Ulaanbaatar [ b ] is the capital and most populous city of Mongolia. It has a population of 1. The city was founded in as a nomadic Buddhist monastic centre, changing location 28 times, and was permanently settled at its modern location in Following the regulation of Qing-Russian trade by the Treaty of Kyakhta in , a caravan route between Beijing and Kyakhta opened up, along which the city was eventually settled.
With the collapse of the Qing dynasty in , the city was a focal point for independence efforts, leading to the proclamation of the Bogd Khanate in led by the 8th Jebtsundamba Khutuktu, or Bogd Khan , and again during the communist revolution of With the proclamation of the Mongolian People's Republic in , the city was officially renamed Ulaanbaatar and declared the country's capital.
Modern urban planning began in the s, with most of the old ger districts replaced by Soviet-style flats. In , Ulaanbaatar was the site of large demonstrations that led to Mongolia's transition to democracy and a market economy. Since , an influx of migrants from the rest of the country has led to an explosive growth in its population, a major portion of whom live in ger districts, which has led to harmful air pollution in winter. With a population of just over 1. This name was eventually adapted as Urga [ 8 ] in the West.
When the city became the capital of the new Mongolian People's Republic on 29 October , its name was changed to Ulaanbaatar lit. At the meeting of the 1st Great People's Khural in , the majority of delegates voted in favor of renaming the capital of Mongolia to Bator-khoto "City of the Hero," or "City of the Hero," implicitly referring to the figure of Genghis Khan.
Nevertheless, at the insistence of the Comintern representative, Soviet-Kazakhstan political figure T. Genghis Khan was a national hero, but he was a conqueror. Present-day People's Mongolia has no imperialistic goals; it wants to liberate itself and develop independently, along revolutionary lines.
