Built on the banks of the Tuul Gol river, Ulaan Baatar is by far Mongolia’s largest city. Its centre is largely dominated by soviet style skyscrapers, under whose shadows stroll couples in traditional dress. The city is surrounded by picturesque mountains and wide sweeping vistas.

The Winter Palace of Bogd Khan, built in the late 19th century, is the only surviving residence of the last religious and political leader of Mongolia, King Damba Hutagt 8th (who was commonly referred to as Bogd Khan). The others were destroyed by the Russians. The Incarnations of the Bogd Khan ended with his death in 1924. The palace’s museum offers a wide variety of Buddhist art but its mainstay is the huge and sometimes scary natural history specimens collected by the Bogd Khan.

The Natural History Museum houses a fine ornithological gallery, geology section including meteorites, and some imposing dinosaur skeletons.

The Gandan Khiid Monastery means the “great place of complete joy”. It is the most important and largest monastery in Mongolia. Built in 1838, the Communist purges of 1937 fell heavily on the monastery but luckily it survived and there are now 150 monks in residence. The main courtyard contains the temple of Ochiraary Sum and the smaller Golden Dedenpovaran Sum. On the third side is the magnificent white Migjid Janraisig Sum, the monastery’s main attraction.

Mongolians were born on the back of horses; they ride them, eat them and even make Airag, an alcoholic drink from mare’s milk. Mongolians have over 300 words for horses, and no trip to Mongolia would be complete without a trip to the Hustai Nuruu National Park and Horse Reserve near Ulaan Baatar.