At the beginning of this year, Mongolia made a striking announcement: it was preparing to build a new city in Hara Holin, 360 kilometers from the capital, Ulaanbaatar, to move some of the country's administration away from the crowded capital, Ulaanbaatar. Perhaps soon, Hala and Lin will become the new capital of Mongolia!
Sandwiched between the mainland and Russia, Mongolia is the second largest landlocked country in the world with a land area of 1,566,500 square kilometers and a population of 3.45 million.
Mongolia is known for its vast land and sparse population, averaging less than 2 people per square kilometer, making it the least densely populated country in the world.
Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, has a population of 1.54 million, accounting for nearly half of the country's population, compared to Darkhan, the second largest city, with only 60,000. It can be said that Ulaanbaatar is the only city in Mongolia.
Ulaanbaatar is a city with a strong grassland style, integrating the strength of the whole country to develop a city, modern and primitive coexist, the city center is full of high-rise buildings, new and modern buildings, a prosperous scene!
In stark contrast to the high-rise buildings, however, are the slums that enclose the city center in the middle and stretch into the hillsides of the far suburbs, where there is no water, electricity, gas and heating, and they have to live on their own in a primitive way.
It is said that Mongolia is vast and sparsely populated, rich in resources and minerals, and the sale of minerals alone is enough for the people of the whole country to have no worries about food and clothing, so why are there still so many slums? The gap between the rich and the poor in Mongolia is so wide that the rich and the poor seem to be two worlds.
The fundamental reason is that those in power do not take the people seriously at all. The domestic mineral resources are all occupied and divided by the bureaucrats and tycoons, and the officials and businessmen collude to become officials only to make a fortune, and they don't care whether the people live or die. A corrupt bureaucracy and the government's disregard for the gap between the rich and the poor have led to hardship for ordinary people.
Mongolian herders who used to live in pastoral areas used to have a regular annual income, but after the government's complete Westernization reforms, the herders' fixed income was also lost, and finally they were reduced to the point where they could not even guarantee food and clothing, leading to a large influx of poor herders to Ulaanbaatar in search of a way out.
The herders simply could not afford to buy an expensive house in the capital, so they had to build a yurt in a small area for their families. The capital is surrounded by hundreds of thousands of tents, stretching for several kilometers and covering the entire hillside. What is even more tragic is that many people have no place to stand in the slums, so they can only hide in bridges and manhole covers to escape the long winter.
Located on the Mongolian plateau, Ulaanbaatar has the harshest climate and is the coldest capital in the world, with winters reaching as low as -40°C. The slums have no central heating, and in order to survive the half-year winter, they can only rely on firewood and coal for heating, and the whole city is shrouded in black smoke in winter.
In addition, in recent years, a large number of second-hand cars have been imported from abroad, and there are all kinds of cars on the roads of the capital, Japanese cars and German cars are intertwined, and the chaos makes the air pollution more and more serious, and Ulaanbaatar is also one of the most seriously polluted cities in the world.
In order to improve the urban appearance of the capital, the Mongolian government decided to build a new city in Hala and Lam in the former Hangai province, and planned to gradually move government departments in order to alleviate the congested population, poor traffic and weather in Ulaanbaatar.
Hala Horin, 365 kilometers southwest of Ulaanbaatar, is the heart of the Mongolian Plateau, where dense forests bloom in the middle of summer. Since ancient times, it has been a place where various nomadic peoples from the north have lived in the pastures.
Since 1220, when Genghis Khan made Hala and Lin the capital of the Mongol Empire, various races, religions and cultures have converged here, and at its height in the 13th century, it was not only the political, economic and cultural center of the Mongol Empire, but also the center of the world, and then fell into ruins due to wars and other reasons.
At the end of 2022, Mongolian President Uhna Khurilsukh signed a presidential decree to rebuild the capital of the Mongolian Empire, Hala Horin.
In 1220 A.D., Genghis Khan founded the capital of the Mongol Empire, Hala Horin, on the basis of the ancient capital of Kerebe. It is a city with the architectural style of the Han people in the Central Plains and the characteristics of the grassland life of the northern nomads.
The first four khans of the Mongol Empire, namely Genghis Khan, Ögedei, Guiyou, and Möngke, all sat in Hara and Lin to manage the affairs of the empire. Since the Mongol Empire was the lord of the world at this time, Hala and Lincheng were greatly developed in various aspects such as commerce, animal husbandry, handicrafts, religion, science and technology, and political diplomacy, and became the ruling center of the Mongol Empire.
In the middle of the 13th century, it became the center of the world, from Vienna on the Danube to the city of Bianliang on the Yellow River, from the cold Siberian steppes in the north to the scorching sun of the Arabian Peninsula.
There was an endless stream of envoys, missionaries, and caravans from all over the world. The missionaries of the Roman popes, the envoys of the Southern Song Dynasty, the camel caravans of Persian merchants, the tributary of the Goryeo Kingdom...... It's all gathered here;
Stupas, mosques, and Christian churches coexist here, where various religions and cultures coexist; From here, the Great Khan's edicts were issued and delivered to the Mongol armies around the world. It is a collection of rare beasts, gold, silver and jewels looted by the Mongol army from Eastern Europe, West Asia, Central Asia, East Asia, and South Asia.
However, it is an eternal truth that prosperity must decline. In 1260, Kublai Khan, the ancestor of the Yuan dynasty, ascended the throne in Shangdu, and his younger brother Ali Buge occupied the Hala and Lin regions and established himself as the Great Khan. In the winter of the following year, Kublai Khan's army defeated Ali Buge and occupied Hala and Lim.
In 1264, Kublai Khan established the Yuan Dynasty and moved the capital to Dadu (now Beijing), and the political center of the Mongol Empire was moved to the Han land of Monan. In 1312, the Yuan government established Lingbei Province, and Hala and Lin became the provincial capitals. In 1368, the Yuan Dynasty was conquered by the Ming army, and the Yuan court retreated to the Northern Yuan Dynasty according to Hala and Lin Shi. The Northern Yuan regime still had Hala and Lin as its capital.
In 1387, the Ming army conquered Hala and Lin, and the Yuan court fled north, and Hala and Lincheng were burned down by the Ming army. After the collapse of the Mongolian parts, the nobles attacked each other, did not form a unified regime, although Hala and Lin were rebuilt several times, but there was no longer the former grandeur, the late Ming Dynasty gradually declined, and was abandoned, and finally submerged under the wind and sand of the plateau desert.
In 2004, Hala Horin and its surroundings became the only World Heritage Site in Mongolia. Its name on the World Cultural Heritage List is "Orkhon Gorge Cultural Landscape".
In order to strengthen the coordinated development of the region and promote the development of history and tourism, the Mongolian government has clarified its expectations for the new capital of Hara and Lam, and the planning of the new capital pursues the concept of a smart and green city. With the full application of artificial intelligence and technological innovation, we are committed to building a modern city and making Xindu the second Ulaanbaatar to alleviate the population pressure of the current capital.
Hala Horin has a rich historical origin and cultural heritage, it has witnessed the rise and fall of the Mongol Empire, and carries a heavy regional and national culture. The preservation and transmission of its cultural heritage has become an important task in the construction of the new capital, and at the same time to bring back to the light of day the ancient capital, which has been lost to the past.