Sainshand - capital city and sum (district) of Dornogovi Aimag (province), Mongolia

Sainshand is the capital of Dornogovi province. It is 463 km from Ulaanbaatar city.

Understand

This small city in the Govi is planned to become a major industrial site with mineral processing and a hub between the Tran-Mongolian railway and a new east-west cross-Govi railway connecting major mines with eastern Siberia.

Get in

As it is a station on the main train-line of the Trans-Mongolian line of the Trans-Siberian Railway from Beijing via the Zamiin-Uud/Erlian border crossing to Ulaanbaatar, there is little public transport otherwise. A paved road was completed in 2013 connecting Sainshand and Zamiin-Uud to Ulaanbaatar via Choir. No word yet if there will be any buses between the cities.

By train

There are several trains that stop in Sainshand going either south to Zamiin-Uud and on to China or north from China to Ulaanbaatar. There are 2 daily trains from UB, plus express trains on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday with fewer stops. There are also 1 daily train and an express train on Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday from Zamiin-Uud. Local trains stop at every town and city along the way and can have over 20 stops between Zamiin-Uud and Ulaanbaatar.

Get around

See

• Provincial Central museum, Altanbulag dtreet No:A50, II bagh. Su - Su, 08am-05pm. The Noyon Khutagt Danzanravjaa (1803-56), a well-known Mongolian writer, composer, painter and medic, was born about 100 km southwest of Sainshand. The museum has a collection of gifts presented to Danzanravjaa by Chinese and Tibetan leaders, costumes used in his plays, Buddhist statues presented to him by the 10th Dalai Lama, and some of his paintings. He was also very interested in traditional medicine, so the museum has a collection of herbs. 2000MNT; Camera 50000 MNT; Video 50000 MNT 2019-10-08

Do

You can visit the Hamriin Hiid Monastery about 50 km south of the town (about 40,000 ₮ per car). It's a less than 1h drive thru the desert. The monastery itself is not much more than a collection of stupas, but it's in a beautiful desert location and it's an important place for Tibetan Buddhists and locals come here to absorb "Enerji". For those who like about feng shiu or zen buddhism it is the best place for getting cleansed and doing all those appropriate rituals there along with the locals.

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