The local people, believed to be descended from Mongolians, are known for their cotton spinning and traditional dancing.
Its natural riches should buy it a new freedom of manoeuvre; but many Mongolians worry that they could lead to a new form of dependence, tantamount to commercial subjugation.That is not the position of the government.
But more than memories of the past, it is fear of the future that feeds Mongolians' worries about China.
The Mongolian sandwich ReprintsOrdinary Mongolians, moreover, are less enthusiastic, especially about China and the Chinese.
Acutely conscious of their commercial dependence on China, Mongolians are sensitive to any hint of its gaining control over them.
He was also helped by its association with the subsidies Mongolians enjoyed in Soviet times.
At school in America the other Asian students were scared of him, despite his short stature; Mongolians, he says, have the reputation of being psychos.
Because ethnic Mongolians live within China's borders today, Genghis Khan is given star billing as a "national minority"—yet he never set foot in what was then China, and his offspring conquered the place.
Some $3 trillion of get-at-able minerals are thought to lie under a country bigger than France, Germany and Spain combined, equivalent roughly to $1m for each of nearly 3m Mongolians.
According to the IMF, the number of Mongolians living in poverty fell by about ten percentage points in 2011, thanks to government handouts.
IN THE 15 years since they ended seven decades of Soviet domination and introduced democracy, Mongolians have grown used to voting.
