01Choijin Lama Temple Museum with new skyscraper behind
02Suburbs of Ulan Bator, where tented communities border houses
03Mongolia’s answer to the Statue of Liberty: a 40m-high steel statue of Genghis Khan astride a horse, 50km east of Ulan Bator
04Ulan Bator’s Power Station 3 with the ‘ger’ suburbs beyond
05Workers at Baganuur Mine, Mongolia’s largest coal mine started by the USSR in 1978
06Zaisan Memorial, built by the Russians, which towers over Ulan Bator from a mountain top
07Train guards at Ulan Bator’s railway station
08James Liotta, an American expat lawyer with Lehman, Lee & Xu
09Ulan Bator’s blend of western and traditional costumes
10Randolph Koppa, CEO of Trade & Development Bank of Mongolia
11Monk in Ulan Bator’s central library
12Statue of Lenin, legacy of Mongolia’s Soviet era
13Evidence of the city’s building boom
14Waitress at the Italian Marco Polo restaurant, which houses an infamous strip club upstairs
Mongolia is rich in raw materials and is thought to have huge oil reserves: resources that its neighbour China – with which it shares a rocky relationship – needs. The dust-bowl capital, Ulan Bator, is already flourishing but Mongolia needs to overcome its poverty and corruption.
Can Mongolia keep both neighbouring Russia and China as allies?
Mongolia’s presence on a vast territory between China and Russia is puzzling. How did it not get swallowed up? It has much to thank for the upheaval in those giant countries early in the 20th century and their later animosity that turned Mongolia into a buffer state. Today Mongolia is trying to keep both happy. And it has also been rubbing up against other heavyweights.
“They have attached quite a lot of importance to places such as Korea, Japan, Europe and the US to balance Russia and China,” says Niklas Swanström, director of the Institute for Security & Development Policy in Sweden. This may be crucial for Mongolia’s future.
“Since Mongolia is sandwiched between Russia and China, neither of which is democratic, there may be a tendency for Mongolia to turn away from democracy. If that happens, the blame can only lie with the West for not doing enough,” adds Swanström.
Fly: MIAT Mongolian Airlines offers little but charges the earth. Privatisation is on the cards. With vision, cash and panache the airline could break the stranglehold of Aeroflot and Air China.
Sell: Retail is dull. A fresh, fast convenience store such as Japan’s Lawsons or a family mart would make a mint.
Serve: Between the pubs and barebones cafés yawns a huge gap for a comfortable café where you can escape the city.
Host: There’s a desperate need for decent five-star hotels as well as inns.
Heal: When sickness, accidents or muggings strike, those that can head overseas for treatment. As mining expands, drawing more foreigners, and Mongolia’s middle class grows, they will need good medical services.
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