Neglected facts in mysterious Mongolia

What do you think of every time you mention Mongolia? Looking at the endless grassland? The story of Genghis Khan? Jin Yong's novels? Cattle and sheep are everywhere? I went to Mongolia in July 20 14 and took a five-day tour. In addition to the common facts in newspapers, I have some unique experiences and understandings. I might as well talk about them here and share them with you:

1. The country with the longest border with China. When it comes to the border with China, we will think that the country with the longest border with China is Russian. In fact, the longest border with China is Mongolia. The border between Russia and China is divided into eastern and western sections by Mongolia. The total length is 3645 kilometers. The border between China and Mongolia is 47 10 km. The border between China and Mongolia is longer than the border between China and Russia 1000 kilometers.

2. The second largest landlocked country in the world. Mongolia covers an area of 6.5438+0.56 million square kilometers. China and Russia embrace Outer Mongolia like two arms, or, like two huge pliers, they sandwich Outer Mongolia from north to south. When I look at the map, I feel bored. I'm too far from the sea to get out. Actually, there is no need to worry so much. There are more than 40 landlocked countries in the world. By the way, the largest landlocked country in the world is Kazakhstan, with an area of more than 3 million square kilometers.

3. Is there only one city in Mongolia? Friends from outer Mongolia told us that there is only one city in Mongolia, and that is Ulaanbaatar, the capital. This sounds a bit strange to us. Entering Mongolia from Erenhot, next to the Erlian border, there is a city in Mongolia called Zamenude. How can you say there is no market? Mongolian friends say that those cities are small and can be called towns or ignored. Ulaanbaatar is the only one that can be listed. The population of Mongolia is close to 3 million, and the proportion of people living in Ulaanbaatar is close to 40%. No wonder there are few people in other places.

The administrative divisions of Outer Mongolia are as follows: China has 2 1 Union, which is equivalent to the province of China, with Sumu below, which is equivalent to the county, and Baga below, which is equivalent to the village of China. Think about it. Among the 3 million people, Ulaanbaatar has more than 6.5438+0 million people, and other 2.65438+0 provinces have more than 6.5438+0 million people. If a province does not have 6.5438 million people, there should be no market.

4. The most sparsely populated country in the world. Mongolia covers an area of 1.56 million square kilometers, with a population of 2.95 million, and one square kilometer is close to 1.9 people. This ratio is lower than that of Tibet, the least populous region in China, and Australia and Canada, the two least populous countries in the world. At the beginning of this century, their population was even smaller. At independence, the population was less than 800,000. If you look at the specific figures, you will know that Tibet is the provincial unit with the smallest population in China. Sando, you can't see many people driving. The area of Tibet is 6.5438+0.22 million square kilometers, which is smaller than that of Mongolia. In 20 13, the population was 365,438+million, slightly more than that of Mongolia. The population of Australia and Canada is about 10 times that of outer Mongolia, but the area is not as big as 10 times that of Mongolia. When I was in Australia, I felt that the population of such a big country was not as large as that of Chongqing in China, so I couldn't take care of it. I went to outer Mongolia and sat on the floor in outer Mongolia, thinking that the ratio of their population to land area was not as good as that of Australia.

5. How many Mongolians are there in the world? There are about10 million Mongolians. The distribution is roughly as follows: 3 million in outer Mongolia, 6 million in China and 6,543.8+0,000 in Russia. The Mongolians in China rank sixth among the ethnic minorities in China. As for ethnic minorities, I remember that only China has them. Taiwan Province province is called aborigines, but other countries don't seem to have the concept of minorities. For example, Scotland, which just held a referendum, only has the concept of different ethnic groups, and there is no concept of ethnic minorities. Taiwan Province Province was originally called ethnic minorities, but later it was changed to aborigines to avoid sensitive words. ) In China, the largest area inhabited by Mongolians is called Inner Mongolia. Inner Mongolia has a population of more than 25 million, including more than 20 million Han people and more than 4 million Mongolian people. In Erenhot, I chatted with that Mongolian guy. He said that some companies with Mongolian brands actually have no Mongolians, and even some companies have a Mongolian. There are fewer nomadic Mongolians, and most of them have settled down. It is difficult to find a Mongolian who migrates by grass. The same is true of outer Mongolia. Imagine that in Ulaanbaatar, the population of outer Mongolia has accounted for 40% of the total population. If you want to find a real nomadic people, you will get deep in the grassland.

In addition to the above100000 "authentic" Mongolians, there are also some mixed-race descendants of Mongolians and other Central Asian nationalities in Iran, Afghanistan and parts of Central Asia. For example, Hazaras and 4 million Hazaras are considered to be mixed-race descendants of Mongolia. According to the statistics of a British research institute, more than 654.38+06 million people in the world are descendants of Genghis Khan's gene, and some of them are blond.

6. Are Mongolians tough? It is often said in the media that Mongols are drunk, aggressive and unrestrained. I stayed in Mongolia for a few days, and I didn't have much contact with Mongols. It was very uncomfortable. Whether in Ulaanbaatar, Zamenud or nearby resorts, the first feeling is that there are few people. Because there are few people, the probability of conflict is much lower. China, on the other hand, is crowded with people everywhere, jostling with each other, with a much higher chance of bumping into each other and frequent quarrels. However, several things happened in Mongolia in the past few days. First, our tour group just arrived in Ulaanbaatar, and a group member lost four cards, three bank cards and one ID card. Among them, the bank card was stolen at that time. The next day, at the railway station, when I returned to the waiting room, a drunken middle-aged man had been watching us. Later, he simply came to help me, and I refused. I don't know why, because I can't understand what he said. Third, some time ago, a go on road trip delegation went to Outer Mongolia and its license plate was stolen. It is said that this is aimed at China cars.

What about the whole Mongolian character? From the contact and chat with Mongolians at home and abroad, we know that the general character of Mongolians is indeed passionate, like wrestling, drinking and fighting. But because of local reasons, Mongolia's personality is also different. China, eastern Inner Mongolia near the northeast. These people are richer and the Mongolians are more flexible. They are both hospitable and belong to Mongolians who are willing to do business. The Mongolians in western Inner Mongolia, including Qinghai in Xinjiang, are straightforward and simple. The Mongolians in Outer Mongolia are more Russian, westernized and independent. Mongolians in outer Mongolia use AA system when they go to bars or eat, unlike people in China who are scrambling to pay the bill. See if the Mongols do as the Romans do.

7. "Bayi Sitai" and Mongolian. In order to facilitate communication and show friendship, I learned a few simple Mongolian words when I was in Mongolia. For example: 814, Suoyinbu, Samo, that is, hello, thank you and so on. Mongolian belongs to Altaic language family and has no kinship with Chinese. Chinese belongs to Sino-Tibetan language family. On the surface, they are not academic, and their language is characterized by a dulu sound. This is similar to Korean and Japanese. Ethnic minorities in northern China basically belong to Altai language family, Mongolian language family and Tungusic language family under Altai language family. When I was in Mongolia, there was a sculpture of a Mongolian linguist in Genghis Khan Square. It is said that he standardized Mongolian grammar, but I can't remember the specific name. At the same time, it is said that he also played a very important role in the grammatical norms of Korean. Therefore, Chinese and Japanese are more closely related to Mongolian than to Chinese. Whether Korean and Japanese also belong to Altaic language family is still controversial internationally. From the umbilical cord relationship of language, our Chinese is closer to Tibet, Burma, Yi and Miao, belonging to Sino-Tibetan language family, and has obvious umbilical cord relationship.

8. What language is popular in Outer Mongolia now? The answer is English. We know that Russian is very popular in outer Mongolia. However, after the democratization of 9 1 Outer Mongolia, it got rid of the influence of the former Soviet Union and gradually integrated into the world, so English is the most popular now. Korean and Chinese are relatively popular due to business relations. People born before and after 1950s are generally familiar with Russian, but generally speaking, Russian is gradually fading in Mongolian daily life.

9. Are there only three great men in Mongolian history? There are three huge statues in front of the parliament building in Genghis Khan Square, namely Genghis Khan, Wokuotai and Kublai Khan. After a few days in Mongolia, statues of these three people can often be seen in other places, such as museums, art galleries and city streets. Strangely, Mongolia singled out these three people. We are familiar with history, even during Genghis Khan's period. For example, there are Torre, Gui You, Xu Liewu and Yuan Chengzong. Imagine if all the important symbols in China were hung with pictures of Tang Zongsong Zu. What would we think? There will be a lot of controversy. There are many famous people in the history of China, more than two or three.

10. Mongolians don't know about the Aobao meeting. Recently, many new Mongolian songs have become popular, like those of Tengger singers, but the oldest and most famous Mongolian song in China is the Aobao Conference. At the Mongolian Theatre, we also watched Mongolian song and dance performances. Strangely, these songs and tunes are unfamiliar. After coming down, ask them why they don't meet the most familiar Aobao. Many of them don't know this song. After chatting with the tour guide in Inner Mongolia, I learned that Aobao's meeting in Outer Mongolia was not regarded as an authentic Mongolian song, but a Mongolian song of "China". Famous Mongolian historical songs may belong to others, at least I am not familiar with them. So are there any so-called sinicized pop songs in Outer Mongolia? They told me it was "Three Auspicious Treasures", which was popular in outer Mongolia for a year or two.

1 1. Mongolian income. From the contact, I learned that the average monthly income of Mongolia is about 2000 RMB, which is slightly lower than that of Inner Mongolia. In other words, Inner Mongolians are slightly richer than outer Mongolians. The gap between the rich and the poor in outer Mongolia is relatively large. Rich people can raise many cattle and sheep. And some poor people who like to drink are penniless. In supermarkets in Mongolia, there are many international goods, which are also very cheap. South Korea and Russia have a little more medium-sized goods, and there are some in Europe and America. This is different from us. It seems that China Customs has done a good job in customs control.

12. The most Mongolian food-stone barbecue. After traveling for a few days, we had an authentic Mongolian meal-slate barbecue. The practice is: put a large piece of mutton in a metal bucket, with a layer of mutton and a layer of hot pebbles, supplemented by onions, carrots and potatoes. Sprinkle with seasoning and stew for half an hour. 25 yuan, a catty of mutton from outer Mongolia. The tour guide said that the price has gone up in recent years, and it used to be only a few dollars a catty. I was really shocked when I ate it. It's too big. I ate two pieces and I'm full. I can usually eat more than a catty of instant-boiled mutton. Unfortunately, I didn't eat the authentic Mongolian hot pot. The present copper chafing dish is said to have been invented by Mongols. In order to eat hot food, the Mongolian army invented copper hot pot, which is instant-boiled mutton.

13. It is also Mongolian, and the Mongolian writing is different inside and outside. In outer Mongolia, I saw many signs in words, all of which were very strange. Why do they look like Russians? Even if you don't know Mongolian, you can see that it is different from Mongolian in China. In fact, they are not Russian, but Mongolian, but Mongolian and Mongolian are written differently. Mongolian used by Chinese Mongolians was founded in13rd century. After Genghis Khan conquered Naiman, the local people used Uighur letters to create and spell Mongolian characters. This script was first used in Mongolia. Later, under the control of the Soviet Union, influenced by the spelling of Russian letters, the Cyrillic alphabet was used to spell Mongolian. The so-called Cyrillic alphabet originated from the Greek alphabet widely used by Slavic people. So now Mongolian looks like Russian on the surface, instead of being arranged up and down in a circle like Mongolian in our country.