Altaitsudz means 'Golden' ('altai') 'Cup' ('tsudz'), and as we descend from the rocky grey hillsides into the basin below, the reason for its name becomes obvious.

Around 60km away from, and 300m below Ulgii City's average elevation (1,600m above sea level), it is considerably warmer here during the summer (so much so that mosquitoes can be a problem), providing better growing conditions (provided you can withstand the mosquito hordes), and as such is a veggie food bowl for the province ('agricultural' usually means livestock production in Mongolia).

The riverflats are thick with skeletal white trees (Populus laurifolia (Laurel-leafed Poplar), and varieties of Salix (Willow)), and the gently sloping river plains around are carpeted with golden winter grasses, and dotted with hardy red Caragana shrubs(i).  Bactrian camels, horse, and cattle browse the autumn-coloured palette nonchalantly, and closer to the soum, irrigation channels criss-cross the landscape around growing plots.

Our mission today: to visit the large-scale vegetable growing plot owned by retired Gold-Medalist-Mongol-Kazakh boxing star Beket (who must be somehow related to Dr. Beket, though I was unable to find out how), who is a friend of Guliya (our student from World Vision). 

The plot is approximately 5,000 square meters, and is nestled against the edge of a basin about 45 minutes' drive from Altaitsudz soum (which, in turn, is about an hour-and-a-half from Ulgii City) - seemingly in the middle of nowhere (I might have mentioned that distance is relative to Monoglians).

Read the full article here.