator have a very strong Russian flavor and are very elegant, usually 3-5 stories, with the tallest building in the city being only a dozen stories. The city center has a very grand grand square, and the commercial district has a shopping mall identical to the Wangfujing Department Store in Beijing, even the stone used for the staircase handrails is the same, and it is said to use the same drawings. In contrast, the buildings of the 1970s and 1980s resemble the five- and six-story buildings built in China at the same time; the buildings of earlier eras, though dated, are well thought out; and there are a large number of low-rise houses built on slopes, with a number of Mongolian yurts sandwiched between them. Slightly out of the city, a large piece of mountain pasture came, grass is not high, livestock free to chew ---- Mongolia's pastoralism is basically in a natural grazing state. On weekends, there are often city people driving out to play in the scenic grasslands. Compared to the capital's population of 880,000 (1/3 of the country's population), Ulaanbaatar's automobile is still quite a lot, and all the cars on the street are foreign cars, with the most used Korean cars. Mongolia basically has no manufacturing industry of its own, the three pillars of the economy are mining, agriculture and livestock, and retail trade. Due to its small population, Mongolia is relatively rich in natural resources per capita. The houses here use a lot of wood, and trees are cut down freely; although it rains little, the cities do not lack water, and the water of several rivers is plentiful and clear. There are no restrictions on the land Mongolian people can use to build houses, except in the city center, and it is easy to get permission from the government. Ulaanbaatar is a capital city at a high latitude and altitude, and deep inland, so winters are long. Its summers, however, are cool and charming, with long days and skies still light after 9pm. Ulaanbaatar shopping malls close early and department stores close at 8pm. People in Ulaanbaatar live a slower, more laid-back lifestyle, and there are more than 3,000 bars, cafes, and other places of relaxation in the city. It is difficult to draw conclusions about the standard of living of Mongolians. The average monthly salary of a Mongolian civil servant is about 80 US dollars, and a cab driver can earn 150 US dollars a month, but people seem to be living better in reality than this figure reflects. Mongolians themselves believe that they are living much better now than in previous years. Cell phones are fairly common in Ulaanbaatar and are one-way pay; however, the internet is still in its infancy and access is not easy. Mongolia's urban population is well educated, with many people who have traveled abroad and are generally well informed. In the herding area, we visited a herder's family, in addition to the old couple, there are four daughters, two of them abroad, the yurt wall is full of photos taken by the daughters around the world. The old man proudly said that even the most remote herders know what is happening in the world. Ulaanbaatar people's living habits are greatly influenced by Russia, the food structure, although still Mongolian national, but tableware and eating style are Western. 3 days, we did not encounter beggars in Ulaanbaatar, but the tourist spots selling small goods children are many, some pestering and chasing after the guests to ask for purchase. The media landscape in Mongolia has changed a lot in recent years, but the "big brother" is still the national television, which has one channel and more than 400 staff. Ulaanbaatar also has several new private TV stations, all of which have only a few dozen or a hundred people, which is equivalent to only one program team of the big TV station. However, there are dozens of TV channels available to the citizens of Ulaanbaatar, and most of them are foreign. There are quite a variety of newspapers in Ulaanbaatar, but the daily with the largest circulation sells just over 10,000 copies. Mongolia has basically produced no decent movies or TV shows in recent years, and almost all movies and TV shows are imported, with China's "Huanzhu Gege" becoming a household name. China's "Huanzhu Gege" is a household name. Several of the country's biggest stars are singers, and there are no major movie stars. Since Mongolia's ability to produce its own cultural products is limited, Mongolians are actually enriching their cultural life through external resources. This is the case in many small populated countries in the world and people do not feel lonely. Last year, Mongolia produced 1.1 billion dollars of GDP, while trade with China amounted to 440 million dollars, which is twice as much as trade between Mongolia and Russia. China is Mongolia's top trading partner and largest investor. About 200,000 foreigners entered Mongolia in the whole of last year, with Chinese accounting for 60,000 to 70,000 of them. The number of Mongolian outbound travelers to China is also the highest, reaching more than 410,000 last year. In addition to traveling and doing business in China, more than 30,000 of them go to Hohhot in Inner Mongolia for medical treatment every year.---- Some hospitals in Inner Mongolia have contracts with the Mongolian side to offer discounts to these patients. Many others use Beijing as a transit point to travel to the United States, Southeast Asia, Australia and other parts of the world. Like the port of Tianjin has become the most important outlet for Mongolian goods to the sea, Beijing has become the first stopover for more and more Mongolians traveling abroad. The road transportation between China and Mongolia is not yet developed enough. At present, there is only a railroad connection between China and Mongolia, but no road transportation. The China-Mongolia Railway runs through Mongolia, and it is the main channel for trade between China and Mongolia. The road from Ulaanbaatar to Zamyn-Uud on the Sino-Mongolian border is under construction, a ****700 kilometers, 500 kilometers of which have been repaired so far. This road will also be the main highway connecting China and Russia. There are 11 border crossings between China and Mongolia, but currently only the Erlianhot ---- Zamyn Uud crossing is open all year round. There are no highways in the whole of Mongolia, and the best roads we saw were one lane up and down, and poorly maintained with many potholes. Mongolians joke that these roads are highways because their drivers don't slow down at all when driving on such roads. Mongolia Welcomes Chinese Tourists With Mongolia becoming a destination country for China, will a large number of Chinese tourists visit Mongolia? Mongolia is very hopeful that things will go this way, but there are still a lot of problems from the current point of view. First of all, Mongolia's tourism facilities are insufficient. There are only 4 four-star hotels (equivalent to China's three-star) in Ulaanbaatar according to Mongolia's standards, and all the tourist beds in the city add up to only 5,600. There are about 140 tourist spots around Ulaanbaatar, but the model is relatively single, basically some yurts built up on the grassland. According to officials from the Mongolian Tourism Authority, Western tourists come to Mongolia because they yearn for this pristine natural landscape and are interested in the real nomadic life. They tend to be adventurous and are not afraid of suffering on their journey. For example, there are almost no roads in the westernmost mountainous region of Mongolia, which is opposite to the famous scenic spot of Kanas Lake in Xinjiang, China, but last year about 3,000 western tourists climbed mountains, skied on steep slopes without cable cars (there are no cable cars in the whole territory of Mongolia), and slept in tents there. The Mongolian tourism official admits that Europeans are more adventurous, while Asian tourists prefer comfort. Therefore, Mongolia is actively developing its tourism infrastructure and welcoming businessmen from all over the world to invest in the country. The second problem is that prices in Mongolia are more expensive than in China. Although Chinese travelers accept the higher costs of traveling to Western countries, they tend to think of Mongolia as a cheaper country. Mongolian hotels are more expensive than Chinese hotels of the same standard, with a four-star hotel costing about 70 dollars a day. There is also a two-tier pricing system for tourist tickets and airfare, with high fees for foreigners. Tourism officials say that a tourist staying in Mongolia for one day will spend about 800 RMB (we think it may be higher), plus more than 3,000 RMB for a round-trip air ticket and more than 200 RMB for a visa. If you join a 6-day tour to Mongolia, it will cost at least 7,000 to 8,000 RMB per person. This price is obviously too high for Chinese people. But Mongolia's determination to attract Chinese tourists is unwavering, and senior officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Tourism Board have repeatedly expressed this to us. Tourism is identified as the new biggest draw for Mongolia's economy. Above all, the mysterious Mongolia is attracting Chinese people. It is a purely natural country, where the air and rivers are transparent, where you can smell the fresh scent of the grassland as soon as you leave the airport, and where you can see the sky full of stars in the city at night. There are Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, ancient palaces with Chinese architecture, and Chinese plaques that read "Wanshou Wujian" and "Lixian Huoqi". There are also 30 million head of horses, cows, sheep and camels, and a beautiful prairie that seems to go on forever.