Choibalsan ( Mongolian: ) is the fourth-largest city in

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

after

Ulaanbaatar Ulaanbaatar is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities in Mongolia, most populous city of Mongolia. It has a population of 1.6 million, and it is the coldest capital city in the world by average yearly temperature. The municipa ...

, Darkhan, and Erdenet. The name of the city was Bayan Tümen () until 1941, when it was renamed after the communist leader Khorloogiin Choibalsan in honor of the 20th anniversary of the

Mongolian Revolution of 1921 The Mongolian Revolution of 1921 was a military and political event by which Mongolian revolutionaries, with the assistance of the Soviet Red Army, expelled Russian White movement, White Guards from the country, and founded the Mongolian People' ...

. It is the capital of the province of Dornod. The city administrative unit's official name is Kherlen sum, with area of . It is situated at the

Kherlen River Kherlen River (also known as Kerülen; ; ) is a 1,254 km river in Mongolia and China. It is also one of the two longest rivers in Mongolia, along with the Orkhon River. Course The river originates in the south slopes of the Khentii mount ...

, at an elevation of above sea level.

History

The location has been a post on a trading route for centuries. In the 19th century it grew into a city, and became the economic hub of eastern Mongolia in the twentieth century and is still serving as an active economic center for Eastern Mongolia. Due to the city's proximity to the site of the

Battle of Khalkhin Gol The Battles of Khalkhin Gol (; ) were the decisive engagements of the undeclared Soviet–Japanese border conflicts involving the Soviet Union, Mongolia, Japan and Manchukuo in 1939. The conflict was named after the river Khalkhin Gol, which p ...

, it contains a museum dedicated to

Georgy Zhukov Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov ( 189618 June 1974) was a Soviet military leader who served as a top commander during World War II and achieved the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union. During World War II, Zhukov served as deputy commander-in-ch ...

, hero of the battle.

Population

The city of Choibalsan has a population of 45,490 (1994), 41,714 (2000), 36,142 (2003), 39,500 (2006), 39,500 (2007, 53.2% of the Dornod Aimag's total population), 38,150 (2008 51.2% of the Aimag's population). Choibalsan is inhabited primarily by Halh Mongols, with smaller numbers of

Buryats The Buryats are a Mongolic ethnic group native to southeastern Siberia who speak the Buryat language. They are one of the two largest indigenous groups in Siberia, the other being the Yakuts. The majority of the Buryats today live in their ti ...

, Barga Mongols, and Üzemchin. There is also a minority of immigrants from

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

who now constitutes the only China Town in Mongolia outside Ulaanbaatar.

Climate

Choibalsan experiences a cold

semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of se ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

''BSk'') with frigid, very dry winters and warm, wetter summers. In terms of temperatures it resembles a

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...

(''Dwb''), but falls short of that classification due to the very dry winters. Extreme temperatures range from a minimum of to a maximum of , recorded in August 2016.

Infrastructure

* Choibalsan Thermal Power Plant

Tourist attractions

* Central Library of Dornod Province

Transportation

The Choibalsan Airport (COQ/ZMCD) has one paved runway, and is served by regular flights to

, and Hailar and Manzhouli in

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of China. Its border includes two-thirds of the length of China's China–Mongolia border, border with the country of Mongolia. ...

. There is a railway line (unconnected to the rest of the Mongolian rail network) that connects Choibalsan to the

Trans-Siberian Railway The Trans-Siberian Railway, historically known as the Great Siberian Route and often shortened to Transsib, is a large railway system that connects European Russia to the Russian Far East. Spanning a length of over , it is the longest railway ...

(the original routing) in

Borzya Borzya ( rus, Борзя, p=ˈborzʲə; , ''Boorjo''; , ''Boorj'') is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town and the administrative center of Borzinsky District in Zabaykalsky Krai, Russia, located southeast of Chita, Zabaykalsky Krai, ...

, Russia; although there are no passenger service across the border: passenger trains from Choibalsan terminate in Chuluunkhoroot (Ereentsav).Lonely Planet Mongolia: Choibalsan transport (archived version 18 Jan 2012)
/ref>

References

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