Ulaanbaatar Улаанбаатар, Ulaɣan Baɣatur Ulan Bator
Ulaanbaatar, September 2004 Ulaanbaatar, September 2004
Official flag of Ulaanbaatar Flag Coat of arms of Ulaanbaatar Coat of arms
Coordinates:
Established as Örgöö	1639
current location	1778
Ulaanbaatar	1924
Area
- City	4704.4 km  (1,816.3 sq mi)
Elevation	1350 m (4,429 ft)
Population (April 14th, 2007)[1]
- City	1,000,000
- Density	213/km (550/sq mi)
Time zone	H (UTC+8)
Postal code	210 xxx
Area code(s)	+976 (0)11
License plate	УБ_ (_ variable)
ISO 3166-2	MN-1
Website: [1]

Ulan Bator, or Ulaanbaatar (Mongolian: Улаанбаатар, Classical Mongolian: ᠤᠯᠠᠭᠠᠨ ᠪᠠᠭᠠᠲᠤᠷ [Ulaɣan Baɣatur]), is the capital of Mongolia.

Ulan Bator has had numerous names in its history. From 1639–1706, it was known as Örgöö (Mongolian: Өргөө, residence), and from 1706–1911 as Ikh Khüree, Da Khüree or simply Khüree (Mongolian: Их = "great", Хүрээ = "camp"). Its Chinese name was Kulun (Traditional Chinese: 庫倫; Simplified Chinese: 库伦; Pinyin: Kùlún). Upon independence in 1911, with both the secular government and the Bogd Khan's palace present, the city's name changed to Niislel Khüree (Mongolian: Нийслэл = "capital").

When the city became the capital of the new Mongolian People's Republic in 1924, its name was changed to Ulaanbaatar ("red hero"), in honor of Mongolia's national hero Damdin Sükhbaatar, whose warriors liberated Mongolia from Ungern von Sternberg's troops and Chinese occupation shoulder-to-shoulder with the Soviet Red Army. His statue still adorns Ulan Bator's central square.

In Europe and North America, Ulan Bator was generally known as Urga (after the Russian form for Örgöö) or sometimes Kuren before 1924, and Ulan Bator afterwards, after the Russian: Улан-Батор. The Russian spelling is different from the Mongolian because it was defined phonetically, and the Cyrillic script was only introduced in Mongolia seventeen years later.

Geography

Ulan Bator is located at about 1350 meters (4430 feet) above sea level, slightly east of the center of Mongolia on the Tuul River, a subtributary of the Selenge, in a valley at the foot of the mountain Bogd Khan Uul.

Due to its high elevation, relatively high latitude, and location hundreds of kilometres from any coast, Ulan Bator is the coldest national capital in the world, with a monsoon-influenced subarctic climate (Koppen climate classification Dwc) with brief, warm summers and long, very cold and dry winters. It has an average annual temperature of -1.3°C (29.7°F). The city lies in the zone of sporadic permafrost, which means that building is difficult in sheltered aspects that preclude thawing in the summer, but easier on more exposed ones where soils fully thaw. Suburban residents live in traditional gers that do not protrude into the soil.^[2]

History

Founded in 1639, Ulan Bator, then Örgöö (Urga), was originally located at the lake Shireet Tsagaan nuur, around 400 km from the present Ulan Bator in Övörkhangai Province, and was mainly intended to be the seat of the first Jebtsundamba, Zanabazar.

It was moved often to various places along the Selenge, Orkhon and Tuul rivers until reaching its present location in the late 18th century, on the high road from Beijing to Kyakhta, about 700 miles northwest of Beijing and 165 miles south of the trading town of Kyakhta on the Russian frontier. It was the holy city of the Mongols and the residence of the "Living Buddha," metropolitan of the Khalkha tribes, who ranked third in degree of veneration among the dignitaries of the lamaist clergy. This "resplendently divine lama" resided in a palace on the southern side of the town. The town prospered in the 1860s as a commercial center on the tea route between Russia and China (early 20th-century trade was valued at over 1,000,000 dollars a year) and was the seat of the Qing Amban (highest imperial official) in Mongolia, who controlled all temporal matters and was specially charged with the control of the frontier trade town of Kyakhta and its trade with Russia.

In 1904, on the occasion of the British expedition to Tibet, the Dalai Lama withdrew from his Tibetan capital Lhasa and went to Ikh Khüree (as it was named at the time), where he remained until 1908. During his residence there, the Dalai Lama would have no communication with the incumbent Bogd Khan who was described as a "drunken profligate".^[3]

After Mongolia first proclaimed its independence, upon the collapse of the Manchu Empire in 1911, the city became the capital of the new Mongolian People's Republic in 1924 under its new name Ulaanbaatar.

Administration and Subdivisions

Main article: Düüreg

Ulan Bator is divided into nine districts (Düüregs): Baganuur, Bagakhangai, Bayangol, Bayanzurkh, Chingeltei, Khan Uul, Nalaikh, Songino Khairkhan, and Sühbaatar. Each district is subdivided into Khoroos.

The capital is governed by a city council (the Citizen's Representatives Hural) with forty members, elected every four years. The city council appoints the mayor. The current mayor is Tsogt Batbayar, who is also the governor of Central Province, i.e. Töv Aimag, which surrounds the municipality of Ulaanbaatar.

Transportation

Interurban and international: Ulan Bator is served by the Chinggis Khaan International Airport (formerly Buyant Ukhaa Airport) and is connected by road (mostly unpaved and unmarked) to most of the major towns in Mongolia. There are rail connections to the Trans-Siberian railway via Naushki and to the Chinese railroad system via Jining.

Intra-urban: The national and municipal governments regulate a wide system of private transit providers which operate numerous bus lines around the city. Many of these buses are antiquated Soviet vehicles, though Japan and Korea have recently donated and sold modern busses to the city. A secondary transit system of microbusses (passenger vans) operates alongside these bus lines and competes directly, though generally illegally. In the last few years the city licensed an increasing number of marked taxicabs. However, most drivers in the city offer unregulated and occasional (informal) taxicab service to anyone who signals them.

Costs: Bus fares are regulated at about 200 tugrig; microbusses charge about 400 tugrig; taxicab fares are metered. Informal taxicab rates are negotiated before services are rendered and were around 350 MNT/km in 2006.

Colleges and universities

Ulan Bator has five major universities: the National University of Mongolia, Science and Technological University of Mongolia, University of Health and Medical Science, Pedagogical University, and University of Art and Culture. There are also private and public colleges. A historical library contains a wealth of ancient Mongolian, Chinese, and Tibetan manuscripts.

Description

The city consists of a central district built in Soviet 1940s and 1950s-style architecture, surrounded by and mingled with residential concrete towerblocks and larger ger quarters. In recent years, a lot of the towerblock's ground floors have been modified and upgraded to small shops, and many new buildings have been erected, some of them illegally. Among the few pre-1920 buildings is the Choijin Lama Monastery. The main sites are:

• Natural History Museum. Features many dinosaur fossils found in Mongolia.
• National Museum of Mongolian History
• Gandantegchinlen Khiid Monastery, with a 25-meter-high statue of Migjid Janraisig
• The Bogd Khan's Winter Palace
• Ulaanbaatar Opera House
• The Zaisan Memorial, a memorial to Russian soldiers killed in World War II, which sits on a hill south of the city. The Zaisan Memorial includes a Russian tank paid for by the Mongolian people and a circular memorial painting which depicts scenes of friendship between the peoples of Russia and Mongolia. Visitors who make the long climb to the top are rewarded with a panoramic view of the whole city down in the valley.
• Sükhbaatar Square, in the government district. In the center of Sükhbaatar Square, there is a statue of Damdin Sükhbaatar on horseback. On the north side of Sükhbaatar Square is the Mongolian Parliament building, featuring a large statue of Chinggis Khan at the top of the front steps.
• National Sports Stadium. The Naadam festival is held here every July.
• Gorkhi-Terelj National Park, a nature preserve with many tourist facilities, approximately 70 km from Ulan Bator.

Sister Cities

• Tianjin, People's Republic of China
• Taipei, Taiwan
• Seoul, South Korea
• Denver, Colorado, USA
• Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia
• Miyakonojo, Miyazaki, Japan
• Leeds, United Kingdom (according to a 2005 Calendar broadcast).

Embassies

Bulgaria, China, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Japan, Laos, Poland, Romania, Russia, Taiwan, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States all have embassies in Ulaanbaatar.^{[4][5][6][7][8]}

See also

Architecture of Mongolia

References

External links

• City of Ulan Bator official site (English)
• City council of Ulaanbaatar official site (Mongolian)
• Mayor of Ulaanbaatar official site (Mongolian)
• "Urga or Da Khuree" from A. M. Pozdneyev's Mongolia and the Mongols
• Photos of Ulanbaataar with comments

•  • [ e] Provinces of Mongolia
Arkhangai | Bayan-lgii | Bayankhongor | Bulgan | Darkhan-Uul | Dornod | Dornogovi | Dundgovi | Govi-Altai | Govismber | Khentii | Khovd | Khvsgl | mngovi | Orkhon | vrkhangai | Selenge | Skhbaatar | Tv | Uvs | Zavkhan
Municipality: Ulan Bator

•  • [ e] Capitals of Asia
Central Asia	Ashgabat, Turkmenistan Astana, Kazakhstan Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan Dushanbe, Tajikistan Tashkent, Uzbekistan
East Asia	Beijing, People's Republic of China (China) Taipei, Republic of China (Taiwan) Tokyo, Japan Pyongyang, North Korea Seoul, South Korea Ulan Bator, Mongolia
South Asia	Dhaka, Bangladesh Thimphu, Bhutan New Delhi, India Mal, Maldives Kathmandu, Nepal Islamabad, Pakistan Kotte (official, administrative) and Colombo (commercial), Sri Lanka
Southeast Asia	Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Phnom Penh, Cambodia Dili, East Timor Jakarta, Indonesia Vientiane, Laos Kuala Lumpur (official) and Putrajaya (administrative), Malaysia Naypyidaw, Myanmar Manila, Philippines Singapore, Singapore Bangkok, Thailand Hanoi, Vietnam
Southwest Asia	Yerevan, Armenia Baku, Azerbaijan Manama, Bahrain Nicosia, Cyprus Tbilisi, Georgia Tehran, Iran Baghdad, Iraq Jerusalem, Israel Amman, Jordan Kuwait City, Kuwait Beirut, Lebanon Muscat, Oman Doha, Qatar Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Damascus, Syria Ankara, Turkey Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates San‘a’, Yemen
Disputed Region	Kabul, Afghanistan

Coordinates: