| Ulaanbaatar | ||
 | ||
Coat of arms and flag   | ||
| State | Mongolia | |
|---|---|---|
| Region | Center region | |
| Altitude | 1,350 m a.s.l. | |
| Surface | 4,704 km² | |
| Inhabitants | 1.444.669 (2018) | |
| Prefix tel | 976 11 | |
| POSTAL CODE | 210 xxx | |
| Time zone | UTC 8 | |
Position
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| Institutional website | ||
Ulan Bator (or Ulaanbaatar) is the capital of the Mongolia.
To know
The name of the city, attributed since 1924, means "Red Hero".
Geographical notes
Ulan Bator is located in a wide valley at an average altitude of 1,350 meters and crossed by the Tuul Gol River. To the south rises the Bogd Han uul, a mountain covered with woods that reaches an altitude of 2,250 m. The mountain is part of the Bogd Han National Park, one of the oldest in the world, being protected by laws enacted in the 18th century.
Ulan Bator is located in a transition zone from the forests of the north to the steppes of the south. The slopes of the surrounding mountains are covered with larch, birch and pine trees, while poplars, elms and willows predominate in the valley floors and along the banks of the rivers.
Ulan Bator is located at roughly the same latitude as Vienna is Seattle and at the same longitude as Hanoi is Jakarta.
When to go
The tourist season starts in early June and ends in late August. June promises clear skies and good availability of accommodation while the same cannot be said for the following two months as hotel accommodation is still limited.
July provides the opportunity to participate in the Naadam festival, the most renowned of the Mongolia.
Winter and spring are not suitable times. Ulan Bator is the coldest capital in the world with average minimum temperatures of -26 ° C, which of course can drop further. Moreover, in winter Ulan Bator presents an exceptional pollution due to the heating methods: about half of the inhabitants live in tents and cannot afford heat sources and conventional fuels, burn coal and everything that happens at hand, including plastic. It follows that the air is unbreathable due to the high concentrations of leachate.
The short spring is the time of the thaw which makes many excursions in the parks and reserves of the valley floors impossible but it is the best time to visit the Gobi desert.
Background
In 1639 the area where the capital of the Mongolia was known as Urga and was the seat of a traveling monastery made of tents (yurt or gher) established by Gegeen Zanabazar, a Tibetan monk and apostle of Buddhism in Mongolia. Zanabazar founded another seven goalags (monastic departments) in Urga and becoming the first Bodg Gegeen, the highest rank of the Mongolian lama.
Upon Zanabazar's death in 1723, Urga was the largest monastery in the Mongolia in terms of religious authority. A council of seven high-ranking lamas made most of the religious decisions of the city which had meanwhile become the main trading center of Outer Mongolia.
Being itinerant, the seat of the monastery changed often but with the development of the city of Urga the transfers became less frequent. Only during the wars of Zungaria at the end of the 17th century, the monastery moved to the Inner Mongolia.
In 1778 the monastery settled definitively in its present position, near the confluence of the Selbe and Tuul rivers and along the tea route crossed by a coming and going of caravans from Beijing in Kyakhta who transported tea, silk, cotton, tobacco and other goods to the Siberian cities, returning laden with furs.
One of the earliest Western mentions of Urga is the tale of the Scottish traveler John Bell in 1721:
- "What they call Urga is the court or place where the prince (Tusheet Khan) and the high priest (Bogd Jebtsundamba Khutugtu) reside, whose yurts are not far from each other. Around there are several thousand of them. tents belonging to dignitaries and artisans. Urga is very popular with traders from China and other places to Russia. "
At the end of the 19th century there was an entire district inhabited by Russians in Urga and later a Russian consulate was established. With the opening of Chinese ports, the tea route lost its importance.
On December 29, 1911, he was declared ruler of an independent Mongolia Bogd Khan who as a boy had been officially recognized as the new incarnation of Bogd Gegen.
In 1921 the city changed hands twice: first on February 4, when mixed Russian-Mongolian forces led by Roman von Ungern-Sternberg entered the city killing part of the Chinese garrison and freeing Bogd Khan who was again elevated to the Great Khan. of Mongolia. However, Soviet-backed Mongol-Communist forces defeated Ungern in June and took over the entire country.
During the socialist period most of the Buddhist temples and monasteries were destroyed by order of Čojbalsan, Stalin's friend who dominated Mongolia's political scene until his death in 1952. Gandan Monastery reopened in 1944 when US Vice President Henry Wallace asked to see a monastery during his visit to Mongolia.
After the Second World War, the large-scale construction of prefabricated Soviet-style condominiums began, which replaced the tents where most of the families lived.
The transmongolian railway that connects Ulan Bator with Moscow is Beijing, was completed in 1956.
Between 1989 and 1990, Ulan Bator was the site of demonstrations that led to the end of the socialist regime. On December 10, 1989, a small group of protesters gathered outside the Youth Culture Center to demand the full implementation of perestroika and glasnost. On January 14, 1990, the demonstrators, which had grown from two hundred to over a thousand, met at the Lenin Museum in Ulan Bator. A demonstration in Sükhbaatar Square followed on the following 21 January which resulted in the fulfillment of popular demands and the formation of the first opposition parties.
The transition to a market economy resulted in dramatic population growth unaccompanied by building works. The construction of popular condominiums practically ceased in 1990 causing social tensions for those forced to live in tents. Since 2010, the construction of new buildings by private entrepreneurs has gained new momentum but apartment prices have skyrocketed.
How to orient yourself
Ulaanbaatar: full screen map.The Avenue of Peace (Enkh Taivny Örgön Chölöö) is the main artery of Ulan Bator. It has an east-west trend and runs through the center, lined with hotels, shops and well-known clubs.
The street crosses the southern edge of Chinggis Square formerly known as Sükhbaatar Square.
The city center is enclosed within "Ikh Toiruu"(Great Ring Road)
Neighborhoods
In addition to the center, the districts crossed by the Tuul river and located south of the central station and Narni Zam street ("Street of the sun") should be mentioned. These neighborhoods make up the affluent area of Ulan Bator.
The district of Ger is instead located north of the center and extends for 7 km to the monastery of Dambadarjaalin. North of the monastery begins Zuslan, an area of woods and beautiful rural landscapes around the Selbe river valley, where many Ulan Bator residents have their second homes.
How to get
By plane
- 1 Ulan Bator-Genghis Khan Airport (IATA: ULN). As of 2020, the largest number of flights were held by the following airlines:
- Aeroflot operates a flight from Moscow-Sheremetyevo e Turkish Airlines a flight from Istanbul.
By car
Ulan Bator is connected to most of the main cities of Mongolia by roads, mostly unpaved (the asphalted sections are negligible, but increasing), the roads are often unmarked.
On the train
- 2 Ulan Bator station. Trains from Beijing for Ulan Bator they depart once a week on Wednesdays. Seats can be reserved at the Beijing International Hotel, a ten-minute walk from the main railway station. The journey takes approximately 30 hours. Trains to Ulan Bator are more frequent from the border cities of Erlian is Jining (3.4 per week) - Bringing a face mask might be a good idea as any sandstorms in the Gobi Desert can cause breathing difficulties.
- The cheapest option is to take a train from Zamyn Uud on the Mongolian side of the border China
- From Moscow trains to Ulaanbaatar leave on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. The journey on the express trains lasts 100 hours (just over 4 days). There is also a daily train to / from Irkutsk.
By bus
Once you enter Mongolia, it shouldn't be difficult to find a direct bus to Ulan Bator, at least in the larger cities. However, the intercity bus terminals are difficult to locate, as they do not have a dedicated station. Long-distance buses often park in the busiest areas of cities. They also accumulate a considerable delay, in some cases of a day or more. Buses from Russia usually stop at the Dragon Center, while those from China stop at Bayanzurkh, at the eastern end of the Avenue of Peace.
- 3 Dragon Center (драгон). The main station where buses from the Western Mongolia is northern, from the Gobi desert and the Russia.
- 4 Botanical Gardens (ботаник) (1 km east of the eastern ring road). The botanical gardens were completely destroyed and today serve as the eastern terminus for long-distance buses from Eastern Mongolia and from China.
How to get around
By public transport
National and municipal governments regulate a large system of private bus, micro-bus and taxi operators, but hitchhiking is very common.
By car
Car rental is not recommended, as petrol stations are rare or often short of petrol.
What see
- 1 Zaisan memorial monument (About 3½ km south of Chinggis square). Monument on the top of a hill in memory of the Soviet fallen in World War II.
Civil architectures
Religious architectures
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- 2 Choijin Monastery (One block east of the National Library), ☎ 976 11 32478, @[email protected].
8000 ₮. To take pictures you pay a separate price. Reduced for students and children. 
Summer opening hours: Mon-Sun 09: 00-19: 30. A much admired complex of five Buddhist temples dating from the 20th century. Choijin Lama Monastery was closed in 1938 and turned into a museum in 1941, soon after it was inscribed on the country's historical and cultural heritage list.
8000 ₮. To take pictures you pay a separate price. Reduced for students and children. 
Summer opening hours: Mon-Sun 09: 00-19: 30. A much admired complex of five Buddhist temples dating from the 20th century. Choijin Lama Monastery was closed in 1938 and turned into a museum in 1941, soon after it was inscribed on the country's historical and cultural heritage list.- 3 Gandan Monastery (Gandan Tègčinlin hijd).
Museums and galleries
- 4 Bogd Khan Winter Palace Museum (About 2½ km south of Chinggis square). 8000 ₮. For photographing: 50,000 ₮. 10:00-17:00.
- 5 Central Dinosaur Museum, Liberty Square (Next to the Tengis cinema). 2000₮.
- 6 International Intellectual Museum (IQ Museum), ☎ 976 11 461470, @[email protected]. 2000 ₮, children 500 ₮. Mon-Sun 10: 00-18: 00. Renowned museum displaying a wealth of toys, games for children and souvenirs.
- 7 Museum of the Victims of Political Persecution. Admission 5000 ₮. Mon-Fri 09: 00-17: 00. Museum dedicated to the memory of the approximately 30,000 people who died during the religious purges ordered by the Communist leader Choibalsan in the 1930s. The collections also document the destruction of monasteries by the Stalinist regime, but explanations in English are lacking.
- 8 National Museum of Mongolia. 5000₮. Tue-Sat 08: 00-22: 00. Last admission at 8.30pm. Largest museum in Ulan Bator and the most visited. Its collections document the history of Mongolia from prestige to the end of the 20th century. Among the exhibits are traditional costumes of the various Mongolian tribes, petroglyphs, weapons and armor from various eras. Explanations and captions are also in English.
- 9 Zanabazar Museum of Fine Arts, ☎ 976 11 326060, @[email protected]. Mon-Sun 08: 00-17: 00. The most interesting of the collections is that of 17th century Buddhist art.
- 10 National Gallery of Modern Art (at the Central Cultural Palace on Chinggis Square), ☎ 976 11 327177, @[email protected]. Reduced for students and children. Mon-Sun 10: 00-18: 00.
Events and parties
What to do
Shopping
How to have fun
- 1 State theater of ballet and opera, Chinggis Square, @[email protected].
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- 3 [link not working]Tumen Ekh Ensemble (Түмэн эх Чуулга), 976 11 32 2238, ☎ 976 11 322238, @[email protected]. 25,000₮. Company founded in 1989 that performs traditional Mongolian dances, music and religious ceremonies. The public is made up almost exclusively of tourists.
- The artists are all professionals and frequently organize successful tours abroad (of Mongolia). The shows last about an hour
- 4 Circus of Ulan Bator, ☎ 976 11 32 5522. Famous at the time of the Soviet regime for the professionalism of its acrobats. There are also shows of clowns and tamers.
Where to eat
Average prices
- 1 Rosewood Kitchen and Enoteca, Seoul Street 7/1 (On the 1st floor of the "MGG" office building), ☎ 976 9402 0561. Mon-Fri 08: 00-23: 00; Sat-Sun 10: 00-23: 00. Restaurant with dishes inspired by Italian cuisine but its ace in the hole are grilled meats.
High prices
- 2 Choijin Temple Restaurant, Olympic 7/3 (On the ground floor of the Centrum tower), ☎ 976 7703 4499 (cell.). Mon-Sun 12:00 - 00:00. Located opposite the museum of the same name, Choijin Temple Restaurant is popular with local tourists and business people and has good reviews. A decent variety of Mediterranean dishes appear on his list, although his strong points are cheese steaks and grilled vegetables. The furnishings are pleasant and the service great. Reservation recommended.
Where stay
Moderate prices
- 1 Golden Gobi (Close to the state warehouses), ☎ 976 11-322632, 976 96654496, fax: 976 11-322632, @[email protected]. Hostel with bunk beds and private rooms.
- 2 Zaya hostel (West of Chinggis Square and one block from the Avenue of Peace), ☎ 976 11 331 575, @[email protected]. 20 US $ single and 27 US $ double. Renowned hostel in a recently restored building. It is frequented by people of all ages and not exclusively by young people who travel with a sleeping bag. You can connect to the network directly from the rooms without extra charge.
- The hostel also offers city tours and excursions. It has an outbuilding always in the center.
- 3 Sunpath, Via United Nations (Between Chinggis square and the central post office), ☎ 976 99143722, fax: 976 11-326323, @[email protected]. Another renowned family-run hostel with free internet access and breakfast included in the price. It also has a laundry service and a shared kitchen area.
- Sunpath also offers several excursions with guides in English.
High prices
- 4 Blue Sky Hotel and Tower, Chinggis Square, ☎ 976 7010 0505. 5-star hotel with 200 rooms. It has several restaurants and pubs. Among the latter, the lounge on the 23rd floor stands out with panoramic views over the entire city.
- 5 Bayangol Hotel (two blocks south of Chinggis Square), ☎ 976 11 31 2255. A centrally located 4-star hotel.
- 6 Kempinski Hotel (About 2 km east of Chinggis square, at the corner of the Avenue of Peace with the Ikh Toiruu ring road), ☎ 976 11 463 463, @[email protected]. Check in: 14:00, check-out: 12:00. 5-star hotel with a renowned restaurant inside, the "Kara-Khorum" which on weekends offers a very respectable brunch at lower prices (champagne and caviar).
Safety
How to keep in touch
Keep informed
The official language is Khalkha. Part of the population speaks Turkish. Other than tourist guides, there are very few people who speak English.
Around
- North East
- 5 Terelj (55 km) - A holiday resort at the entrance to the Gorkhi-Terelj national park. Easy to reach as it is served by asphalted roads in good condition and by bus lines.
- East
- 6 Gun-Galuut Nature Reserve (130 km)
- South
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- 7 Equestrian statue of Genghis Khan (54 km east of the center, in Tsonjin Boldog, on the banks of the Tuul Gol river). Colossal monument 30 meters high and resting on a circular building 10 meters high. It is currently the tallest statue in the world but will be surpassed by that of Shiv Smarak, under construction off the coast of Mumbai.
- The monument was inaugurated in September 2008 and is the work of the sculptor D. Erdenebileg and the architect J. Enkhjargal. It is made of steel and weighs around 250 tons. Visitors can reach the horse's head via an internal staircase, from where they can admire the surrounding landscape. The statue faces east, towards the birthplace of Genghis Khan.
- The circular building on which it rests is delimited by 36 columns, each symbolizing the 36 successive Mongolian Khans since Genghis Khan. The total cost of the monument was estimated at $ 4.1 million. Nearby is a museum dedicated to the various cultures that have taken place in Mongolia since the Bronze Age and a recreational area for visitors.
- 8 Mongolia hotels (Near the village of Gachuurt, in the Bayanzürkh district). A mock castle-like hotel built in 2003 and designed to resemble the ancient capital of Karakorum.
- 9 Bogd Khan Uul Biosphere Reserve
- West
- 10 Khustain Nuruu National Park - Famous because inside it lives the Mongolian horse (Equus przewalskii), a symbolic animal of the country but at risk of extinction
Other projects
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