Development in Ulaanbaatar

Compared to other capitals around the world, Ulaanbaatar is relatively young. Furthermore, the lifestyle of the Mongols was not conducive to permanent residency. Their most important domicile, the ger, was by its nature, mobile. Even now, a significant part of the population live in them--many in the country, but there are some semi-permanent ones in the city.

In response to the rapid growth of the city's population, they are building up great blocks of apartments all around the outskirts of the city, hard up against the hills that surround the city.

The gers are the small round structures in the picture above. They look like little oil storage tanks.

Here are some gers in a smaller town outside the capital.

This one, in Terelj National Park, is actually occupied.

The city maps mark the outlying territories as all gers, although the reality is that a lot of the buildings (the clutter near the top of the above photo) are houses.

 The ger is a good response to a certain lifestyle choice--it is reasonably mobile, and you can add insulating layers to it to make it through the winter. But from the centralized government perspective, a mobile population isn't the easiest thing to keep tabs on. So why not encourage them to put down roots in apartment complexes.

I think they should build higher up on the hills so they can escape the worst of the bad air in the winter.