His parents and three siblings shared a tiny apartment, just 645 square feet, in Ulaanbaatar.

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Oyu Tolgoi is the poster project for a national mining boom that sees Ulaanbaatar crawling with foreign miners and their investment bankers.

ECONOMIST: A massive mining project hits a snag

From Ulaanbaatar, situated to the north of the Gobi, it can easily look as if parts of the south are being integrated into China.

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So we arrive in Ulaanbaatar on the morning of August 22nd.

WHITEHOUSE: Via Telephone

Ivanhoe's early days in Mongolia saw setbacks, including a local protest in which an effigy of Mr. Friedland in a top hat was burnt in the capital Ulaanbaatar.

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We had decided to embark in Irkutsk, where the also-famous Trans-Siberian Railroad stops en route from Moscow to Vladivostok, connecting to the Trans-Mongolian that runs south toward Ulaanbaatar.

WSJ: Riding the Trans-Mongolian Railway through Russia, China and Mongolia

When Robert Painter, the Houston attorney, travelled to Ulaanbaatar to meet with President Elbegdorj, a TV station interviewed him for half an hour the segment aired live, without commercial breaks.

NEWYORKER: Bones of Contention

For a slice of Italy, head one block west of the circus to Marco Polo Pizza, or try Pizza de la Casa: its outlets are on Peace Avenue (west of the State Department Store) and across from the Ulaanbaatar Hotel.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia | Travel Watch

Chinese workers, of whom many are needed to sustain a building frenzy in the capital Ulaanbaatar and the mines, live segregated lives or, says one ethnic-Chinese factory manager, are routinely beaten up on the streets, with no hope of recourse if they go to the police.

ECONOMIST: A tug of war between commercial logic and popular sentiment