Fences in Mongolia

Mongolians are more likely to fence themselves in than they are to fence in their livestock.

Here in Montana we see plenty of barbwire – all intended to keep cattle in. In Mongolia, most fences are wood, and go around where a ger has settled in a permanent way. Most of the fences are the in ger districts in Ulaanbaatar.

But some (like the first) are in the middle of the countryside. In the mining town we visited, everyone had a fence. Even plots of ground which have been claimed but are either public – like a school’s playground – or not yet developed will have half-buried tires marking off the spot.

There has been a mass-migration of nomads from the countryside into the bigger cities. Ulaanbaatar has grown exponentially in recent years. As a result, the half-buried tires of people who have been granted ownership by the government can be found miles from the city center.