10,000 miles · the final destination

Mongolia is a remarkable country. It is a land mass the size of western europe but with a population of only 2.5 million people. Mongolia has always been a land of mystery: from Genghis Khan to the arid wastes of the Gobi desert, from being the Soviet Union's most Stalinist satellite to the first Asian communist country to embrace democracy. The Mongol Empire once stretched across Asia from the Pacific Ocean to Kiev and Baghdad. In modern times, interest in Mongolia has been suddenly sparked by the opening up of the country after 70 years of isolation in the Communist bloc.

Traditionally Mongolians are nomadic herders who live in felt tents called gers, and herd their sheep, goats, horses and cattle to their seasonal grazing grounds. Today many people are moving to the cities, but the traditional lifestyle remains in the countryside. Mongolia is a very sunny country with over 260 sunny days a year!

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Mongolia

Key Facts

Capital : Ulanbaatar
Population : 2,475,400 (January 2003)
Area : 1.5 million sq km
Currency : Tughrik
£1 British Pound = 2158Tg (June 2005)
GDP : $ 1.2 billion
Per Capita : $470
Government Type : Parliamentary Republic
Official language: Mongolian, written in Cyrillic (Russian) alphabet
Density: 1.5 people per square kilometre

Lonely Planet Link to Mongolia

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/north_east_asia/mongolia/

Online magazine on Mongolia:

http://www.mongoliatoday.com/

http://www.mongoliaexpat.com/

Mongolian Tourist Board:

http://www.mongoliatourism.gov.mn/

Up-to-date information about Mongolia, as well as information about the various United Nations Agencies, projects and development issues in Mongolia.

http://www.un-mongolia.mn/

Laws of Mongolia!

http://www.indiana.edu/~mongsoc/mong/lawlib.html

Economy

Exports - commodities: copper, livestock, animal products, cashmere, wool, hides, fluorspar, other nonferrous metals

Mongolia has extensive mineral deposits, however, economic activity is still largely based on agriculture and breeding of livestock (the products of which are processed by a specialised industrial sector). The Mongolian government has been repeatedly introducing measures to promote foreign investment from 1990 onwards. This especially applies to a number of political and economic reforms as well as the privatisation of state-run enterprises like e.g. the "Gobi Corporation", a producer of cashmere. Inflation was 8.1% in 2000, whereas unemployment amounted to 4.6% the same year.