Mongolia part 1--Introducing Mongolia, plus the Trans-Mongolian Railway and Beijing

Mongolia- Part 1

I've returned from a month's trip to Mongolia in June. Although the three weeks in Mongolia was the highlight, I also took the Trans-Mongolian train from Beijing to Ulan Bator and spent a few days in Beijing.

I’m going to divide this into several segments since it is quite long.

I have plenty of pictures too, but for the best nature pictures do look at the photos taken by Marian Herz, one of the other people on our trip. http://marianherz.zenfolio.com/recent.html



The Mongolia trip

I spent 3 weeks travelling overland in Mongolia, covered 3300 kilometers and yet only skimmed over perhaps 15% of the area of the country. I travelled with http://www.eternal-landscapes.co.uk/ , a small company owned by Jessica Brooks and her Mongolian business partner Turuu. There were four of us tourists, all women, and none of us---how shall I put this nicely?---none of us were teenagers.

Eternal Landscapes specialises in bespoke trips in Mongolia with small groups and a personal touch. We were very fortunate on our trip to have Jess and Turuu as our guide and driver (and chief cooks and bottle washers as well!) I cannot think of a better way to see the country.

We travelled in a Furgon and slept mostly in family gers (see later in the blog for a description of this vehicle and the gers) and occasionally in provincial hotels. We ate picnic-style for most of our meals, and occasionally in guanzes (see later) or small-town restaurants. We shopped in the local markets. We visited a hospital.

We rode horses and camels and fell in love with the baby goats. We saw the main city, Ulan Bator, the Gobi Desert, the mountains, the volcanoes, the grasslands, the monasteries, the lakes. We walked through fields of exquisite wild flowers, climbed sand dunes and granite “rock castles”, visited ruined Buddhist chapels, explored red sandstone gullies where dinosaur skeletons can be found, watched rare ibex silhouetted against the sky-line on cliff tops.

We found canyons choked with ice in June in the middle of the Gobi Desert , we watched horses and trainers preparing for the Nadaam races in July, we drove through the heat and the hail and the rain and sunshine from the Eternal Blue Sky, we planted trees, we walked under such stars as you have never before seen, we saw Bronze Age carving on pillars in the middle of nowhere that not even the experts know much about.

As those of you who have read my blog entries about my trips to Antarctica know, I seem to prefer places without many people! And so Mongolia fits that bill rather well. However the people of Mongolia tread lightly on their land and their character and history are also fascinating. 

Here are a few photos as a "taster" for what you will find in the later parts of this blog on Mongolia. 

Our group. From left Deborah Greene from New York City, Marian Herz from Tennessee, Jessica Brooks from Devon and Ulan Bator, Turuu from Ulan Bator, Dorothy Cameron from Vancouver, and me

Jessica Brooks and Turuu, who run the excellent "Eternal Landscapes" small group tour company in Mongolia. We were lucky to have Jess was our guide and Turuu as our driver.

Ulan Bator from the "Blue Sky" highrise office building (see  photos and commentary on Ulan Bator in later parts of this blog). As you can see UB is a "work in progress" with a pollution problem from its coal fired power generators.

Even Buddhist monks get flat tyres

This is the quintessential view of the nomadic life--the isolated ger (we tend to call them "yurts" which is a Turkish word), the herding family and their flock of goats and sheep on the green green steppe

Me at one of the family ger compounds. We slept in gers most nights

We ate most of our meals picnic style

Our group riding camels in the Khongoryn Els sand dunes in the Gobi. It is cold in the early morning, hence our jackets. Since this was still spring (June!) the camels are still moulting their winter fur. Riding a camel is one of the most painful experiences I have ever had!

Horse riding at White Lake in the central/northern steppe. Again, early morning cold but bright sun, beautiful flowers and stunning views. See later in the blog for details

The fantastic formations and colours of Tsagaan Suvraga in the Middle Gobi. This is eroded limestone with minerals causing the beautiful colours. There are layers of marine fossils since this was once under a great soupy sea before the whole country was lifted upwards over 1000 metres (3000 feet) by the tectonic plate movements which created the Himalayas

Yes that is ice I am standing on. And yes this is in the Gobi Desert! Across the Gobi runs the "Three Beauties" mountain range (which is the most easterly part of the Himalayan "crumple zone" ). Narrow canyons in the mountains are still choked with ice like this until well late June.

Since it was still spring the young animals were were everywhere--foals, calves, lambs, kids, young camels. The baby goats are the cutest.

Because of its sparse population and nomadic lifestyle Mongolia retains a profusion of  wildlife and plants that we have lost in the west. See more pictures of flowers in later parts of this blog

This taken as we crossed the Gobi towards the Three  Beauties mountain range (see earlier photo for a description of these) .Sand is only found in small areas of the Gobi and in the inaccessible far south of the desert. The rest is rough barren gravel-like ground like this.

These are the so called "Flaming Cliffs" . Sandstone formations which have preserved the skeletons and eggs of many dinosaurs. It was here in the 1920s that several new species of dinosaur were uncovered. Such finds are still being made.

This is the beautiful White Lake which is in an area of natural variety in central Mongolia. Behind me as I took this picture is a recently (4000 years) extinct volcano (see later picture) , to the right are mountains (some still snow capped) and rolling grasslands and ahead at the end of the lake wetlands harbouring many birds. As you can see, we were now far enough north for there to be trees. They are larch trees.

This is the extinct volcano mentioned in the earlier photo caption. The area you can see around it is still lava-covered

Horses beside White Lake

One of the young jockeys practising for the Nadaam races. (see later for more details) These are tests of endurance for the horse---the race is 30 km long across country! The jockeys are young boys and sometimes girls between 5 and 12. Their job is to stay on and make sure the horse doesn't head for the hills.

The beautiful ancient Lake Khovsgol, so pure that it has too few nutrients in it to support more than a few fish. The lake is in the far north of the country next to the Russian border. The surrounding land --called the taiga--is permanently frozen (permafrost) as little as 4 metres below the surface.

Me drawing water from a well in the Gobi

Beijing and the Trans-Siberian Railway

But before I get to Mongolia, first a few words about the start and end of the trip. I flew to Beijing, took the Trans-Mongolian (commonly thought of as part of the Trans-Siberian train network that runs across Siberia and northern Asia into Europe) from Beijing to Ulan Bator and at the end of the trip flew back to Beijing for two nights before flying back to London.

I had originally planned to finish by taking the Trans-Siberian from Ulan Bator to Moscow but since Europe seems incapable of doing so, I decided I should impose my own personal sanctions on Russia by not spending any money travelling in Russia while Vladimir Putin is on his power trip. That decision was made after Russia annexed Crimea but before the recent events in east Ukraine and the downing of the Malaysian Airlines flight, but I now know that it was the morally right decision.

Beijing

I’ve been to Beijing many times so this was mostly a few days for adjusting to the time zone and temperature, not sightseeing. However every time one returns to Beijing it seems like a different city as they knock down the characterful old parts and put up high-rise buildings with zero architectural merit—nowhere else can you see (thank goodness) such pastiche Renaissance flourishes, pastiche Greek columns, pastiche pagodas (perched on the top of 30 story office buildings!) isolated by parking lots, ranged along 12 lane streets clogged with traffic.

Pollution smog is still bad, although the buses are no longer belching diesel and it is good to see a real drive towards solar renewable energy in the city and in the countryside. It is also nice to see that spitting on the street is becoming somewhat less common and I do think there was less casually- thrown litter. 

The 12 lane streets are now lined with trees and green verges but very few pedestrians brave the sidewalks beside the whizzing traffic and there is very little shade and no benches for you to sit on so walking in the heat (it was 37 degrees centigrade when I was there) is not an inviting prospect. 

I did go to Beihei Park on Saturday---me and the rest of the population of Beijing. There is very little green space or parks in Beijing so that what there are, are very crowded. Beihei has the added benefit of having a large (artificial) lake for boating. On a weekend the surface is covered with a collection of fantastic-looking story-book pleasure boats ranging from mock Chinese junks to pedalos filled with Chinese families out for the day. People-watching was fun.

The Chinese have an extraordinary taste for western music and dance. In every park you will find more than one clearing or pavilion or recreation area where Chinese couples are solemnly dancing waltzes, jitterbug, polkas, foxtrots, to recorded western dance music.

And they are very very good dancers indeed, infinitely better than you would find in a dance hall or disco or club in the west. But they do take it very seriously, hardly cracking a smile. It seems to be more a performance or show of prowess for a quiet appreciative audience, than fun. They don’t seem to be doing it for the money---there was no hat on the ground or anyone coming round to do a collection.

And their enjoyment of western music does not stop there. I spent an entertaining half an hour in a lake-side pavilion in Beihei Park listening to an excellent group of musicians, some playing traditional Chinese percussion instruments and led by a superb harmonica player, playing country and western classics like “Red River Valley” and Bavarian polkas accompanied by a small group of women doing slow graceful tai chi style dances to the alien music!

Absolutely no prizes for guessing what this is. Yes it is the Forbidden City , the traditional palace of the Chinese emperors. Chairman Mao still presides over the entrance.

Beihei Park is one of the few green spots in Beijing and at weekends it and its lake are crowded with Beijing families out for a little fresh air and recreation (but note the pollution hanging over everything).

See commentary. The park is filled with little groups of musicians seemingly playing for their own pleasure and the entertainment of the crowds visiting the park. This group was playing polkas and country and western!

Western style ballroom dancing is a passion for the Chinese. They are excellent dancers but they take it all very very seriously.

One of the huge Peking Duck restaurants. This one has five floors, all filled like this one.

Street food is still very popular in Beijing, but as you can see it is highly "sanitised" now.

One of the few remaining "night markets" in central Beijing, called Wangfujing. It is mostly for the tourists now. And these are not western tourists; these are overseas Chinese mostly so you hear lots of Australian and American accents although the faces are oriental.

Trans-Siberian Railway

The Trans-Mongolian train was rather nostalgic for me. Back in 1971 I took the Trans-Siberian train across Russia from Nakhodka (now you can go from Vladivostok, but back then Vladivostok was a “closed” city because the Soviet navy was based there) across Siberia to Moscow.

That was in Soviet times and there were only eight westerns on the train, mostly a rag-bag of backpackers and adventurers like me, not “tourists”. The rest of the train was crowded with Russians since the train was the only way to travel from one side of the vastness of Russia to the other and the only means of access to the remote communities of Siberia . The train was pulled by steam engines and took seven days. We stopped at all the little Siberian towns where we bought our food from the local women who came down to the platform with their simple produce—bread, cucumbers, cheese—and loads of vodka.

At that time China and the Soviet Union were enemies, so the train did not pass through China, just Russia. Since then relations between the two countries have warmed up and you can now start your journey and travel to Moscow from Vladivostok or from Beijing.

The part of the journey that goes through China is called the Trans-Mongolian but when it crosses the border it changes it becomes the Trans-Siberian (same train, same ancient carriages).

A legacy of the times of animosity is that the gauge of the railway tracks is slightly different between what was the former Soviet Union (of which Mongolia was part, and China, so that at the border between China and Mongolia the bogies still have to be changed.

This was a sensible precaution I suppose because there is a vast, sparsely populated unprotected border between the Soviet Union and China and an invasion (either way) by train would be easy if the tracks were the same size.

I enjoyed my Trans-Siberian trip thoroughly over forty years ago and I wanted to see what changes to the journey there have been since.

Well I can tell you that the train itself is exactly the same --probably, literally, these are the same ancient carriages! No sleek aerodynamic bullet train this! And there is still the coal fired samovar at the end of the corridor where you can get hot water for your tea or powdered soup. And the toilets still dump straight onto the tracks!

But this is now primarily a train taken by tourists—at least the Trans-Mongolian section seems to be. There are “local” people but they are far outnumbered by tourists. Many of the tourists are “gap yearers” or young people in their twenties and thirties taking a year off to “do” Asia before settling down to a respectable life in their home countries. All are drawn to the Trans-Siberian Railway as one of those iconic journeys all self-respecting travellers must tick off their list. I am sure I was the only one on the train for whom this was a second trip.

I was rather disappointed that the arrival of the train did not seem to be a noteworthy event for the local communities. There were no vendors on the platforms selling food and drinks. But perhaps that tradition continues in Russia. Hopefully I will be able to travel on the Trans-Siberian in Russia again in the future to check that out. Come on, Putin! Stop being a jerk!

I shared a four-berth compartment with two French tourists and we had the compartment to ourselves for the whole day...until we got to the stop before the Mongolian border when hundreds and hundreds of jostling Chinese men got on with huge bundles and suitcases and filled up every seat and berth and thronged the passage ways.

You could tell these were poor and uneducated peasant workers and I later found out that they were coming to work on the roads in Mongolia. Apparently they will work for next to nothing and there is a lot of resentment amongst the Mongolians whose jobs they are taking.

The train takes about 36 hours to travel from Beijing to Ulan Bator, of which about 4-6 hours is spent at the border between the two countries where the engines and bogies on the carriages are changed and aggressive (and bribe-taking) border officials enjoy their power-trips at the expense of the passengers, both locals and tourists.

The first 15 hours you pass through rural China, which was interesting to see. Near to Beijing there is plenty of industry but then you pass through some areas of great fertility---fields of crops, sheltered valleys of fruit trees and hilly slopes covered in grape vines for China’s growing wine industry.

We all tend to think of China as very crowded with a huge population. Once we got away from the Beijing area I was surprised at how empty the countryside was as we passed through. Then you come to a huge heavily industrialised city and realise where everyone is!

You also realise ---if you didn’t already know---what a mess plastic bags make and how far the wind can take them. Brightly coloured plastic bags festoon all the fences and collect in the bushes even though there is no human habitation for miles. Mongolia also is beginning to suffer from the invasion of the plastic bags, and littering is becoming a problem there too, although at present the problem is not so noticeable because of Mongolia’s small population and huge size.

As you pass through the Chinese province of Inner Mongolia (which as the name implies used to be part of greater Mongolia) the land flattens and the vegetation becomes sparse and dry and you begin to see the occasional ger (yurt) and some herds of cattle. This is the start of the Gobi Desert which stretches across the southern third of Mongolia. Once you are across the border you are into the Mongolian Gobi.

This part of the Gobi is not the “desert” of our expectations. There
are no sand dunes. Just the elemental emptiness of rock, wide blue
sky, burning sun, widely spaced tufts of scrubby, harsh grass on the
rough pebbly ground.

Since the route of the train and the road (see later as to what a
“road” means in Mongolia!) are the main means communication in
south-eastern Mongolia, following the ancient trade routes across
Asia to Europe, there are occasional communities at which the
train stops, featuring Soviet-era station buildings and Soviet-
Siberian-style houses. There are also one or two vast brightly lit
mining and industrial complexes.

As you get closer to Ulan Bator the landscape becomes less
monotonous –hills and green pasture land. Gers and livestock herds
become more frequent—but more of that later in this blog.

While much of Beijing is now regimented and manicured the main train station is still a pocket of chaos! This was taken at 6 am on a weekend so there are less than the 5000 people who are usually pushing and shoving . (Note the golden arches on the right!)

The Trans-Siberian train. The sign says "Peking--Ulan Bator--Moscow|". I swear these are the same carriages as when I took the Trans-Siberian in 1971!

This is an improvement. A smartly dressed carriage attendant instead of the fearsome large Russian ladies who used to preside.

Nope. This hasn't changed at all. The samovar which dispenses heat and piping hot water alls day. Great for making instant soup or tea.

 

The back side of the samovar. Also unchanged. I have spared you a picture of the toilets which still dump right onto the tracks.

Me in the Chinese dining car. The Chinese red wine is surprisingly good.

At the Chinese/Mongolian border the engine, the bogies and the dining car are changed (see blog ). This is the Mongolian dining car.

It's universal, isn't it? Men love fishing. It gets them out of doing any chores.

View from the train as we travelled across north-central China

There are a lot of fertile areas of fruit trees and crops. These are grape vines.

Although there is a remarkable amount of open space in the Chinese countryside, there are also a number of huge towns and cities with lots of dirty industry.

A traditional Chinese village of mud-brick houses with tiled roofs. 

The front of our train passes over a curving trestle

Stopped at the border. See blog.

Most of the people on the train from Bejing to the Mongolian border were young western tourists--mostly "gap year"or those in their twenties or thirties taking a career break. See blog

After the border into Mongolia we began to see more open spaces and lonely gers. Although this is actually in the eastern part of the Gobi, it is uncharacteristically green because of recent rain. 

There are occasional mining sites as you cross this part of the eastern Gobi.

A typical settlement around a train statioin. These are pure Soviet-style buildings left over from the 75 years up to 1990 when Mongolia was part of the Soviet Union. See later parts of this blog.

This rather attractive train station is at Choir, about half way between the Chinese border and Ulan Bator. It used to be a large Soviet air base, but now abandoned although the train still stops.