In the eyes of many Chinese, Mongolia or "Outer Mongolia" is not much different from Inner Mongolia. We will take it for granted that the people there wear Mongolian robes, eat beef and mutton, drink milk tea, and in addition to many yurts on the steppe, there will also be Ao bao, and under the influence of Qing court opera, we will also think that Mongolians will like to say "Manchu and Mongolian family" ......
But when I really went to Mongolia, I realized that the real Mongolia was very different from what everyone imagined.
1.The flight distance from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, is 1,160 kilometers, which is closer than Beijing to Shanghai, and the plane takes off from Beijing Capital International Airport and lands at Genghis Khan International Airport in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, in less than two hours. The airport is a bit backward, much like what we did in the 90s, with several planes with propellers on the tarmac in addition to the one that had just landed.
2.As the bus travels from the airport to Ulaanbaatar, you will see a power plant, a large number of densely packed houses that resemble our domestic prefabricated houses, and white yurts interspersed in between. It is said that this is because the pastoral economy has been sluggish in recent years, and a large number of herders have flocked to the city, but they cannot find suitable jobs, so they gather around Ulaanbaatar, forming the shantytowns around the city today.
3.Entering the city of Ulaanbaatar, we see a lot of three- and four-story houses, and occasionally a flash of modern architecture. Today, Ulaanbaatar is home to about half of the country's population. Almost every time you travel in the city, you will encounter traffic jams, which is very similar to Beijing. The hotel we stayed in was called Genghis Khan Hotel, and the largest square in the center of Ulaanbaatar that we had to pass through every day was called Genghis Khan Square.
4.During my time in Mongolia, there were two words that impressed me the most, one was Genghis Khan and the other was Gobi. From the currency of Mongolia to all kinds of huge statues, various souvenirs, stamps, etc., all of them do not have the glorious image of Genghis Khan, and hotels, wine, food, etc. are also named after Genghis Khan. Genghis Khan was also the most mentioned name when we visited several museums, and I felt that the docents had a light in their eyes when they talked about Genghis Khan, full of pride and pride.
5.The first meal when I came to Mongolia, the planner was written Mongolian food, and my psychological expectation should be milk tea, hand-grasped mutton, etc., but the first dish that came up subverted my cognition: it was actually a food similar to quick-frozen fritters. After that, at least half an hour later, the first course was served to each person in a divided meal, which seemed to have no condiments, raw vegetables, and a little more than half an hour later, a second course, steak, and another ice cream served in more than half an hour. This is authentic Mongolian food, or Soviet-style Western food.
6.Walking on the streets of Ulaanbaatar, you will find that there are many Japanese cars, and if you pay attention to it again, you will find that there are the most Toyota cars, so many that you can't help but go to the street parking lot many times or the Toyota cars in front and behind when you are stuck in traffic, and it accounts for more than 60%!I asked my friends in the local area and learned that most of them were second-hand. Standing on the streets of Ulaanbaatar, if you only look at the car, you will have the illusion of being in Japan.
7.During my time in Mongolia, I personally felt that the influence of Japan and South Korea in Mongolia was greater than that of China. There was a big supermarket on the ground floor of the Genghis Khan hotel where we stayed, which had a large number of items that were imported, especially food. The most of them came from South Korea, but there were also from Japan, and we searched hard inside, but we only found a few Chinese cabbages from China.
8.The text you see on the streets of Mongolia, whether it is a state institution, a hotel, a restaurant, a cinema, a café, a shopping mall, a supermarket, etc., in addition to the Cyrillic Neo-Mongolian script that is very similar to Russian, there are a few English and a few more Korean and Japanese, and there are almost no Chinese characters, even the Chinese restaurant "Mr. Li Chinese Restaurant" is written by Mister Lis Restaurant.
9.Mongolia has abundant land resources and natural grasslands, and animal husbandry is a traditional industry, the foundation of the national economy, and the main raw material for the processing industry and daily necessities. The livestock sector currently accounts for 10 percent of the country's export earnings. But it mainly depends on the sky to eat, and it is an extensive operation. In a year when the water and grass are good, the number of cattle and sheep breeding is high. Drought in the summer or snow in the winter can affect the livestock sector. At present, Mongolia still needs to import large quantities of poultry meat, milk and dairy products every year to meet its domestic needs.
10.Mongolia is known as the "Land of Blue Skies" due to its abundant tourism resources, placing tourism in a strategic position as important as animal husbandry and mining. Personally, what I saw on the day of the grassland experience was the Mongolia of my dreams: the endless steppe, the penetrating sunlight, the blue sky and white clouds that hit the eye, the unique yurt, the stars covering the entire sky, the horse-head fiddle and Mongolian dance performances with strong ethnic characteristics, ancient sacrifices, carving activities, horseback riding and camel riding, and real Mongolian meals - hand-grabbed mutton, milk tea, etc.
11.Mongolia also has these pristine scenery, which has opened up the market for its own tourism, and its unique nomadic culture has also brought great spiritual shock to tourists. In recent years, the number of tourists visiting Mongolia has increased dramatically, and walking the streets of Ulaanbaatar, you will always see Westerners with large bags on their backs, as well as Easterners who look like us but speak different languages. It's just that the lack of water in the prairie can't help but make people a little worried.
12.Although Mongolia's economy is not developed, the largest city of Ulaanbaatar has an unusually rich nightlife, where clubbers, tall and stout, are one of the characteristics of Mongolian women. There are many nightclubs in Ulaanbaatar, with more than 300 bars, as well as discos, beer halls, etc. Several of these posh bars were frequented by these wealthy people. There are Western hip-hop **, all kinds of foreign wines, and foreign girls. Despite the abundance of nightlife in Mongolia, it is important to be safe and avoid unnecessary hassles when participating, as alcohol is not sold in bars and hotels after 12 p.m. due to the country's alcohol ban.