16 August – Friday – Libby Hooper Elizabeth
Hooper
Gerel Altankttuyag is our guide.
Erdenebat is our bus driver.
Ulaanbatar – 1300 meters high
760,000 population
1924 gained independence from Manchurian China
Appreciates the help they received from USSR
As I look out the airplane window during our landing approach I notice
with surprise that about 50% of the city is made up of Ghers/Yurts;
gray uniform circles from above.
I expected to see ghers but only out in rural areas, not
throughout the capital city of Mongolia.
The narrow winding river winding across the edge of town reminds me of
the North Platte River in CO. In
fact, this area reminds me greatly of CO, WY and NM.
Arid grassland; willows along the river.
All the electricity in Mongolia is coal generated.
One such plant sits on the edge of town billowing it’s smoke
and smog.
Beautiful faces look so similar to our Native American faces that
it’s eerie. I can
nearly see the march across the Bering Straits to Alaska.
Much poverty and unemployment here.
Gerel tells us that high educational levels are required to get
any job. “If you
don’t know your history you are a monkey.”
We visit the run down and neglected
Palace Museum, built around a century ago. Fortunately
it’s very dry here and decomposition of wood takes a long time.
. Three entrance
gates – a large central one for the king only, a smaller one to the
right for his servants and to the left for all others.
An infusion of restoration monies could make this an elegant
and impressive museum. I’m
feeling the economic differences between China and Mongolia.
Nearly all the sites we have seen the last week in China have
been restored to their early splendor.
We drive up the hill overlooking this industrial city to a huge
concrete monument paying tribute to Soviet help.
It was built in 1971 for the 50th anniversary of
independence.
We notice many people enjoying a reprieve from the HEAT in the
coolness of the river as we drive back to our hotel.
Back
to Melitour home page 
next page
