1. The country with the longest border with China. When it comes to the border with China, we would like to think that the country with the longest border with China is Russia. In fact, the longest border with China is Mongolia. Russia's border with China is divided into eastern and western sections across Mongolia. The total length is 3,645 kilometers. And the Chinese-Mongolian border is 4,710 kilometers. The China-Mongolia border is more than 1,000 kilometers longer than the China-Russia border.
2. The second largest landlocked country in the world. Mongolia covers an area of 1.56 million square kilometers. China and Russia are like two arms embracing Outer Mongolia, or like two huge pincers clamping Outer Mongolia from north to south. Looking at the map, I feel bored, so far from the sea, and can not get out. In fact, there is no need to be so anxious, there are more than 40 landlocked countries in the world. By the way, the world's largest landlocked country is Kazakhstan, an area of more than 3 million square kilometers.
3. Is there only one city in all of Outer Mongolia? Our friends from Outer Mongolia told us that there is only one city in Mongolia and that is Ulaanbaatar, the capital city. We felt a bit strange to hear that. There is a city called Zamyn-Uud in Mongolia, which is next to the border of Erlianhot, where you enter Mongolia from Erlianhot. How do you say there is no city? Mongolian friends said that those cities are so small that they can be called towns or ignored. There is only one city called Ulaanbaatar. With Mongolia's population approaching 3 million and the percentage of people living in Ulaanbaatar approaching 40 percent, it's no wonder there are so few people elsewhere.
The administrative organization of Outer Mongolia looks like this: the country has 21 unions, the equivalent of provinces in China, followed by soums, the equivalent of counties, and then bhagans, the equivalent of villages in China. Think about it, 3 million people, Ulaanbaatar lives more than 1 million, the other 21 provinces more than 1 million, a province less than 100,000 people is not supposed to have a city.
4. The most sparsely populated country in the world. Mongolia covers an area of 1.56 million square kilometers and has a population of 2.95 million, which is close to 1.9 people per square kilometer. This ratio is lower than that of China's most sparsely populated region, Tibet, and the world's two most populous countries, Australia and Canada. And at the turn of the century, their populations were even smaller. And with a population of less than 800,000 at the time of independence, let's look at the exact numbers, we know that Tibet is the least populated provincial unit in China. It's so mountainous that you don't see many people when you're traveling by car. However, Tibet's area of 1.22 million square kilometers is smaller than Mongolia's. In 2013, the census counted 3.1 million people, which is slightly more than Mongolia's population. Australia and Canada, on the other hand, both have populations about 10 times that of Outer Mongolia, but are not 10 times larger than Mongolia. When I was in Australia, I thought that the population of such a big country is not as big as a Chongqing city in China, so I couldn't even keep an eye on it. And when I went to Outer Mongolia and sat on the ground in Outer Mongolia, I thought about how their population to land area ratio is less than Australia.
5. How many Mongolians are there in the world? There are about 10 million Mongolians. The distribution is roughly like this: 3 million in Outer Mongolia, 6 million in China, and 1 million in Russia. The Mongols in China are the sixth most numerous of China's ethnic minorities. (Regarding the reference to ethnic minorities, I remember that only China has them. Taiwan is called aborigines, other countries don't seem to have the concept of ethnic minorities, like Scotland, which just held a referendum, only has the concept of different ethnic groups, not ethnic minorities. (Taiwan was originally called an ethnic minority, but later changed to aborigines to avoid sensitive words.) In China, the largest area inhabited by Mongolians is called Inner Mongolia. In Inner Mongolia, the population is more than 25 million, of which more than 20 million are Han Chinese and more than 4 million are Mongolians. In Erlianhot, I chatted with a Mongolian guy who said that some of the companies with a Mongolian brand name don't actually have Mongolians, and even some of them are lucky to have one. There are even fewer nomadic Mongolians, and most Mongolians are sedentary. It's hard to find a Mongolian who migrates from grass to grass. The same goes for Outer Mongolia. In the city of Ulaanbaatar, the Outer Mongolian population makes up 40% of the total population. If you want to find a real nomad, you have to go deep, deep into the steppe.
Besides the 10 million "authentic" Mongols mentioned above, there are also some descendants of Mongols and other Central Asian peoples in Iran, Afghanistan and parts of Central Asia. For example, there are 4 million Hazaras, who are considered to be Mongoloid descendants. According to a British research institute, there are more than 16 million people in the world who are descendants of people with the genes of Genghis Khan, some of whom are blonde.
6. Are Mongolians tough? It is often talked about in the media that Outer Mongolians are drunk, aggressive and feisty. It is hard to feel these when you are in Outer Mongolia for a few days and do not have deep contact with Outer Mongolians. Whether in Ulaanbaatar, Zamyn-Uud or nearby resorts, the first impression is that there are fewer people, and because there are fewer people, the chance of conflict is much lower. On the contrary, in China, the city business district is crowded with people everywhere, rubbing shoulders, the chance of stepping on Xie collision is much higher than the ground, and verbal disputes often happen. However, there are a few things that happened in Mongolia in the past few days. Firstly, when our tour group just arrived in Ulaanbaatar, one of the tour members lost 4 cards, 3 bank cards and one ID card. One of the bank cards was stolen right then and there. The next day, still at the train station, back in the waiting room waiting for the train, a drunken middle-aged man surrounded us and kept observing us. Then simply came over and pulled me, which I refused. Didn't know what he was talking about because I couldn't understand what he was saying. Thirdly, some time ago, there was a self-driving tour group to Outer Mongolia and the license plate was stolen, which was said to be an act against Chinese cars.
So what about the character of the Mongolian people as a whole? The Mongolian people are generally warm and spontaneous, and they like to wrestle, drink, and fight," he said. However, the Mongolian character varies from place to place. China's eastern region of Inner Mongolia near the Northeast, this part of the people are more affluent, is more flexible in the character of the Mongolians, both the side of Mongolia's warm hospitality also belongs to the Mongolian heart of the more will do business. Mongolians in the western part of Inner Mongolia, including Xinjiang and Qinghai, are more straightforward and simple. Mongolians in Outer Mongolia are more Russianized and westernized, and are independent and self-motivated. When Mongolians in Outer Mongolia go to a bar or have a meal, they do it on an AA basis, unlike the Chinese, who all fight to pay the bill. Look at the Mongolians who also follow the customs of the country.
7. The language is Mongolian. In order to facilitate communication and show friendship, in Mongolia, learned a few simple Mongolian. For example: Baji Si Tai, Zuyinbu, Sama you, that is: hello, thank you and so on. Mongolian belongs to the Altaic language family, and has no kinship with Chinese. Chinese is a Sino-Tibetan language. On the face of it, non-academic argument, their language is characterized by a toot sound. This is similar to Korean and Japanese. The minorities in the north of the country are basically of the Altaic language family, which is divided into the Mongolian and Tungusic language groups under the Altaic language family. When I was in Mongolia, there is a sculpture of a Mongolian linguist in Genghis Khan Square, who is said to have standardized the grammar of the Mongolian language, I can't remember the exact name. At the same time, he is also said to have played a very important role in standardizing the grammar of the Korean language. This tells us that Chinese and Japanese are more closely related to Mongolian than to Chinese. It is still internationally disputed whether Korean and Japanese also belong to the Altaic language family. In terms of the umbilical cord relationship of languages, our Chinese language is closer to Tibetan, Burmese, Yi, and Miao, which belong to the same Sino-Tibetan language family, and have a clear umbilical cord relationship.
8. What language is popular in Outer Mongolia now? The answer is English. We know that Russian was popular in Outer Mongolia. However, after the democratization of Outer Mongolia in '91, it gradually integrated into the world by getting rid of the influence of the former Soviet Union, so now the most popular language is English. Korean and Chinese are also gaining popularity due to business relations, and people born in the 1950s and before are usually fluent in Russian, but in general, Russian is fading away from the daily life of Mongolians.
9. Are there only three great men in Mongolian history? There are 3 huge statues in front of the Parliament building in Genghis Khan Square, which are Genghis Khan, Vogtai and Kublai. The statues of these three men are often seen in Mongolia for several days and in other places such as: museums, art galleries, and city streets. It is strange how Mongolia singles out these three men. We are familiar with the history, even during the time of Genghis Khan there were more than these 3 men. For example, there were also Torre, Guiyu, Xu Liwu, Yuan Chengzong and so on. Imagine what we could think if all the important symbols in China had pictures of Tang and Song ancestors hanging on them. There would be a lot of controversy. There are a lot of famous people in Chinese history, and not just two or three.
10. Mongolians don't know about Ovoo. Recently there are many new Mongolian songs that have become popular, like Tengger's, but the oldest and most well-known Mongolian song in China is Ao Ou Xiang Hui. We also watched a Mongolian song and dance show at the Mongolian Theater and strangely enough, none of the songs and tunes were familiar. When we came down, we asked them why they didn't meet up with the most familiar Ovoo. It was surprising that many of them didn't know the song. After chatting with the guide from Inner Mongolia, I learned that Ovoo Meeting is not considered an authentic Mongolian song in Outer Mongolia, but a "Sinicized" Mongolian song. The famous songs of Mongolian history may be something else, at least I am not familiar with them. So, are there any so-called sinicized Mongolian songs that are popular in Outer Mongolia? They told me about the song "Auspicious Three Treasures", which has been popular in Outer Mongolia for one or two years.
11. Mongolian income. The average monthly income in Mongolia is about 2,000 RMB, which is slightly lower than Inner Mongolia. In other words, people in Inner Mongolia are slightly richer than people in Outer Mongolia. The gap between the rich and the poor in Outer Mongolia is wider. Rich people can own a lot of cows and sheep. And some poor ones who like to drink are penniless. In Mongolian supermarkets, there are many international goods and they are very cheap. There are slightly more Korean, Russian and Chinese goods, and there are also European and American goods. This is different from us. It looks like the Chinese customs put the customs in place.
12. The most characteristic Mongolian food - stone barbecue. Traveling a few days, we ate an authentic Mongolian meal - stone barbecue. The practice is: large pieces of lamb in a metal bucket, a layer of lamb, a layer of hot pebbles, supplemented with onions, carrots, potatoes and so on. Drizzle with condiments and simmer the water for half an hour. Outer Mongolia lamb 25 dollars a kilogram, the guide said that prices have risen in the past few years, before only a few dollars a kilogram. Eat when really surprised, block is too big, I ate 2 pieces have been very supportive, usually shabu-shabu mutton I can eat more than a catty. Unfortunately, I didn't get to eat the authentic Mongolian hot pot, which is now called copper hot pot, and is said to have been invented by the Mongols. The Mongolian army invented the copper hotpot, or shabu-shabu, to eat hot food when they were marching to war.
13. The same Mongolian language is written differently in Inner and Outer Mongolia. In Outer Mongolia, when you see a lot of written signs, you wonder how they look like Russian. Even if you don't know Mongolian, you can see that it is not the same as the Mongolian writing in China. In fact, they are not Russian, they are Mongolian, only the writing is different in Inner and Outer Mongolia. The Mongolian script used by the Mongols in China was created in the 13th century. After Genghis Khan conquered the Naiwan tribe, the local people created and spelled out the Mongolian script by using the dreaded Woodruffian alphabet. This script was also used in Mongolia, but later, during the period of Soviet control, influenced by the spelling of the Russian alphabet, the Cyrillic alphabet was used to spell Mongolian, the so-called Cyrillic alphabet, which is derived from the Graeco-Roman letters of the Greek alphabet, and was widely adopted by the Slavic peoples. So now the Mongolian script looks superficially the same as the Russian language, instead of being arranged in circles up and down, as it is in our country.