mongolian landscape

Someone asked if the Mongolian landscape is anything like Batanes or Ifugao perhaps.  Far from it. 

Mongolia has a vast pastureland – a wide expanse of flat land, bald slopes and rolling plateaus where grass grow thinly  – where herds of sheep, goat and cows happily graze.  Some slopes are dotted by clumps of pine trees. 

These I have seen so far, in a day-excursion last Friday to an aimag (province) near UB where, aside from visiting the  One Stop Shop project of SDC/HSPSC,  Mr. E hosted lunch at a monastery ruins that is now a campsite.

Lunch was altogether an extraordinary experience that will be in a separate entry.  One Stop Shop is another interesting program concept to make common government services, such as social insurance, land registration,  notarial services, etc. conveniently accessible  to the people. This will, again, be in another entry.

I was told that there are also wooded areas, mostly alpine forests, but not as much forest cover as Cambodia or the Philippines.  The country has one of Asia’s largest freshwater lakes but for some reason fishing does not seem to be a commercial activity. 

Then there are the sand dunes and the the Gobi desert, part of which is found I think  in Inner Mongolia within the Chinese territory.  Salt lakes, permanent mountain glaciers, hot springs and extinct volcanoes also feature.

Its coal mines produce enough to power-up UB, which has four coal power plants that bring  centralized heating to urban households during the cold seasons.