• teyrnon@sh.itjust.works
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    2 days ago

    Mongolia is poor as shit and going through droughts and deep deep freezes in the winters that are killing all of their livestock, last I heard. They are not doing well.

    Then heating with rudimentary coal stoves that make their cities look like 18th century london.

  • rustyfish@piefed.world
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    4 days ago

    I have lived in all five of these countries and I can confirm, it’s all true. Especially china. It just sucks cock.

    • FinjaminPoach
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      4 days ago

      That’s interesting, what was Mongolia like and were you there for specific work opportunities or just because you liked moving around?

      Edit: hang on… North Korea…

      • TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today
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        4 days ago

        A person lying on the internet…who could have foreseen this?

        I’ve been to most of these countries, they are all very nice. But like with anywhere it kinda depends on when and where you are, and you typically won’t get a real sense of the place unless you have a lot of time to travel.

        The country side of Mongolia is beautiful in the warm season, I hear it’s pretty barren and freezing when it’s cold. About 50% of the population lives in Ulaanbaatar and it has a pretty bad issue with air pollution. It was very smoggy when I visited, and I hear it gets a lot worse in the winter season when it regularly has some of the worst air pollution in the world.

          • TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today
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            2 days ago

            Yeah, a lot of wood and coal fires for heating and cooling. Probably wouldn’t be as much of an issue, but the city is nestled in a big valley that blocks the city from the wind so the smog doesn’t really have anywhere to dissipate.

            • teyrnon@sh.itjust.works
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              2 days ago

              That is the same dynamic with the mountains that makes the west coast of the US susceptible to higher air pollution, to say nothing of places like Mexico City. Not much coal that I’m aware of, but all of the exhaust has no where to go and just sits there.

              Out west I noticed smoke would hug the ground more, on the continental part it rises more.

          • TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today
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            3 days ago

            The only way you lived in North Korea and South Korea is if you defected, in which case you wouldn’t have also gone to China and Mongolia. My guess is that you’re just a racist European.

      • Skullgrid
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        4 days ago

        Why would someone do that? go on the internet and tell lies?

      • bus_factor
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        4 days ago

        You can visit North Korea. They assign a guy to you to make sure you only see the approved stuff.

    • AItoothbrush@lemmy.zip
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      4 days ago

      I have a mongolian friend, he said it was a choice between a dystopian city or the vast empty nature. I guess if you like nature it could be good but the density is sooooo low there are places where you wont see civilization for hundreds of kilometers.

      • teyrnon@sh.itjust.works
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        2 days ago

        The winters are super hardcore though. I forget numbers, but it gets really really cold, worse than the upper midwest of the US and central canada in temperature, although I think they get less snow than many of us.

        • AItoothbrush@lemmy.zip
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          2 days ago

          Yeah i live in sweden and every time i complain about the weather he just shows me ulaanbaatar and its either like -35c during winter or +35c during summer

          • Carl@sh.itjust.works
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            2 days ago

            How extreme is it for you? Because it gets -30°C in the winter here, and 30°C in the summer here, in my part of Canada.

            • AItoothbrush@lemmy.zip
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              1 day ago

              Yeah sweden is really mild cause of the gulf stream so even tho i live arround latitude 58(kodiak for reference, or kuujjuaq is a canadian example i found) winters usually dont drop below minus 15-20C and summers at best go up to 30C.

            • Hanrahan@slrpnk.net
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              2 days ago

              i thought where i lived in Tasmania was bad, it gets to 1c in winter and up to 28c in Summer in the part where i live

      • iocase@lemmy.zip
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        3 days ago

        I watched a heartwarming short of a guy getting stopped by the police in Mongolia for using a wind sail powered horizontal bike thingy.

        2 locals also showed up on a moped

        Top comment:

        “It’s nice to see all 5 people in Mongolia meet up to see how OP’s bike works”

        • BigBananaDealer
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          4 days ago

          driving through iowa for hours is honestly probably more dangerous than driving drunk. you get so bored you just fall asleep at the wheel because there is NOTHING but road

        • Telodzrum
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          4 days ago

          Imagine thinking the US is just Bakersfield.

      • borokov
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        4 days ago

        Oulan-Bator looks like your first SimCity game when you had 10yo and just put random coal plant there and there.

    • lobut@lemmy.ca
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      4 days ago

      I’m ethnically Chinese but never been there, well only the airport … but why’s it suck so much?

      I know people that wanna go back due to cost of living but I heard housing isn’t cheap neither (depending on where you live perhaps?)

      • almost_genocide
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        3 days ago

        It doesn’t.

        Housing is extremely affordable compared to here in the U.S. So is food, transportation and healthcare.

        I highly recommend Kunming

        • lobut@lemmy.ca
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          3 days ago

          I’m definitely going to visit next year … just putting away money for now. I’ll see if I can add Kunming to the list, thanks!

          I can’t wait to eat more food. My Cantonese is “okay” but my Mandarin is garbage … I’m gonna spend the next year or so watching dramas and stuff to catch up!

          • almost_genocide
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            3 days ago

            Remember, if you order the mushroom hot pot you have to wait a bit before eating it. Maybe you already know this but we didn’t and gave our server a heart attack. 😆 Fortunately we had only taken a couple bites and neither of us experienced ill effects.

            • lobut@lemmy.ca
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              3 days ago

              Yo seriously? I love hot pot so that was going to be inevitable. Thanks 😂!

        • lobut@lemmy.ca
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          4 days ago

          lol I was on my way to Vietnam … only had a 3 hour layover and didn’t plan on leaving the airport.

    • BeUnique@lemmy.zip
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      4 days ago

      I have read this comment therefore I also can confirm that everything stated is 100% facts.

    • a_non_monotonic_function
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      3 days ago

      Wait, Mongolia will think I’m cool because I’m 300 lbs? Dope.

      I’m going to head there rn and fucking lift the front end of some vehicles and stuff.

  • tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip
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    4 days ago

    And then the Mongolians move to Japan to dominate the sumo world.

    The first foreign born champion was in 1993 (from the US), and since then there have been 11 more who have made it to champion rank. 4 have been Japanese (2 in the 90s and then a gap til 2017 and then 2025), 1 more was American, and the other 6 were Mongolian. And that’s despite the fact that each training stable is limited to one foreigner only.

  • UnderpantsWeevil
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    4 days ago

    All three of the people pictured died shortly thereafter while trying to fire a longbow on the back of a horse with their feet.

  • Remember_the_tooth
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    4 days ago

    This makes me think I’d enjoy a Beauty and the Beast movie set in Mongolia with this guy as Gaston’s character, but renamed “Galdan.”

    Really looking forward to his version of Gaston’s song featuring, yurts, archery, yaks, mare’s milk, etc.

    • AJ95
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      4 days ago

      so you just say random words and hope they make sense?

  • Skullgrid
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    4 days ago

    öööööööööööööööööööööööööööööööööööööööööööööööö

    Translation: One thousand horses in my herd…

  • MadamLarp@sh.itjust.works
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    4 days ago

    nah south korean is thriving, listening to kpop with flawless skin because all the best skincare products are produced locally and super cheap 씨발