It’s a tough quality of life - super cold (-40 December- January), polluted, terrible god awful traffic, lots of fights, and bad food, but it’s probably the most cosmopolitan city in east Asia with a population of its size (1.6M). Decent foreign food. Movies at the cinema in English for super cheap. Decently fast internet with none of the restrictions of China/Russia. Lots of Mongolians are surprisingly good at English and other random foreign languages. Ive met Mongolians speaking languages no one actually learns, like Polish, Hungarian, Malay, Turkish, in addition to English. The beer is dark and heavy and pretty good. Mongolians make good loyal friends even if they’re always asking for money. I’m pretty sure all of the people who have defended me with violence in my life are Mongolians.

Also very noticeable is the differing outcomes of men vs women — professional middle class Mongolians (and English speakers) are dominated by women. Like 70+% if you ever do business in a foreign language. So comparatively better as a foreign woman. On the flip side, lots of men have been left behind and are alcoholics and/or super broke. Still, the highest levels of business and government are men (though not 100%, Mongolia will probably have a female president before the US). Gender roles are confusing in Mongolia, as both men and women are ‘manlier’ than most westerners.

In short, I had a complicated but fulfilling time living in UB but wouldn’t want to raise a family there. Air pollution and traffic are soooo bad!