It was an incredible view. The leafy, green trees on the mountains blended into the grassy steppe (grassland), and I felt like I was on top of the world. It was also very windy up there! My face and hands were very cold, and even though it was beautiful, I was glad when we started the climb back down.
In Ulaanbaatar, the weather is getting cold which means that the air pollution is getting worse. Many people here burn coal to stay warm, which makes the air very polluted. This coal pollution is particularly bad in Ulaanbaatar because lots of people live in traditional Mongolian houses (gers) in the ger district on the edge of the city. These circular, one-room houses are heated by a small coal stove situated in the middle. This may not sound like a lot of coal smoke, but when you have thousands of families burning coal every winter in their gers for heating, the pollution is very bad. This coal smoke fills the air and creates "smog", a dark, smelly cloud in the air that is very unhealthy to breathe in. And at night, you can smell the coal in the air.