Wu Wei tells the story: In 2008, I visited Mongolia for the first time, and the night in Ulaanbaatar changed me...

China Thought Think Tank 2022-01-03 08:53

Wu Wei tells the story:

[In 2008, I visited Mongolia for the first time, and the night in Ulaanbaatar changed me...]

Author: Wu Wei

Starting today, before the Spring Festival, we set up a new column "Wu Wei Storytelling". Mainly to tell the experience and evaluation of the entrepreneurs led by Cesi to travel to more than 50 countries in the world, and enrich everyone's Spring Festival life. Today I will first tell the story of my visit to Mongolia more than a decade ago.

In June 2008, CESI led the first delegation to visit Mongolia, I was an attaché, although it was only two days, but the night in Ulaanbaatar changed a lot of my cognition before I set off.

Located in eastern Asia, which is what we call East Asia, Mongolia covers an area of more than 1.5 million square kilometers and is the second largest landlocked country in the world (the largest country, Kazakhstan), with a population of more than 3 million, and about one-third of them live in Ulaanbaatar.

Let me share a few of my feelings about Mongolia:

First, near. From Beijing, about 1100 kilometers, less than an hour and a half to arrive, almost the same as the time of Flying Hohhot or Baotou;

Second, small. The airport is too small, one exit, two counters and three gates, really, smaller than our one prefecture-level city airport (it is said that the new airport is now used);

Third, suffering. From the airport to the city to the hotel, the roads are uneven and dusty. Including the capital Ulaanbaatar, there is only one street and a decent hotel, and at night the black lights are blind, which makes people dare not imagine;

Fourth, no. The Mongols have a bad impression of China, they stipulate that all advertisements, road signs and other public places, do not use Chinese, in a few days in Ulaanbaatar, almost all seen and heard, almost all are unfriendly, which greatly surprised me;

Fifth, less. With a small population, Mongolia covers an area of nearly 1.5 million square kilometers, equivalent to four Japans and 15 South Koreas, with a population of just over 3 million;

Sixth, contention. Genghis Khan is our pride and the pride of the Mongolian people. When we got to Mongolia, there was Genghis Khan Square and statues of Genghis Khan everywhere, and the locals said: Genghis Khan was born in their country, and we immediately said, no, no, No, Genghis Khan is ours, and our primary and secondary school textbooks all say this. They sighed: Don't fight, we are such a big hero to be proud of...

The late Ambassador Gao Shumao (right) accompanied Secretary-General Yu Yanzhong to the reception marking the 95th anniversary of the founding of Mongolia

A few days in Mongolia upended almost all my perceptions of Mongolia. Of course, perhaps the most important thing for everyone is how Mongolia separated from China. I have reviewed the information and would like to share it with you here:

The separation of Mongolia is divided into three stages:

First, in the last years of the Qing Dynasty, the national strength declined, and Tsarist Russia took advantage of the void to plan the independence of Outer Mongolia. After the Xinhai Revolution, Tsarist Russia felt that the time had come, so on November 30, 1911, instigated the monastic class of the princes and princes of Outer Mongolia to declare "independence";

At the end of the Second World War, a conference was held in Yalta (now part of Ukraine) in the Soviet Union, stalin once again demanded that Mongolia become an independent country, and as a precondition for sending troops to northeast China to attack Japan, US President Roosevelt agreed, so that Yalta would give legal recognition to Mongolian independence, and Chiang Kai-shek's government had no choice but to agree;

After the founding of New China, in order to strengthen the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance, Stalin once again proposed that the premise was to recognize Mongolian independence, and Mao Zedong had no choice but to do so.

Although this visit to Mongolia was only two days long, my understanding of Mongolia far exceeded what we had learned in books for more than a decade.

After returning to China, we met Gao Shumao, a retired former ambassador to Mongolia, and the exchange allowed me to add a lot of understanding of Mongolia.

Now that China and Mongolia have maintained good relations, especially during the epidemic period, they have enhanced their friendship and taken this opportunity to wish China and Mongolia friendship for generations.

Reviewer: Yu Linlin

Editor: Morning