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| A Changing UB -- incredible economic growth. |
Chimgee – Our Tour Guide for Mongolia
The in-country tour guide can literally make or break a trip. In our recent travels in China, we’ve been blessed with having one of the very best – Tony Lu. Those who have traveled with us when Tony’s been our guide will tell you that he is an incredible window to China both historical and modern. And, he’s fun too.
It’s been a long time since we’ve worked with “not Tony” – so I was apprehensive when first meeting and getting to know our Mongolia guide- Chimgee. She’s a late-20s, dynamic young woman with a great sense of humor and a great feel for the history and culture of her people as well as an understanding of the art of guIiding and teaching. Her English is excellent as she not only studied here in UB, but also spent a year studying at Missouri State College.
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| Our guide Chimgee and the somewhat incredulous History Dude |
She was born and raised a 12 hour drive east of UB, so she is a country girl at heart, and as such represents the overwhelming dynamic of UB’s recent history. The city has grown exponentially as the lure of work and education is sucking the youth out of the Mongolian countryside into UB.
We are very lucky to have Chimgee guiding us. She’s only been doing it for 4 years and has not yet developed that hard edge that more experienced guides usually have. She genuinely wants us to understand and appreciate what it was and is to be a traditional rural Mongolian but also appreciate what it is to be a young 21st century Mongol professional.
After going over the next couple of days itinerary with her, we met the group in the hotel lobby to begin our adventure. But not before Annie had to do a recitation for the group.
Annie’s “Sing a Song for the Group”
I’m not sure where this started in our group traveling, but we have a rule that if you leave something – a camera, jacket, etc. – on a chair or bus seat for example, and walk off and leave it – the “finder” then brings it back to you and you must sing a song, recite a poem, or dance for the group next opportunity. It’s pretty ingenious as it’s a motivation for us to look out for each other’s stuff, and also extract a bit of a giggle now and then. Annie left her coat in the dining room at breakfast, and it was found by Barbara Canfield who gleefully returned it and reminded Annie of the punishment.
So, in the lobby on our first day, the spotlight shifted to Annie who recited one her favorite couplets – in Japanese – about Mt. Fuji. Not very geographically or culturally germane, but a great way to begin. She liked doing it so much she did it twice.
The Money Stop
Our late arrival last night meant that folks would be needing to change some US dollars into tugriks – the Mongolian currency. It’s impossible to buy Mongolian tugriks outside of Mongolia because they aren’t worth much beyond its borders. Actually, anything. The currency is so volatile that hard-eyed money changers world wide steer clear. Chimgee knew of a good bank – open on Saturday – that had ATMs and also a foreign currency desk.
The exchange rate runs around 1800 tugriks to a dollar, so after even the smaller transaction results in a wad of brightly-colored bills – all of which have the portraits of historical figures – like Ghengis – or historical events. Chimgee often uses the bills to illustrate her history lessons. Clever.
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| Working the ATM - Mike Donnelly in charge. |
So, the group rolled into the bank with some working the ATMs and others lining up to file into a small room – with bullet proof glass and Chimgee sat beside each and helped with the transactions. The Donnellys and Annie worked the ATMs – the possibility of the machine eating your card always looming. The other trick in this is trying to predict how much money to change because we don’t want to have much if any when we leave the country. US dollars are also accepted in some instances here in UB, but out in the countryside, tugriks are preferred.
Zaisan Hill – We began our orientation day by heading south toward the low range of mountains the rise up just beyond the Tuul River. There’s a monument to World War II there and it provide a great view of the city. I’ve been up there several times and always feel that my stay in UB has begun after climbing the steps to the top of the blank foot high hill.
But there is was little familiar as we worked out bus down through the forest of apartment buildings that has sprung up along the river and up the flanks of the hill. An apartment and office building was being built immediately adjacent to the first observation deck where the cars and buses park, and the view north to the city is blocked by steel and concrete. Lots of discussion in the group with Chimgee surrounding the question – “How did you let this happen?” and though she could see the downside of the buildings blocking the view, the economic forces that these buildings represent are also a good thing for Mongolia. It’s the usual dilemma—balancing development with the traditional history and look of a place.
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| Genghis Khan even looms over traffic jams -- his statue is in the far distance. |
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| The Group - Standing left - Mike Donnelly, Barbara McCrary, Lud McCrary, Mary Lynne Donnelly, Barbara Canfield, Janet Jones, Pat Loughlin, Joe Jedrychowski; Kneeling front left, Sandy and Ann Lydon and Chimgee. |
We took photographs of the Soviet-inspired monument, chatted a bit and then slowly descended the concrete steps back to our waiting bus.
The Soviet era – good or bad? Chimgee’s view.
We Americans tend to be very opinionated and expect others to be as well. When in China, when the subject of Mao comes up – as it always must – Americans often press on their Chinese hosts – “Well? What was he? A good guy or bad?” The Chinese have developed a sliding scale approach to such questions – usually expressing the answer in a percentage – 30 percent good, 70 percent bad. These kinds of answers, though really a great way of expressing the actual reality of a legacy like Mao’s (he freed them from foreign domination, but starved them), frustrate Americans who are used to a Fox-News approach to history. “Make up your mind, damn it!”
When asked about her general assessment of the 70 some odd year Soviet period in Mongolian history, she gave a balanced answer – the Soviets brought education, healthcare, and some economic advancement. And then she shrugged and admitted the huge loss of human life during Stalin’s purges of the 1920s and 1930s. This theme of assessing the impact of the Soviets will continue to follow us through Mongolia and, obviously into Siberia. Mongolia is still dealing with the history and legacy of the purges. There’s a powerful and simple monument outside the historical museum in UB dedicated to them.
The Battle of Halhgol – August, 1939 remembered outside our window, August 23, 2014
We had lunch in a restaurant in the base of the Blue Sky tower – our window facing north onto Genghis Khan Square. Buffet lunch was a bit pricey, but the room was nice. (Used to be Sukhbataar Square but has been re-named for Genghis as the sands of historical perception change in Mongolia – Sukhbataar is still astride his huge metal horse on the square – he helped lead Mongolia out of their Chinese-dominated era in the early 20th century.) There seemed to be an inordinate number of brown-suited soldiers marching on the square, and then Chimgee remembered that there was going to be a ceremony commemorating the 75th anniversary of what some historians believe to be the first real battle of World War II.
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| View from the window - note troops gathered on the right. That's Genghis Khan Square and the Parliament Building on the right. |
The historical set-up – the Japanese occupied Manchuria as part of their Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere and there had been some discussion in Japan about driving troops across Siberia and linking up with their Nazi allies. They had pushed as far west as the Halh River and Mongolian troops engaged them in several skirmishes that ballooned into a huge battle when the Soviet forces under General Zhukov entered the fray. This was Spring of 1939. By August, there were tens of thousands of Japanese and Soviet forces engaged in aerial combat, tanks, the whole nine yards joined by a small number of Mongolians fighting alongside the Soviets. Eventually by the end of August, thousands had been killed on both sides, and the Japanese were defeated.
So, what does this mean to you? Thwarted in their desire to move west via the northern Siberian route, the Japanese shifted their efforts to Southeast Asia, eventually resulting in the attack on Pearl Harbor and the US entry into the war in late 1941.
And what did this mean to us this day? They were holding a commemoration on Genghis Square to mark the 75th anniversary of the battle of Halhgol. We hurried out of the restaurant and into the square – past the troop trucks lined up and headed over to the steps of the Parliament House – where there’s a very imposing statue of Genghis looming over it all. A group of musicians – the government Ensemble –with their traditional instruments resplendent in their blue-sky uniforms – was posing for pictures and getting ready to play – we had other things to do, so we couldn’t wait for them to actually play, but we got a bunch of great photographs.
Chimgee then lead us on a quick historical loop around the square before we walked northwest to the historical museum.
The Historical Museum - I usually last about 20 minutes in any museum (yea, I know, the History Dude and all that) and this one, lacking air-conditioning and still stuck in the “glass-cases” era of museumdom, I rarely get past the first floor. But with Chimgee’s wonderful explanations, for the first time I got out of the Stone Age, before collapsing on a bench, joining many group members. So we finally called a halt to it – we’ll go back, maybe, during our later UB days next week, and took the group back to the hotel for a chance to rest and recuperate before the evening’s festivities.
