ENVIRONS

Building was started in 1838 by the fourth Bogd Gegeen, but as with most monasteries in Mongolia, the purges of 1937 fell heavily on Gandan. When the US vice president Henry Wallace asked to see a monastery during his visit to Mongolia in 1944, Prime Minister Choibalsan guiltily scrambled to open this one to cover up the fact that he had recently laid waste to Mongolia’s religious heritage. Gandan remained a ‘show monastery’ for other foreign visitors until 1990.

The State Department Store is the largest shopping mall in Mongolia, a leftover of the Soviet occupation. You can find cashmere and leather here, in addition to whatever else you might find in a department store. It occupies several floors. Mongolian souvenirs are generally found on the 5th floor. It's also a great place to stock up on backpacking and camping gear. Recently upgraded, it is open till early evening.

In July 1921 in the centre of Ulaanbaatar, the ‘hero of the revolution’, Damdin Sükhbaatar, declared Mongolia’s final independence from the Chinese. The square now features a bronze statue of Sükhbaatar astride his horse. In 2013 the city authorities changed the name from Sükhbaatar Square to Chinggis Khaan Square. The enormous marble construction was completed in 2006 in time for the 800th anniversary of Chinggis Khaan’s coronation.