Some photos

Took some photos from Max Tower, a new office block of the Max Group of UB city, on Monday. Winter approaching. This was just before the second snowfall of the winter. And these are from Naran-Tuul open-air market (some call it the Black Market). Freezing cold at this place probably coz it's near a river valley.

 

And the racks in the photo above is just the shoe section of this huge market. Good place to go shopping for winter clothes right now and everything else you can imagine. Cheap China-made stuff are everywhere, but you can also find some Mongolian-made wool / leather goods. The sizes on the Chinese products are completely nuts (i.e. not indicative of the actual size at all). In some stalls, the smallest size they have for sweaters or coats is XL, which seems to be the equivalent of the normal S or M. Maybe the factory in China ran outta S / M / L size clothes tags and just sewed on XL and XXL's to their clothes at random.

Mongolia to Sell Uranium to India?

According to yesterday's article in The Hindu Business Line (via mongolia-web.com), India is looking at joint mining and exploration opportunities for uranium with Mongolia among a few other countries. Excerpts:

“We are working out (uranium) supply arrangements with countries like Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan... We are also planning to carry out joint mining and exploration initiatives with Mongolia,” Mr Saran said at an interaction organised by FICCI on Civil Nuclear issue on Tuesday.
Mr Saran also said that the current global financial turmoil could lead to a slowdown in the global nuclear power market and, thereby, bringing down reactor and fuel prices.
“The current financial crisis can be a blessing in disguise… This creates a favourable condition for India to embark on a truly ambitious nuclear programme, getting the best terms and conditions, including technology transfer,” he said.

The thing is, India is one of 3 states that refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Pakistan and Israel being the other two. One of the reasons behind India refusing is that China is a nuclear power. The other, probably, is Pakistan's refusal to sign the treaty. Them three's got problems with each other. Australia's refused to sell uranium to India until and unless India signs the NNPTreaty, their argument being if they start selling to India, they may as well consider selling to Pakistan and Israel (ref here).

An interesting question arises, how does China feel about Mongolia selling uranium to India with whom it has border conflicts? For that matter how does Russia feel about Mongolia selling uranium to India, seeing as the Russians were the first to start the "your uranium for a power plant" discussion. I guess, the main question is, what do WE have to gain from selling uranium to India. Technology transfer? India definitely has the technology and experience with nuclear power generation.

Read the article here

In Search of Chinggis Khaan's Tomb... Once Again

I remember about a decade and a half ago, there was a Japanese-Mongolian expedition "Three Rivers" (if I'm not mistaken) to locate the tomb of Chinggis Khaan without any success. Some say the real Japanese interest lay in sizing up the natural resources of Mongolia. Whatever the case may be, another (probably futile) expedition is taking place in Mongolia in search of the Khaan's final resting place. 

Scientists at the University of California in San Diego (UCSD) are using advanced visualization technologies to locate the tomb of Mongolian emperor Genghis Khan, the UCSD said in a press release on Monday.
    "As outrageous as it might sound, we're looking for the tomb of Genghis Khan," Dr. Albert Yu-Min Lin, an affiliated researcher for UCSD's Center for Interdisciplinary Science in Art, Architecture and Archaeology (CISA3), said in the release e-mailed to Xinhua...

Lin plans to establish a position at UCSD that will allow him to spearhead the three-year Valley of the Khans project, which will require 700,000 dollars in funding for eight researchers, including all expedition costs, said the release. 

 Why? Here's why.

 "But as great a man he was, there are few clues and no factual evidence about Genghis Khan's burial, which is why we need to start using technology to solve this mystery," Lin said. 

The need to solve the mystery to Chinggis Khaan's burial. As nonsensical as the reason may sound, a part of me is asking what might happen if they should really succeed in their needful mission. If anything, they'd have to tear down the Chinggis Khaan Mausoleum in Ordos, Inner Mongolia, China. Reenactments of the demystified burial ritual?

Read the full article here

Back in Mongolia

Back in the dusty bowels of Ulaanbaatar city. Autumn's nearly at its end, though the weather's been pleasant nearly every day since I came back. Rained yesterday, cold and muddy. Spent a few hours over a couple of days walking around central UB, weaving through traffic and walking up dead-ends created by disorganized construction craze.

Finally back online today with Citinet's broadband, they throw the fibreoptic cable down from the top of the building to your bedroom window, drill a hole in your window frame and connect your PC to the cable. The speed's thankfully decent and fast, even at 256kbps, which they will later upgrade to 1mbps.

On Sunday, local elections were held. The turnout was less than the required 50% and a reelection is due within 14 days of the failed election. Goes to show the level of confidence remaining in the electoral procedure after July. Below is School No.2, near our place, where our voting station was situated, guarded by General Sukhbaatar's bust.