Impressions of Mongolia - Finals

Train 4 from Ulaanbaatar to Beijing

Impressions of Mongolia probably have to be divided clearly between city and countryside. In the city, mainly Ulaanbaatar, people behave like city people anywhere else, too. There are beggars and people who try to cheat you. People shout bits of English after you trying to get your attention. You have to be a bit wary of everyone.
And here, I also noticed, people drink a lot. Mainly men actually - it seems a similar problem as in Ulan Ude. This unnerved me a bit since I didn't know how drunk Mongols will react or behave. But it's a bit sad to see the descendants of this proud people stagger through the streets, leaning on their wives/girlfriends to stay upright. I don't envy Mongolian women.
In the countryside things are very different. People seem very honest and genuinely friendly. Kids don't beg for money but say hello and want to be photographed and get excited over the pictures. Here we saw a couple of really cute children. People are hospitable and invite you into their ger, offer you food and drink, which it is rude to decline untasted. It's a joy to meet them.
Sadly, or rather frustratingly, I'm still not comfortable taking photos of people - and shy to ask if I can. People wear their colourful national dresses to the temple or just in the street. I would love to take a photo but I feel like an intruder and choose not to. Maybe it's better like this.
All in all, I can feel the closeness to China now. Not only because people look Asian now - maybe like people from Northern China but there's more.
The traditional music using strings and pipes, for example, reminds me strongly of Chinese tunes I've heard before. There's also the architecture of temples and pavillions with sweeping roofs. I wonder who influenced who here - it's difficult to get an answer. Mongolia officially, in its national museum, claims it once ruled all of China while the Chinese will claim that China has always been China but for some time Mongolia also belonged to it. Buddhist monks chant their prayers and there is brush calligraphy in flowing ancient Mongolian script.
But I learnt the feelings about China are mixed. There are so many Chinese products around but people don't only welcome them. Whenever something went wrong with the car Gorin would blame it on Chinese parts. Don't eat those peanuts, he told me once, they're the bad Chinese ones. We sometimes wondered if all that could be serious. This all seems to be for historical as well as contemporary reasons. In the past, Mongolia accuses the Chinese Manchu rulers - the Qing - to be particularly cruel to Mongolian people. These days, Chinese businessmen can be ruthless, a Chinese traveller at the hostel told me. But then, of course, there's the story about the road from the border crossing to China to Ulaanbaatar that was supposed to be built by Mongolian companies but was held up by corruption and lack of organisation. In the end China is now itself building the road on Mongolian territory. Otherwise, they claim it will never get finished. A problem I've heard about before just with different country names.
Still, I hope I will get the chance to return here and explore more of this exciting country.