SETTLING THE NOMADS AR+D

Today a visit to the ger districts of Ulaanbaatar reveals a context that is a complex interplay between the urban and the rural that has formed its own unique identity and spatial character. It is not an in-between condition on a linear trajectory from nomadic to sedentary life but something distinct, offering a viable alternative between the countryside and the traditional city center.

Ger districts are not new phenomena. They have always been present in Mongolian cities, functioning as sites of exchange and reconciliation between nomadic and urban life. Historically, ger districts would expand and contract at the edges of more permanent settlements in response to seasonal trading or religious festivals. To this day, any permanent urban center in Mongolia still has its own contingent ger district. However, their evolution on the fringes of Ulaanbaatar represents something new. Here the ger districts have become sedimented into an urban fabric, containing over 840,000 residents who mostly own their land and their property. 28 It could be argued that they make up the defining entity of Ulaanbaatar itself. A proportion of ger district residents are migrants who moved only recently from the countryside. 29 For these recent arrivals, the districts do represent a hinge between urban and rural life, a place of transition from nomadic to sedentary living and assimilation to urban life. Other new residents came after giving up on city apartment living, having chosen the ger districts as an affordable opportunity to own land and build a house. At the same time, 45 percent of residents have lived in the ger districts for over 20 years and have no intention of moving. 30