There is very little in Mongolia, and that's its selling point. Compared to the teeming masses and crowded streets of next-door China, sparsely populated Mongolia offers lots of elbow room. But cradled as it is between Russia and China, it is not the easiest place to get to. The country's climate is either arid or continental depending on where you find yourself; neither makes living comfortable. Just 2.5 million people are spread across nearly a million square miles.
Buddhist temple in Ulaan Bataar.
---------------------------------------
Though Mongolia finally jettisoned its communist government in 1996, evidence of its communist past is still seen in this fading hammer & sickle painted on the side of an apartment block in Ulaan Bataar.
---------------------------------------
In a country seemingly more interested in agriculture than the outside world,
monuments to the strength of communism
strike the observer as odd and out of place.
---------------------------------------
More evidence of the "eternal" friendship between the former USSR & Mongolia can be found on the amazing larger than life murals painted on a monument overlooking the capital. Here, a Mongolian woman offers a traditional welcome to Russian soldiers.
---------------------------------------
Another shot of the panorama mural, this segment commemorating communism's triumph over Nazi Germany (note the conspicuous absence of the Allied contribution!).
---------------------------------------
Statue of Genghis Khan in the center of the city.
Seen as a vicious plunderer by most of
its neighbors, Khan is a national hero in Mongolia.
---------------------------------------
Contortionist displays flexibility that is both fascinating and painful to watch.
---------------------------------------
Heading out into the open skies of the interior of the country,
a place where traditional
ways of life quickly reassert themselves.
---------------------------------------
