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1997

Route in China (MONGOLIA)

Bec
2004-09-19 16:48:01

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and reforms to move towards a market economy. The mongol spirit had not been broken and private enterprises sprouted everywhere like mushrooms after rain.

The physical face of Ulaan Baatar has been deeply marked by 65 years of soviet occupation. It has the same huge central square, the same city wide central heating system, the same soviet style apartment blocks with their welded steel plumbing, and the same trams and busses found in all other soviet cities. The countryside has however retained its mongolian identity untainted. Perhaps that is why all the mongolians I have met were so attached to their bare hills and thin pastures. Their cultural roots lie in nomad camps like this one in the Terelj valley.

As soon as conditions allowed, Gurdorz and his seven brothers lost no time to set up the Sant Khaan Company which started small with import-export and grew into the important multi-division corporation it has become today.

There was only a narrow dirt track going up the valley. People get around these broad pastures by horse or by four wheel drive vehicles like we did. We asked these people if they knew where Bat's aunt Chimed was camped.

It took us a while to find her ger tucked away by a clump of trees near a clear mountain stream. Chimed had two of her grand children with her but she was happy to see her nephew and greeted us warmly. Inside the ger, I was given the place of honor facing the door. Chimed prepared a fresh batch of flour thickened milk tea which she served us in the traditional manner with home made biscuits, fresh cream and tasty kefir.

After that, we shared vodka and bread that Bat had brought. I learned how to flick a drop of vodka to the left and to the right as a ritual offering to mother earth. It was a beautiful experience, with few words for lack of a common language but with strong vibrations of hospitality and friendship which flood back into my heart when I look at this picture of Bat and his daughters with Chimed and her grand children.

Mongolia has much to offer to those who like to get off the beaten path. Several private tourist agencies have sprouted to compete with the official (and expensive), Juulchin agency who operates this camp of gers for tourists further up the valley.

Nearby Turtle Rock, a renowned tourist attraction with two mongolian kids who rushed in to offer a ride on their ponies.

Mongolia
I think that the visible traces of the soviet occupation will not last very long for russian ways are quite foreign to the mongol culture which is closer to the Chinese as you can see from these singers in Nairamdal Park's folklore center.

I found the situation in Mongolia to be somewhere in between what I observed in its two giant neighbours. The people seem to be happier and more optimistic than in Russia but not as much as in China. There is more crime and corruption than in China but not as much as in the ex soviet countries. And so on in many ways...

Mongolia, with a minuscule population of only 2.5 million for an area three times that of France, will have to chart its course carefully between these two giants.

Finally the time came to leave the homeland of Genghis Khaan, the greatest conqueror of all time, and I boarded the train back to China here at the Ulaan Baatar station.

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