Mongolia, a nation bordered by China and Russia, is

known for its vast, rugged expanses and its nomadic

people. Its capital, Ulaanbaatar, centers around Chinggis
Khaan (Genghis Khan) Square, named for the notorious
founder of the 13th- and 14th-century Mongol Empire.
Also in Ulaanbaatar are the National Museum, displaying
historic and ethnographic artifacts, and the restored 1830
Gandantegchinlen Monastery.
Capital:
Ulaanbaatar
Population:
2.839 million (2013)
Currency:
Mongolian tgrg
Sources include:
World Bank

Mongolia

/moli/ (Mongolian:

[Monggol Ulus] in Mongolian script; [Mongol Uls] in Mongolian

Cyrillic) is a landlocked country in east-central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north
and China to the south, east and west. While they do not share a border, Mongolia is
separated from Kazakhstan by only 36.76 kilometres (22.84 mi). Ulaanbaatar, the
capital and largest city, is home to about 45% of the population. Mongolia's political
system is a parliamentary republic.
The area of what is now Mongolia has been ruled by various nomadic empires,
including the Xiongnu, the Xianbei, the Rouran, the Turkic Khaganate, and others. In
1206, Genghis Khan founded the Mongol Empire, and his grandson Kublai
Khan conquered China to establish the Yuan dynasty. After the collapse of the Yuan,
the Mongols retreated to Mongolia and resumed their earlier pattern of factional conflict,
except during the era of Dayan Khan and Tumen Zasagt Khan. In the 16th
century, Tibetan Buddhism began to spread in Mongolia, being further led by
the Manchu-founded Qing dynasty, which absorbed the country in the 17th century. By
the early 1900s, almost one-third of the adult male population were Buddhist monks. [10][11]
During the collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1911, Mongols established the Temporary
Government of Khalkha on November 30, 1911. This was before the abdication of the
last Qing emperor and the establishment of the Republic of China. On December 29,
1911 Mongolia declared independence from the Qing dynasty; the National Revolution
of 1911 ended over 200 years of Qing rule, though it was not until the Revolution of
1921that de facto independence from the Republic of China was firmly established.
Shortly thereafter, the country came under the control of the Soviet Union, which had
aided its independence from China. In 1924 the Mongolian People's Republic was
declared as a Soviet satellite state.[12] After the anti-Communist revolutions of 1989,
Mongolia conducted its own peaceful democratic revolution in early 1990. This led to
a multi-party system, a new constitution of 1992, and transition to a market economy.
At 1,564,116 square kilometres (603,909 sq mi), Mongolia is the 19th largest and one of
the most sparsely populated independent countries in the world, with a population of
around 3 million people. It is also the world's second-largest landlocked country. The

country contains very little arable land, as much of its area is covered by grassy steppe,
with mountains to the north and west and the Gobi Desert to the south.
Approximately 30% of the population are nomadic or semi-nomadic; horse culture is still
integral. The majority of its population are Buddhists. The non-religious population is the
second largest group. Islam is the dominant religion among ethnic Kazakhs. The
majority of the state's citizens are of Mongol ethnicity, although Kazakhs, Tuvans, and
other minorities also live in the country, especially in the west. Mongolia joined
theWorld Trade Organization in 1997 and seeks to expand its participation in regional
economic and trade groups.[13]

China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a sovereign state in East Asia. It
is the world's most populous country, with a population of over 1.35 billion. The PRC is
a single-party stategoverned by the Communist Party, with its seat of government in
the capital city of Beijing.[16] It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous
regions, four direct-controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin,Shanghai and Chongqing),
and two mostly self-governing special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau);
while claiming sovereignty over Taiwan.
Covering approximately 9.6 million square kilometers, China is the world's second-largest
country by land area,[17] and either the third or fourth-largest by total area, depending on
the method of measurement.[i]China's landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest
steppes and the Gobi and Taklamakan deserts in the arid north to subtropical forests in the
wetter south. The Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shanmountain ranges separate
China from South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third- and sixthlongest in the world, run from the Tibetan Plateau to the densely populated eastern
seaboard. China's coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometres (9,000 mi) long,
and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East and South China Seas.
China is a cradle of civilization, with its known history beginning with an ancient
civilization one of the world's earliest that flourished in the fertile basin of the Yellow
River in the North China Plain. For millennia, China's political system was based on
hereditary monarchies, known as dynasties, beginning with the semi-mythological Xia of
the Yellow River basin(c. 2800 BCE)[citation needed]. Since 221 BCE, when the Qin
Dynasty first conquered several states to form a Chinese empire, the country has expanded,
fractured and reformed numerous times. The Republic of China (ROC) overthrew the last
dynasty in 1911, and ruled theChinese mainland until 1949. After World War II, the
Communist Party defeated the nationalist Kuomintang in mainland China and established
the People's Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, while the Kuomintang
relocated the ROC government to its present capital of Taipei.
China had the largest and most complex economy in the world for most of the past two
thousand years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline.[18][19] Since the
introduction of economic reforms in 1978, China has become one of the world's fastestgrowing major economies. As of 2014, it is the world's second-largest economy by nominal
total GDP and largest by purchasing power parity (PPP). China is also the world's largest exporter

and second-largest importer of goods.[20] China is a recognized nuclear weapons state and has the
world's largest standing army, with the second-largest defence budget.[21][22] The PRC has been
a United Nations member since 1971, when it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of
the U.N. Security Council. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral
organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization,
the BCIM and the G-20. China is a great power and a major regional power within Asia, and has
been characterized as a potential superpower by a number of commentators.[23][24]