Day #75: Zaisan Memorial

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Zaisan Memorial is the best place to get a view of Ulaanbaatar from above, on a hill on the outskirts of the city. It only took about 40 minutes to walk there from the city centre, which shows how small an area Ulaanbaatar covers. From the Memorial it is easy to see the problem the city faces: more and more Mongolians want to move to Ulaanbaatar, but the city is surrounded by mountains and further expansion is almost impossible. Ulaanbaatar is therefore crowded, and housing is expensive because there is not enough of it. The traffic jams are also horrendous and there is now a system whereby most vehicles are banned from entering the city on one day of the week , depending on the final digit of the numberplate (only weekdays, everyone can go in at the weekends. The consequence of this, apparently, is that many drivers purchase two numberplates). I was told that there is serious political discussion about moving the entire city to another location, both for more space and to allow the design of a more visually appealing and environmentally friendly capital. I find it difficult to believe this could actually happen, but it shows the magnitude of the problem.

The monument itself is typically Soviet and only took a few minutes to climb up to, though it was interesting to see it featured some Mongolian faces rather than the usual white Russian ones. There is also another large Buddha statue nearby, but local building work prevented the public from seeing it close up.

In the evening I went for a Chinese meal with an Indonesian I met at the hostel. Mid-meal I suddenly noticed out of the corner of my eye a hand moving towards my food, and the next thing I knew my bowl of rice had been tipped over my lap by a vagrant who had come in off the street and grabbed a large handful of the rice. He was (almost literally) thrown out of the door by the furious waitress and my rice was swiftly replaced.

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