Mongolia Travel Blog & News

Among the skyscrapers and shopping malls, there sits a white building and a temple in a small clearing. The mountain stands behind it, protecting the city. Not far behind is the mighty Tuul River. The white building is by todays standards, a modest building. The temple is beautiful, but dwarfed by the 6-story mall nearby. However, if you were a lucky visitor to Ich Khirie, as Ulaanbaatar was known then, you would be standing near the largest building in town, if you could even get close enough. This is the home of the Bogd Khan.

While some people prefer to visit Mongolia in the summer, if you find yourself in Ulaanbaatar for the winter, there are still a ton of great activities to enjoy. One of the coolest Winter activities you can do is take a ride on the frozen Tuul river pulled by a team of excited huskies.

Khoomei or Throat singing is one of the most representative traditional arts of Mongolia. Khoomei was originated when people started imitating the voice of nature and animals many thousand years ago, and around 19th century, Khoomei was first developed as an art. Mongolian throat singing was registered in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO, as an art native to Mongolia in 2010. At its meeting in Nairobi, the UNESCO Council inscribed Mongolian Khoomii in the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of mankind.

Imagine riding a horse over the Eurasian steppe, winter’s cold embrace around you and an eagle on your arm. You feel the bird twitch, and know that it’s got something in its sights. With a flick of your arm, the bird takes off and flies toward an unlucky rabbit. Before you know it, the eagle dives down and in its talons is lunch for your family.

Surviving two destructions and centuries of rejection, Erdene Zuu is one of the oldest Buddhist temples in Mongolia, probably in East Asia. The building of the temple was ordered by the Abtai Sain Khan- grandfather of Zanabazar the Great when the Tibetan Buddhism was declared as the main religion of Mongolia in 1586. For Mongolians, who employed nomadic lifestyle, this kind of building or generally anything that stays in one place was not that common. So, the temple has naturally become the religious center, thus the heart of the Mongolia. The geographical situation was carefully thought out too, it’s built in Kharkhorin- near the old city of Karakorum.

Mongolia has a rich culture, and one of the most well-known aspects is its music. With interesting instruments and mesmerizing vocal techniques, Mongolians over the centuries have developed a unique sound to express their lives on the steppe. There are many elements to learn about, however, we’ll just give you a primer on what the basics are. If you decide to visit Mongolia, you should definitely take the opportunity to hear a live musical performance; it’s definitely worth the flight to get in!

After the Gobi Desert, I’d say Lake Khuvsgul is next on the “Must See List” for Mongolia--it’s beautiful, crystalline blue waters are stunning! It’s in the opposite direction from Ulaanbaatar and will also require some decisions about travel. The best time of year to visit is summer--June, July or August--with July being usually the warmest. August is the beginning of fall in Mongolia and can sometimes mean more rain than a visitor wants to contend with. You can visit before and after those three months but many camps do shut down for a part of fall, all of winter, and the start of spring.

Kazakh people are one of the biggest tribe in Mongolia who lives in very far western Mongolia – Bayan-Olgii province. During a hard time back in 1900s, a few Kazakh family from Turkmen asked to live in Mongolia and Mongolians let them to live in Mongolian territory and tell where they live and herd their livestock – it was Bayan-olgii province - one of the last true wilderness areas of Asia, the stunning beauty of the magnificent Altai Mountains will be the backdrop for this extraordinary Eagle Festival, today.

Since you have chosen Mongolia as your travel destination, you might be familiar with the fact that Mongolia is a post-soviet country. From 1921 to 1991, Mongolia has been part of the Comintern- a soviet alliance with Soviet Russia in its head. Most of the districts and urban structure of the city has been built during that era with the help of the Russian masters. Ulaanbaatar was mainly designed by Soviet architects, who have employed classicism.

Grace Jacobsen is a successful blogger on wordres shttps://itsgracejacobsen.wordpress.com/ mostly write about facts, things that she experienced in her life. Recently she posted ab article on her blog about “10 facts people should know about Mongolia” based on her 4 years of live in Mongolia. This is a very interesting article & offers a great read. Here are some quick preview, she mentioned on fact # 1 – “It is in Asia not Africa”, #2, “They speak Mongolian, not Chinese”, #6 “There are people, not just animals” and so on. Please continue read the 10 facts below in detail.