How Mongolia is helping its nomads adapt to big city life

Level 2 l Upper intermediate

Welcome to the yurt-opolis! How 5 The world outside the ger is no longer grassland
but a small private plot, with a two-metre-high
Mongolia is helping its nomads
fence. City residents must pay for water and fuel,
adapt to big city life rely on public transport and manage their waste.
Oliver Wainwright Their individual actions have an impact on
17 May, 2020 others, sometimes for the first time in their lives.
1 Visit Ulaanbaatar on Google Earth and you will 6 These social challenges are made worse by
see that the Mongolian capital looks completely practical issues: there is no running water in
different from other cities. Hundreds of thousands the ger districts, sewerage or central heating.
of tiny white dots are scattered around the In winter, when temperatures can fall to -40C,
Soviet-era urban centre. It looks like someone each household burns around three to five
has emptied a big bag of confetti over the tonnes of coal, and this makes Ulaanbaatar
landscape. The white specks extend for miles. one of the most polluted cities in the world.
2 These dots are each in their own plot, sometimes And the problem is getting worse.
with an orange tin-roofed shack. They are called 7 “People usually think of the ger districts as
yurts (or gers in Mongolian), and they are tents slum areas on the edge of the city,” says
made of wooden latticework wrapped with Gardi. “But they represent over 60% of the
insulating felt and canvas. For thousands of years, entire population of the city, and they’re
these tents have been the houses growing by 30,000 people every year.”
of Mongolian herders on the plains. And 8 Gardi founded GerHub to help bring a sense
the nomadic tent-based mindset is not of pride back to the ger districts. After a few
easily changed when herders move to years working in whatever spaces it could
the city – with problematic results. find, the organization’s educational and
3 “Mongolia is the least densely populated country social outreach programme has a new
in the world,” says Badruun Gardi, who grew up home. It is a contemporary version of the
in Ulaanbaatar and, in 2016, founded GerHub. It traditional ger, designed by the Hong Kong
is a non-profit social business that helps people architecture studio Rural Urban Framework.
adjust to the challenges of urban life. “When 9 The new Ger Innovation Hub is impressive. Its
you’re a herder, you can go for miles and miles shimmering plastic walls surround a wooden
without seeing another family. You don’t have to framework, which surrounds an inner space
think about living in a confined space with that has mud-brick walls. In summer, the
hundreds or thousands of people.” entire hub can open up. The wall panels lift so
4 The idea of a fixed capital city has always felt that activities can take place in the
strange for this nation of nomadic herders. The surrounding landscape. In the hard and
13th-century conqueror Genghis Khan ruled his difficult winter, the building creates a shelter.
vast empire from a nine-metre-wide yurt. And 10 “We were inspired by the structure of the ger
Ulaanbaatar itself used to be a nomadic itself,” says Joshua Bolchover, from the
settlement, formed by thousands of tents,
University of Hong Kong, whose students helped
following wherever the herds of livestock
to build the project. The resulting structure
decided to travel. The Soviets tried to formalize
creates spaces that can be adapted to all kinds
the capital in the 1920s. They changed its name
of activities, from preschool playtime to
from Urga (Ulaanbaatar means Red Hero) and
workshops for teenagers, training sessions for
built concrete blocks of flats. But, as thousands
local businesses and meet-ups for the elderly.
have moved to the city in recent years, the
capital has expanded outwards in all directions. 11 The layered design means that, if it’s -40C outside,
The herders have come to the city because of it would be about 0C in the buffer zone, thanks to
the loss of livestock and promises of better solar heat. This is “fine for kids to run around with
education, healthcare and job prospects. But the their coats on,” says Bolchover. And the central
adjustment from a nomadic life to life in a big city space would only need to be heated to 15C
is difficult. because of the warmth radiating from the
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How Mongolia is helping its nomads adapt to big city life
Level 2 l Upper intermediate
mud walls. A circular space at the centre is big hope this will be a place for social life to happen
enough so that a ger can be put up over it, too, and new community ties to form.”
creating an even more insulated central core for © Guardian News and Media 2020
smaller gatherings.
First published in The Guardian, 17/05/20
12 “We want it to be as lively a place as possible,”
says Gardi. “In winter, it can be particularly
difficult being stuck indoors for months, so we

3 Comprehension check
Are these statements true (T) or false (F) according to the article? Correct any that are false.

1. In recent years, thousands of nomadic herders have started to move from the countryside in
Mongolia to the capital city.
2. Mongolian herders and their families must learn that the way they live will affect other people when
they move to a city.
3. Mongolia is the most densely populated country in the world.
4. Ulaanbaatar is one of the least polluted cities in the world.
5. The new Ger Innovation Hub has been built to give nomadic herders a place to live in the winter.
6. Its structure and design are based on a traditional Mongolian yurt.

4 Collocations
Read the definitions, then find the word you need to complete each collocation. The first
letter of each missing word is given to help you. Check your answers in the text.

1. a small restricted area where you have little room to move about – c________________ space
2. the chances someone has of finding a job – job p________________
3. water that comes into a building through pipes – r________________ water
4. a modern type of something – c________________ version
5. a structure made of wood that supports something and makes it a particular shape
– wooden f________________
6. an area that safely separates one place from another – b________________ zone
7. relationships or connections between the people who live in a particular area – c________________ ties

5 Talking about the article

Talk to a partner about the article. Use the key words in task 2 and the collocations in task 4.

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Level 2 l Upper intermediate
6 Discussion
1. Read paragraph 1 of the text again. Find Ulaanbaatar on Google Earth, look at the satellite
views and photographs and talk about what you see.
2. Follow the link below and discuss the four pictures of the Ger Innovation Hub. Is it different
from what you imagined when you read the article?
www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/may/17/yurt-opolis-mongolia-city-life-
ulaanbaatar-community-hub#img-1

7 Webquest
Write a country fact file about Mongolia. Include interesting facts and information under
the following headings as well as any others you think of.

• Land and geography

• People
• Language and arts
• Economy
• Food and agriculture
• Energy
• Infrastructure
• Politics
• Traditions and festivals

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