“The land of the blue skies” ? – The sun shines here 275 days a year and pretty fleecy clouds drift across the sky.
But other images came to mind too:
The land without shadows – hundreds of kilometres without a single tree or bush, and the sun beating down relentlessly.
The greenest desert in the world – like an oversized English lawn stretching from horizon to horizon, but without any water.
The real Jurassic Park – the most productive and magnificent dinosaur site on earth.
Where am I? – Imagine the following:
In the middle of the Asian continent, in the largest contiguous grassland on Earth, sometime in January, maximum daily temperature -(minus)10°C!
Who would have thought that Ulaanbaatar, with an average annual temperature of -1.9°C, is the coldest capital city in the world!
Not me, because we in Europe generally know very little about this part of the world. Just two months before our visit, the first official state visit by an Austrian Federal President to Mongolia took place.
This is indeed a forgotten corner of the world – but only for Europeans!
The claws of the ‘bear’ and the teeth of the ‘dragon’ have long been sinking into the flesh of the last nomadic culture on earth.
Some basics?
The population of Mongolia is estimated at 3.47 million. The number of livestock in the country exceeds 70 million. Hmmm….?
Approximately 1.8 million people live in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar.
Hmmmmmm….?
Mongolia covers an area of approximately 1,600,000 km², which is exactly 19 times the size of my home country (Austria: 84,000 km², Germany: 357,000 km²). Hmmmmmmmmm….?
Outside of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia is one of the most sparsely populated countries on earth, with 1.1 people per km².
How pleasant when you come from Central Europe!
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Three months of summer, nine months of winter, six of which are extreme conditions. Spring and autumn are not really known there. June, July and August are the ‘warm’ summer months, but by the end of August, the temperature drops already to 0 °C for the first time.
As a pampered Central European, I naturally visited Mongolia with my family in July, the best month for travelling. Pleasant temperatures of 20–28°C with low humidity make travelling through this fascinating country wonderful, while in Europe new heat records of 38°C and more are constantly being broken.
But let’s not be fooled!
Countries such as Mongolia are disproportionately affected by the climate crisis.
July temperatures of 28°C instead of 22°C may be pleasant, but winter temperatures of -40°C instead of ‘only’ -20°C and even less annual precipitation than before are fatal!
In the winter of 2023-24, 7 million livestock (sheep, goats, horses, cows and yaks) died of frostbite and thirst – a tenth of the total population.
July is the rainiest month of the year in Mongolia. In two or three heavy afternoon summer rain here in the Alps, more rain falls than I have seen here in the whole month.
Extreme temperatures, the greatest temperature differences (per day and over the year) and extreme drought are already the hallmarks of this region, which is so foreign to us. Under these conditions, it seems incredible that people live and survive here; and, incidentally, had founded one of the greatest empires of all time under Genghis Khan.
But many things are coming to a dramatic head in this part of the world right now.
We were able to travel through central Mongolia, from the north with Ulaanbaatar to the central plateaus of the grasslands with its unique and last nomads on earth, to the south of the Gobi, together with our Mongolian friends Ganbaa and Amar.
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This is just the teaser, so to speak, and in future posts I would like to report on our wonderful and surprising experiences and encounters during our personal ‘family expedition’ to the land of blue skies.
What do I want to remember?
to extremely committed people
who want to change their country for the better and make it a place worth living for the long term
to the last nomads on earth
courageous, tough but extremely warm-hearted and nature-loving people – the last (already ‘hybrid’) nomads on earth
natural environment
a barren, actually hostile, yet wonderfully vast and lonely natural environment
Ulaanbaatar – but never call it that !
to one of the fastest-growing cities on earth with a heavy Russian heritage – I have never seen so many construction cranes in one place at the same time in my life! And why you should call it UB.
the first certified passive house
a great and very challenging passive house project (which I now have the privilege of being involved in) – only can be found using geo coordinates (48.26132, 100.37811) – and (if we actually succeed in building Mongolia’s first certified passive house (?????)) could change quite a lot in education and rural country of Mongolia
Airag, the drink of the gods
the proper way to drink the national drink Airag (fermented mare’s milk) – ‘Airag and related customs’ was added to UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural heritage of humanity in 2019
lots of passive houses
so many passive house lighthouse projects (yes, you heard right!) – spread across the country, from Ulaanbaatar in the north to the Gobi in the south
Who am I writing this for?
To be honest, for myself – to sort through and organise my impressions in a lasting way, to shed new light on my own life and work, and to question them. Mongolia offers every visitor an extreme change of perspective – I don’t want to let this opportunity pass me by and quickly get caught up in my usual daily work routine again.
But if anyone else is interested too, I have no objection (and if the carbon footprint of travelling to this country weren’t so disastrous, I would recommend it to everyone !).
So stay tuned for more …
© 2025 Harald Konrad Malzer